Tommy Eytle
Encyclopedia
Tommy Daniel Hicks Eytle (16 July 1927–19 June 2007) was a Guyanese
musician and actor
. Although born in Guyana, Eylte's career was based in the United Kingdom
, where he lived after emigrating in 1951.
Eytle's career began in the 1950s. He initially found success playing African and Caribbean music with his calypso band. He continued to perform musically until the mid 1990s. He had many roles on television, radio, film and stage, but he was most famous for playing the role of Jules Tavernier
in the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
from 1990-1997.
(then British Guiana), to James, a gold miner, and Gertrude Eytle. Eytle attended St Philip's Primary School, Central High School and Queen's College of Guyana. After finishing his education he worked as a gold and diamond miner with his father for a year, before joining the Civil Service
and qualifying as a land surveyor.
His parents separated in 1951 and his mother and siblings moved to London. Eytle joined them—arriving for a holiday on Festival of Britain
Day and decided to stay in the UK. He worked firstly as a surveyor
and draughtsman
before turning to music and working as a bandleader at some of London
's top hotel
s.
ist and in the early 1950s he formed Tommy Eytle's Calypso Band in response to the surge of interest in African and Caribbean music at the time. The band performed a mix of Afro-Caribbean music and modern jazz and in addition to playing the jazz guitar, Eytle provided the band's vocals. They performed in many jazz venues and nightclubs around the country, including the Sunset Club, the Bag O'Nails
, Club Basie, Pigalle
and Al Burnett’s Stork Club.
Tommy Eytle's Calypso Band were featured in many BBC plays and were most notable for performing "Narrative Calypso" in the film The Tommy Steele Story (1957), in which Eytle sang and played the guitar.
Eytle worked as a professional musician until the late 1980s, but he was forced to give up playing the guitar due to early onset arthritis
in his hands. However he continued to sing jazz and calypsos into the mid-1990s and was given occasional acoutic solos in BBC's EastEnders, which he sang—in character—during scenes in the soap's pub, The Queen Vic.
plays
. He appeared in many BBC radio plays throughout his career (mostly by black dramatists), which included The Barren One (1958) with Cleo Laine
; Lorca's Yerma by Sylvia Wynter
; Jan Carew
's The Riverman (1968) and Milk in the Coffee (1975). Other radio plays included Carnival in Trinidad (1975) and God in the Water (1983).
Eytle was also a veteran stage actor. He appeared with Norman Beaton
, Mona Hammond
and Rudolph Walker
in Mustapha Matura
's acclaimed 1974 Play Mas at the Royal Court theatre, which he also performed in the radio adaptation in 1975. In 1981 Eytle appeared in Measure for Measure
at the National Theatre, being one of several actors in the all-black cast.
Eytle appeared in films such as Naked Fury (1959), The Criminal (1960) and The Hi-Jackers
(1963) and on television in programmes such as The Big Pride (ITV
, 1961), a psychological drama about a prison breakout in Guyana written by Jan Carew and Sylvia Wynter. Other credits included Danger Man
(1965); The Spies (1966); Adam Adamant Lives!
(1966); The Saint
(1967); The Troubleshooters (1970); Never Say Die
(1970); Quiller
(1975); Rumpole of the Bailey
(1983); Johnny Jarvis (1983) and Casualty (1987) and Bob's Weekend (1996), among others.
His most notable role was playing the Trinidad
ian charmer, Jules Tavernier
, in BBC's EastEnders
from 1990-1997. The introduction of the Tavernier family heralded the first time that an entire family had joined the programme all at once. Their introduction was also a well-intentioned attempt to portray a wider range of black
characters than had previously been achieved on the show. Eytle played the role for seven years, remaining after the departures of all of his on-screen family. Towards the end of his time on the show his character became semi-regular, and his appearances became increasingly sparse due to Eytle's poor-health. He was never given an official exit from the series, but was not featured again after December 1997.
in 1984.
In the early 1950s, Eytle married Avis D'Ornellas, who was also a native from Guyana. They lived in Kenley
, Surrey
. Eytle died aged 79 on 19 June 2007, in Reading
, Berkshire
.
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
musician and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. Although born in Guyana, Eylte's career was based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where he lived after emigrating in 1951.
Eytle's career began in the 1950s. He initially found success playing African and Caribbean music with his calypso band. He continued to perform musically until the mid 1990s. He had many roles on television, radio, film and stage, but he was most famous for playing the role of Jules Tavernier
Jules Tavernier (EastEnders)
Jules Tavernier is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tommy Eytle between 1990 and 1997. Jules was depicted as a flirtatious older gentleman. He was introduced in 1990 and remained in the show after the departures of all of his on-screen family...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
from 1990-1997.
Early life
Eytle was born in Georgetown, GuyanaGeorgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
(then British Guiana), to James, a gold miner, and Gertrude Eytle. Eytle attended St Philip's Primary School, Central High School and Queen's College of Guyana. After finishing his education he worked as a gold and diamond miner with his father for a year, before joining the Civil Service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
and qualifying as a land surveyor.
His parents separated in 1951 and his mother and siblings moved to London. Eytle joined them—arriving for a holiday on Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
Day and decided to stay in the UK. He worked firstly as a surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and draughtsman
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
before turning to music and working as a bandleader at some of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's top hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s.
Musical career
Eytle was a self-taught guitarGuitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and in the early 1950s he formed Tommy Eytle's Calypso Band in response to the surge of interest in African and Caribbean music at the time. The band performed a mix of Afro-Caribbean music and modern jazz and in addition to playing the jazz guitar, Eytle provided the band's vocals. They performed in many jazz venues and nightclubs around the country, including the Sunset Club, the Bag O'Nails
The Bag O'Nails
The Bag O'Nails was a live music venue and meeting place for musicians in the 1960s, situated at 8 Kingly Street, Soho, London. Bands and other musicians such as, Georgie Fame and Gass appeared there, often jamming with artists such as Jimi Hendrix...
