ROY DOTRICE

By Joanne Tunnard. Age 14 years

August 1st, 1998

"Tell me Roy, what is it like to have your own fan club?"
"It's lovely, particularly on this occasion, because they're not just fans who write for autographs, they're all friends. If any of them are in trouble they write to each other, they sympathise with each other and it's become just a friendship group, which is rather nice. Fan club has this connotation of just screaming fans who all want autographs and pictures and it's much more than that. It's a group of friends who originally came together with the series Beauty and the Beast and of course I played Father, who was a character in Beauty and the Beast, a sympathetic man and a very fair man, and they all started writing to me. So we formed this friendship group. It's much more than just a fan club.

"When letters are sent to you via the Fan Club, do you actually open them and reply to them yourself and how many do you receive per week on average?"
"I do as many as I can myself. I mean during the height of Beauty and the Beast I was getting about two or three hundred letters a week. Because I was working every day and invariably didn't finish work until quite late sometimes, nine or ten o'clock at night and got up at five the following morning, it was quite impossible obviously to answer all the letters.

"Would you like to have another Reunion held for you in Britain?"
"Yes. The only problem with organising a reunion, is the fact that it has to be organised so far in advance, and as an actor you really can't commit yourself. Gwen started organising this one, I think round about December of last year, and here we are seven months later, and in between that time I've had one or two scares because, I thought only last week that I might not be here. I was offered a film in Africa which should have started last Monday; It has now been postponed, luckily, until October. So it's very difficult to commit that far in advance. If it's a Beauty and the Beast convention, it's not so bad because then if you're not going to turn up, then Ron or Jay Acovone or someone else would turn up. So they'd always have some representation there, but if it's basically people coming to meet you from your fan association, then it's important you be there obviously, and it is so difficult to commit that far in advance."

"I understand that during an interview on Radio Lincolnshire on 19th July, you spoke of your plans to come back to the UK to live. Will that mean we will see more of you on British TV."
"Well we hope so, yes, I don't know quite when I'm coming back, probably within the next five years. We still have a home in London, and I still call England my home, and London my home town. Hopefully I'll do television and even stage work, here in England. I've always enjoyed British audiences, and they have been very kind to me, so I can't really wait to work here again. But in the meantime I have to be in America because that's where the big money is paid."

"Where do you live in America?"
"In Hollywood, right in the centre of Hollywood, just off Hollywood Boulevard."

"Can you see the Hollywood sign from there?"
"Yes, that's just above me actually, I can see it from my bedroom window."

"Which appeals to you more, working on stage or in TV or movies?"
"I think there is a tremendous gratification to working on stage because you have the applause of the audience and the laughter of the audience which is immediate. Which you don't get in television or films, but on the other hand it is hard work, you're working in the theatre six of the seven nights a week, you're also doing two matinees, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday, so it's tremendously hard work.
There is something rather magical about working with a live audience. But on the other hand, I think if an actor has any talent then I think it's up to you to share it with as many people as you can. I did a one man show, which is still in the Guiness Book of World Records, as the world's longest running one-man show, I did one thousand, seven hundred and sixty three performances, around the world, but it took me the best part of five years to do that. I played to about two and a half million people. Now in one night on television in America you can play to about twenty million people in one night. So it's a great means of popularising your image. It's a great way to give your career a jump start."

"You said on one interview that your favourite TV series to date is 'Beauty and the Beast'. This series touched a lot of people's hearts. What made it special to you?"
"I think the thing that's special about 'Beauty and the Beast' to me, is the fandom that evolved from it. Evidence of that is here today. Beauty and the Beast was the Genesis, because if it hadn't been for Beauty and the Beast, these fans wouldn't have started writing to me as 'Father', and I wouldn't have got to know them. You can do television shows and they come and go, you do them, you get the money and you go, but this one clings, because of the associations and the friendships that were made during that show, and what it stood for, for so many people.
Someone like Vincent who could be grossly deformed, half animal, half man, could still be loved, and that message went out to so many people. I was playing Father, who was a very fair character, who adored Vincent, who wasn't afraid to give him a kiss on the cheek before he got into bed.
I got so many letters from children who had been abused by their parents and said, "Oh God, what I would give for my father to even shake hands with me, let alone kiss me." I used to get a lot of letters, very sad letters a lot of them, but there was a responsibility for me there, to answer them and try and help people, which you don't normally get with a show. I think the last show we did was in 1989, that's nearly ten years ago, and yet still we have a fan club raging all around America and indeed Europe. I was in New Zealand recently and I attended a fan club meeting there.

I was out doing a thing called Hercules, playing Zeus. That's the great legacy of this show. That's why it's different from any other. Beauty and the Beast has made so many friendships, so many talents have come out of it, people have started drawing Vincent, or Catherine or Father, and people didn't realise they could draw. People have been writing stories about Vincent, and Catherine and Father, and have turned out some very good literature,and they have no idea beforehand that they could write. So it has sparked a great deal of talent, apart from the friendships. A very unusual show."

