The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 277

li i-1'' ltii mam Si 1 Center photo by Art Fritch CHARACTER ACTOR SYDNEY WALKER WITH OLIVIER IN 'BECKET LEFT; AS HIMSELF, CENTER; AND AS SCROOGE IN ACT'S 'A CHRISTMAS CAROL' ACT's Sydney Walker: Right in Character to ask Olivier: "Who is that splendid chap?" "That splendid chap' answered Olivier, "is Sydney Walker. Sydney," he said, with traditional British understatement, "is a goodish actor." Emmy-award winner Michael Learned, a former ACT actress, considers Walker "one of the finest actors I've seen on the stage." The sentiment is echoed by Paul Shenar, another alumnus of ACT and now a TV actor. "Sydney is a jewel," he said. "San Francisco is lucky to have him." In his 37-year professional career Walker has distinguished himself in roles ranging from comedy to tragedy, melodrama to mystery. In fact, it is a mystery, given his manifest gifts, why Walker has chosen to 'The leading man is stuck with being good all the time; character roles are much more interesting and more colorful.

don't we say, "What a character he fantasies free flight. His eyes gleam wickedly as he recalls his first performances entertaining his parents' dinner guests. "I was about eight, and I went to a lot of movies. I was very fond of death scenes. You could say I was drawn to the eccentric, even then.

"My idea of entertaining was to lie down on the floor and do the 'Death of Fu I died in agony on the floor. I must say nobody ever laughed at me, and I'm sure that eyes were being rolled, but I was too busy performing and wasn't aware of that. Nobody ever discouraged me. And nobody ever criticized my material." His real career began at the age of 15 when he played an elder villain in an old melodrama and managed to give a convincing portrayal despite his age. Other little theater appearances followed, leading to an apprenticeship to Jasper Deeter's Hedgerow Repertory, a then-celebrated playhouse in Molyan, Pa.

Returning after a 3Va-year hitch in World War II, he joined the company and "continued to play old men." Eventually he left for Paris to study pantomime and singing at the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art, then moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared with the Pasadena Playhouse and La Jolla Playhouse before coming to San Francisco. This was in early 1950s. He worked at Interplayers, then at the Playhouse. Dan Duryea had the "China Smith" private eye TV series "and I did several episodes." Then he played a few roles in "Captain Zero," a children's series, which originated here. "It was shot in Golden Gate Park and we'd be up from sunup to sunset," he said.

In October of 1954 he made a decision that changed the course of his career. Having a life-long interest in the metaphysical world, Walker sent his astrology chart to one Matilda Shapiro of American Astrology, asking her, 'Do I have sufficient ability to make my way as an actor and do nothing I was typing during the day at the Custom House and acting at night. The answer came back: She gave me the courage to make up my mind. "In retrospect," Walker said, "I know that nothing happens by accident We set in motion with the mind whatever we want to accomplish. I'm very much into this being a mental universe.

Freedom is actually real, and See Page 18 PAGE 17 By Marian Zailian FIRST glance, Sydney Walker looks like a retlrec' All movements are swift jL and purposeful, yet he is not in a hurry. He shrugs out of his coat and flings off his scarf as he eases his six-foot frame into a soft chair and stretches long, corduroy-clad legs in front of him. It's cold outside, but inside the comfortable American Conservatory Theater office it is cozy. When he starts to talk, the lyrical, agile voice lilts and bounces and skips along. There's not a hint of the pompous Lord Porteous that ACT theater-goers saw in "The Circle," or the relentless jabbering of a James Joyce in "Travesties," the irascible Scrooge from "A Christmas Carol" or the hilarious stuttering of the dimwit Martin in "Hotel Paradise" But then, Sydney Walker, 60, slips into character roles as easily as one steps into slippers.

The truth is that nature has kindly showered on this actor the whole catalog of dramatic gifts. He'll perform in a pair of roles Tuesday night when he appears in two one-act productions. In The Browning Version," a mini-tragedy by TeTence Rattigan, he portrays the suave, calculating head educator in an English boys' school, who is turning down a teacher's request for a pension. In Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy" he is the pompous Colonel Melkett, father of the heroine. Walker's career is crowded with Broadway and off Broadway theater triumphs in featured roles with such luminaries as Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn, Helen Hayes, Anthony Quayle, Fay Bainter, Burgess Meredith, Richard Basehart and Eva Le Gallienne.

Audiences have stood up to cheer him at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York for his role as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice," and high praise for his extraordinary abilities has come from some of his most distinguished colleagues, including one of the theater's greatest living actors, Laurence Olivier. Noel Coward, watching Olivier's Broadway appearance in "Becket," was so captivated by the actor playing the archbishop of Canterbury that he ducked backstage Sydney Walker is appearing in ACT's "The Browning Version" and "Black Comedy," which open Tuesday at the Geary Theater. Datebook, Sunday, January 31, 1982 remain in repertory instead of reaching for the brass ring. When asked, he sat back and smiled. The angles of his face, the glint of his blue-gray eyes and the straight line of his nose remind one of a youthful version of Trevor Howard, while in the lift of his chin and the line of his lip there is a John Gielgud look.

He exudes charm and leaves an impression of great kindness. "I do best as a member of a team. I seem not to have any big drive to assert myself over everybody else which is what people who are stars or star-driven or star-oriented seem to want to da I enjoyed Broadway. I enjoy being here." Rather than coveting -the stardom of being the -leading man, Walker much prefers character parts. "The leading man is stuck with being good all the time.

Character roles are much more interesting and more colorful Don't we say, 'What a character he is'?" Walker was raised in a middle-class suburb of Philadelphia, where his parents allowed his childhood.