, Club Basie, Pigalle
Pigalle Club
The Pigalle Club is a supper club and live music venue in Piccadilly, London, owned by Vince Power .Dave West also owns shares in The Pigalle Club...
and Al Burnett’s Stork Club.
Tommy Eytle's Calypso Band were featured in many BBC plays and were most notable for performing "Narrative Calypso" in the film The Tommy Steele Story (1957), in which Eytle sang and played the guitar.
Eytle worked as a professional musician until the late 1980s, but he was forced to give up playing the guitar due to early onset arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
in his hands. However he continued to sing jazz and calypsos into the mid-1990s and was given occasional acoutic solos in BBC's EastEnders, which he sang—in character—during scenes in the soap's pub, The Queen Vic.
Acting career
During the 1950s he was introduced to acting when he auditioned for a few radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
. He appeared in many BBC radio plays throughout his career (mostly by black dramatists), which included The Barren One (1958) with Cleo Laine
Cleo Laine
Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
; Lorca's Yerma by Sylvia Wynter
Sylvia Wynter
Sylvia Wynter, OJ, born in Cuba to Percival Wynter and Lola Maude Wynter, on 17 January 1928, is a Jamaican novelist,[1], dramatist[2], critic and writer of essays.[3]-Biography:...
; Jan Carew
Jan Carew
Jan Rynveld Carew is a novelist, playwright, poet and educator. His works, diverse in their forms and multifaceted, makes of Jan Carew an important intellectual of the Caribbean world...
's The Riverman (1968) and Milk in the Coffee (1975). Other radio plays included Carnival in Trinidad (1975) and God in the Water (1983).
Eytle was also a veteran stage actor. He appeared with Norman Beaton
Norman Beaton
Norman Lugard Beaton was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom....
, Mona Hammond
Mona Hammond
Mona Hammond OBE is a Chinese Jamaican actress and co-founder of the Talawa Theatre Company. Born in Jamaica, Hammond emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959, where she has remained ever since. Hammond has had a long and distinguished stage career...
and Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Walker
Rudolph Walker, OBE is a British character actor. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Walker came to the United Kingdom in 1960....
in Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura is a Trinidadian playwright living in London.In 1971 his play As Time Goes By was first performed at the Traverse Theatre Club in Edinburgh and the Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, with a cast of noted Caribbean actors including Stefan Kalipha, Alfred Fagon, Mona...
's acclaimed 1974 Play Mas at the Royal Court theatre, which he also performed in the radio adaptation in 1975. In 1981 Eytle appeared in Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
at the National Theatre, being one of several actors in the all-black cast.
Eytle appeared in films such as Naked Fury (1959), The Criminal (1960) and The Hi-Jackers
The Hi-Jackers
The Hi-Jackers is a 1963 film directed by Jim O'Connolly. It stars Antony Booth and Jacqueline Ellis.-Cast:* Antony Booth as Terry McKinley* Jacqueline Ellis as Shirley* Derek Francis as Jack Carter* Patrick Cargill as Inspector Grayson...
(1963) and on television in programmes such as The Big Pride (ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 1961), a psychological drama about a prison breakout in Guyana written by Jan Carew and Sylvia Wynter. Other credits included Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
(1965); The Spies (1966); Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
(1966); The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
(1967); The Troubleshooters (1970); Never Say Die
Never Say Die
-Albums:* Never Say Die!, a 1978 album by Black Sabbath* Never Say Die , 1981* Never Say Die: Live, a 2000 album by Waylon Jennings & The Waymore Blues Band, or the title song...
(1970); Quiller
Quiller
Quiller is the alias of a fictional spy created by English novelist Elleston Trevor and featured in a series of Cold War thrillers written under the pseudonym "Adam Hall".The series focuses on a solitary, highly capable spy...
(1975); Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
(1983); Johnny Jarvis (1983) and Casualty (1987) and Bob's Weekend (1996), among others.
His most notable role was playing the Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
ian charmer, Jules Tavernier
Jules Tavernier (EastEnders)
Jules Tavernier is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tommy Eytle between 1990 and 1997. Jules was depicted as a flirtatious older gentleman. He was introduced in 1990 and remained in the show after the departures of all of his on-screen family...
, in BBC's EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
from 1990-1997. The introduction of the Tavernier family heralded the first time that an entire family had joined the programme all at once. Their introduction was also a well-intentioned attempt to portray a wider range of black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
characters than had previously been achieved on the show. Eytle played the role for seven years, remaining after the departures of all of his on-screen family. Towards the end of his time on the show his character became semi-regular, and his appearances became increasingly sparse due to Eytle's poor-health. He was never given an official exit from the series, but was not featured again after December 1997.
Personal life
Eytle was one of eight children and two of his elder brothers also had successful careers in Britain. Ernest Eytle was a well-known cricket commentator for the BBC and Les Eytle became the first black mayor of the London Borough of LewishamLewisham
Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
in 1984.
In the early 1950s, Eytle married Avis D'Ornellas, who was also a native from Guyana. They lived in Kenley
Kenley
Kenley is a district in the south of the London Borough of Croydon. It borders Purley, Coulsdon, Riddlesdown, Caterham and Whyteleafe. Kenley is situated 13 miles south of Charing Cross. The 2001 census showed Kenley having a population of 13,525....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Eytle died aged 79 on 19 June 2007, in Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
.