(Picture on the left is Roy as Zeus)

"What qualities do you personally think a person needs to be a good actor?"
"Most of all perseverance. You have to stick at it, you know. I've always believed that talent is rather like water, it does eventually find its own level. But it's not going to happen overnight, unless you are extremely lucky, and if it does happen overnight, then you're not really prepared for it and you're likely to be an overnight wonder, forgotten the next year.
I think that it's important if you want to be an actor, with a long career, that you do a lot of stage work, that you go into repertory and learn a trade as an actor. So that you can perform in any medium whether it's film, television or stage. Then you've got to get some training behind you. You haven't just been discovered in a coffee bar because you've got long blond hair and big boobs. There has to be something more than that behind it, and you have to persevere and stick at it. You need to believe in yourself, and think you can make it, and you've got to put up with a lot of rejections, before you're going to get there, a lot."

"There are many drama classes around Lincolnshire. The nearest tome is Blackfriars in Boston, tell me, what advice would you give to someone just starting out on the road to acting?"
"Do you mean yourself?"

(Joanne) "No Anyone."

"Well it's always good to get as much experience as you can, because even if you go to a drama school, and they teach you beautiful gestures and a lovely modulated voice, they cannot teach you experience, and the only way you can find out if you're any good is to do it in front of an audience, and they they'll soon tell you whether you are any good or not. So, I think yes, the more experience you can get, even with an amateur company, I think that's great."

"How does someone in your profession find work. Do you personally have to audition for parts? How were you offered the part of Father in Beauty and the Beast?"
"Well, no, what happened was, it was rather a ridiculous story; my agent phoned me one day, he said, "They're trying to find someone to play the Beast in 'Beauty and the Beast'; they said they're looking for someone with a beautiful modulated voice, with Shakespearean experience, and would you like to go along and see them?" So I went along and saw Paul Witt, and met with the directors, and I read for them, and it was very moving. The scene I had we all cried a lot over, but they said unfortunately, you're much too old for speeding on trains, so I was offered the part of Father."

"Are there any parts that you turned down and later regretted doing so?"
"No, the best part is, whichever one I am doing at the moment. There is an awful lot I still want to do, I still have ambitions."

"When you were younger, who was your favourite actor or actress, and did they inspire you to further your acting career in any way?"
"Yes, Charles Laughton, we were together in 1959 in 'A Midsummer's Nights Dream'. Also Lawrence Oliver and Shiel Griffiths."

"Have you ever been to Boston, in Lincolnshire? If yes, have you climbed Boston Stump. It has 365 steps, and from the top one can see for 30 miles on a clear day."
"I was stationed at RAF Coningsbury, here in Lincolnshire, and visited a lot of this area. However, I can't remember if I went to Boston, but I do love this part of the world, it is lovely old country."

"Thirty years ago you were in a play at the Theatre Royal here in Lincoln, what was the play, and who were the supporting actors?"
"It was a three character play, and I played six or seven different characters. It was called 'The Dragon Variation' with Nyree Dawn Porter and Anthony Andrews."

"Do you think Lincoln has changed much since then?"
"No, it hasn't changed at all, that's the wonderful thing about this city. You know even in Strafford-on-Avon, I can remember they had this most wonderful Tudor building dating back to, I don't know, fourteen hundred or something, and they pulled it down, and they built a mock Tudor National Westminster Bank,which was monstrous. In London, you have these awful concrete blocks going up, alongside lovely old buildings, and it just ruins everything. But here I think they have been very discerning. They must have a very good beauties committee here, because the way this city has been planned seems to allow new buildings to merge in with the existing ancient architecture, and I think it's great. I don't find much change in Lincolnshire, it's just a lovely old city, I hope it always remains like that."

"I understand that Republic Entertainment spoke of making a Beauty and the Beast movie, but as Yet they haven't started on it, tell me, is there any way that the general public can help in speeding up the process?"
"Yes I think so, any letter to Republic must have some effect. My son-in-law is President of Worldwide Universal Television and has instigated a couple of series, one of them was Hercules and another one was Zena, and he very much wanted to do this. He thought it was in the mould of the sort of shows he wanted to produce, which were fantasy shows. But you know, Republic would not release the rights, and he said well I'll pay for it and I'll buy it on the condition that I can use all the old episodes, because I will have them syndicated, but they wouldn't agree to it. They came to one of the Conventions, in Los Angeles, and they were very enthusiastic about it. They were going to make a film, and they were enthused by the amount of people there were there, and so we thought well it's going to be on, and then they went away and we didn't hear anything more from them. So they need reminding again, someone needs to nudge them and say we're fans who love Beauty and the Beast and there are millions and millions of us all around the world. So, Please, Write to republic Pictures."

"Finally, Roy, how long do you plan to be in Britain on this visit, and will you be visiting other parts of Lincolnshire, while here?"
"No, I'm staying with friends near Newark. We will spend a couple of days with them, and then I will go back to London. And then I am going down to see my daughter, Michelle. She lives in Cornwall, so I'll spend the last week in August with them, and then on the 3rd of September, I'm due to go back to America."

Roy : "Well it's been lovely meeting you, and I have enjoyed the interview tremendously. Okay. Thank you so much."

Joanne : "And you, thank you so much."