John Fryatt

John James Fryatt (7 July 1927 – 7 January 2011) was an English actor and opera singer best known for his performance in comic character roles.

Fryatt began his career with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1952 in Gilbert and Sullivan roles, then Sadler's Wells Opera in 1959, becoming popular in tenor character roles in Offenbach operettas. His international opera career continued from the 1960s to the 1990s, becoming known in the roles of Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro and Sellem in The Rake's Progress, among many others. He also played a role in the West End as Roscoe in the 1987 production of Follies.

Fryatt was born in York. From 1950, he studied privately with Frank Titterton and subsequently with Joseph Hislop.

He was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in January 1952, playing Gilbert and Sullivan chorus roles. His first named role there, in 1953, was the small tenor part of the First Citizen in The Yeomen of the Guard. The next year, he was also given the role of Francesco in The Gondoliers. His first leading role was Prince Hilarion in Princess Ida in 1954, followed the next year by the Defendant in Trial by Jury, and he was also given the role of Leonard Meryll in Yeomen. That year, he also occasionally began to play the roles of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and Nanki-Poo in The Mikado. In 1957, he was also given the larger role of Luiz in The Gondoliers, while still playing some chorus parts. He also had occasion to play Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe and the Duke of Dunstable in Patience. He left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1959.