R.I.P. Steven Alvey

[Reza]

Steven Alvey obituary

* Tom Fry
The Guardian, Tuesday 3 May 2011

Steven Alvey

The actor Steven Alvey got his big break at the Globe theatre, in
1996, when he stood in for an injured cast member

My great friend Steven Alvey, who has died of cancer aged 53, enjoyed
a successful acting career on stage and television for more than 30
years. His most extraordinary performance was in the inaugural
production at the new Shakespeare's Globe theatre, The Two Gentleman
of Verona, in London in 1996. He had been contracted to play small
parts and as an assistant stage manager. He had a regular part in a
sitcom coming up in the autumn, and a summer spent mooching around on
the banks of the Thames sounded like fun.

Then fate intervened. The actor playing Sir Thurio broke his leg 24
hours before the first night. Steve learned the part in less than a
day and went on in the role, with no real rehearsal. The entire cast
applauded him as he came on stage at the curtain call.

He took the part for the subsequent run at the Globe and in New York.
Four years later, he took another part at the Globe at very short
notice, this time as Trinculo in The Tempest. His most recent stage
credit was in Nicholas Nickleby, at Chichester Festival theatre in
2006, as Young Wackford.

Steven was born and raised in Keighley, West Yorkshire, where he
attended Greenhead grammar school. In the late 1970s, as a teenager,
he moved to London and toiled happily backstage and front of house at
West End theatres, before winning a place on the acting course at the
Guildhall school of music and drama.

He appeared in Blood Brothers, in its first national tour, and in
many productions for Hull Truck theatre, playing Tony in Up 'n' Under
in the West End. In 1990, while starring in Alan Plater's Sweet
Sorrow, which toured the UK and went to Los Angeles, Steve met the
love of his life, the actor Amanda Orton, whom he married in 2007. On
TV, Steve appeared in the sitcoms Loved By You, Beast, How Do You
Want Me? and Hardware, and the dramas The Brief and North Square.

He is survived by Amanda, his sister, Janet, and his brothers, Chris and Mick.