R.I.P. Wally Peterson

[Reza]

thestage.co.uk


Wally Peterson

Published Monday 27 June 2011 at 17:27 by Roberta Peterson Hamond

Wally Peterson, the American baritone musical comedy actor, had
presented his own radio series and taken part in several operettas in
America, by the time he came to London to appear in two of Rodgers
and Hammerstein's finest shows. He performed in Oklahoma! (1947) with
Howard Keel, and South Pacific (1951) starring Mary Martin.

In 1949, he married Joy Nichols, a mainstay of BBC Radio's comedy hit
Take It From Here. But the couple divorced in 1976.

Late in life, Peterson staged one-man shows at the Arts Theatre Club,
wearing a straw boater and two-toned shoes. To his own guitar
accompaniment, he reminisced about lesser-known American songwriters.

In 2001, Peterson returned to London to mark the fiftieth anniversary
of South Pacific. He was one of the few members of the original cast
who was able to do so.

Wally Peterson, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 11,
1917, died in New York on March 30, aged 93.