Oliver Wakefield

Who was Oliver Wakefield?

Oliver Wakefield, was a popular British actor and comedian active from the 1930s until his death in 1956. Often billed as "The Voice of Inexperience", Wakefield is best known for his idiosyncratic satirical monologues.

Wakefield was educated in South Africa, then travelled to England, where he began acting with a Shakespearean repertory company. He then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for further study, where he developed his distinctive style of humorous monologue. Wakefield created the stage persona of a nervous upper class young man, customarily dressed in full dinner suit and habitually carrying a cigarette. He developed a distinctive stuttering mode of speech featuring tortuous syntax, malapropisms, spoonerisms, dropped words and unfinished sentences which he used to disguise his satirical observations, wry sarcasm and clever double entendres. In his early career he was clean-shaven but later grew a handlebar moustache.

He quickly established himself in nightclubs and music hall and became the first Resident Comedian on the BBC, as well as making pioneering appearances in the early days of British TV. He also became established in the United States, making one of his first American appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, which also featured Eve Arden.