Peter Francis Baldwin (29 July 1933 – 21 October 2015) was an English actor. He was best known for his role as Derek Wilton in the British

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio drama ...

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...

''.Ex-Coronation Street actor opens toy shop in Hatfield
,

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Early life

Chidham

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

Horsham Grammar School

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' obituary, 26 October 2015, p. 56

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Chichester Festival Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Mart ...

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

Ann Todd Dorothy Ann Todd (24 January 1907 – 6 May 1993) was an English film, television and stage actress who achieved international fame when she starred in 1945's '' The Seventh Veil''. From 1949 to 1957 she was married to David Lean who directed h ...

Alastair Sim Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his ...

Career

After training to be an actor at the

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is a drama school in Bristol, England. The institution provides training in acting and production for careers in film, television and theatre. BOVTS is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. ...

, Baldwin joined the West of England Theatre Company, in which he worked with future ''Coronation Street'' partner Thelma Barlow. He later toured with the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...

and joined the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a f ...

. Baldwin made several appearances in films (in bit parts and extras) until he landed a main role in the television comedy ''Girls About Town'', which ran from 1969 to 1971. He also made guest appearances on other television series such as ''Menace'', ''The New Dick Van Dyke Show'' and ''

Spy Trap ''Spy Trap'' was a BBC drama that ran from 1972 to 1975 on BBC1, and set around "The Department", a British counter-espionage organisation. It starred Paul Daneman as Commander Paul Ryan, a naval officer and spy chief, Prentis Hancock as Lieut ...

'', and had several roles in

West End theatre West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194� ...

. He appeared on ITV as the Hotel Manager, Mr Humfries, in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's, At Bertram's Hotel in 1986. He appeared as a Desk Clerk in the ''

Tales of the Unexpected (TV series) ''Tales of the Unexpected (Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected)'' is a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. ...

'' episode (9/6) "Wink Three Times" (1988). In 1976 he joined the cast of ''Coronation Street'', intermittently playing the character of Derek Wilton, eventually returning as a regular character in 1988.Foster, Paul (1976)
Happy Days For Peter...
, ''

Evening Times The ''Glasgow Times'' is an evening tabloid newspaper published Monday to Saturday in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Called ''The Evening Times'' from 1876, it was rebranded as the ''Glasgow Times'' on 4 December 2019.Mavis Riley Mavis Wilton (also Riley) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera '' Coronation Street'', played by Thelma Barlow. A long-running series regular, Mavis appeared in the show for 26 years from 1971 to 1997. Introduced for ...

for many years, but eventually the two got married. It was reported that Derek was one of the favourite characters among a certain segment of viewers of the show, but in 1997 the character was killed off.Brace, Matthew (1997)
`Street' is left deserted as soap exodus continues
, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 24 May 1997, retrieved 24 November 2010 Benjamin Pollocks Toy Shop exterior

For the year after this, Baldwin made many appearances on talk shows and quiz shows in the UK such as ''

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

'', '' This Morning'' and ''

Crosswits ''Crosswits'' was a British game show produced by Tyne Tees in association with Cove Productions and Action Time and filmed from their City Road studios in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was first shown on 3 September 1985 originally hosted by Barry C ...

'' and also returned to the stage for the first time in a decade in ''A Month of Sundays'', as well as touring in the musical '' Summer Holiday''. He then joined the cast of the TV show ''Out Of Sight'' as Uncle Gus until 1999. He continued to appear in TV series, including ''The Court Room'' and '' Doctors''. In 2005 he was a panelist on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

quiz show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and ev ...

''. In 1988 Baldwin took over the ownership of

Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop is a shop selling vintage and retro toys in London's Covent Garden. One of the oldest toy shops in London, it had its origins in Hoxton in 1851 before being taken over in 1877 by Benjamin Pollock, who ran it until his ...

in London's

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, where he had previously worked between acting jobs and could often be found serving behind the counter. He was married to the former '' Play School'' presenter and actress

Sarah Long Sarah Long (18 March 1938 – 23 November 1987) was an English actress and television presenter. Born in London, she is best remembered for her long run as a presenter on the preschool children's television series ''Play School'' from September ...

until her death in 1987. They met in 1961 when they appeared together in a production of ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

'' which toured Europe and America. The couple married in 1965.Peter Baldwin Obituary - ''The Scotsman'' - 26 October 2015
/ref> Baldwin made an appearance on the 1978 Boxing Day edition of ''Play School'', which Long was co-presenting with

Don Spencer Donald Richard Spencer (born 22 March 1941),is an Australian children's television presenter, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He had a long-running role on ''Play School'' on both the Australian version (1968–99) and the United Kingdom ...

. Baldwin died at home in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...

in north London aged 82, after a short battle with cancer. He was survived by his children Julia and Matthew.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Peter 1933 births 2015 deaths 20th-century British Army personnel 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Deaths from cancer in England English male soap opera actors English male stage actors Male actors from Sussex People from Chidham and Hambrook