THE STAGE
April 2011 PAUL IMBUSCH
Paul Imbusch was a consummate actor who had a wonderfully varied stage career spanning regional,
West End and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Prior to performing, he was a Bevin Boy briefly before becoming an army sergeant major. Imbusch
also developed a talent for caricatures when he worked for a publisher of comics.
Work as an amateur actor put him in the public eye and the agent Phil Payne saw his Danilo in The
Merry Widow. He gained a great deal of experience while performing at The Questors Theatre in
Ealing, London, from 1951 to 1965, and as a tenor with the BBC singers. Repertory jobs galore
followed at Bath, where he was a leading actor, along with a performance in the Happy Apple in the
West End and a continuing round of reps at York Theatre Royal, Derby, Jersey, Leicester, Eastbourne
and on to Malta.
Imbusch spent some of his happiest times at the Bristol Old Vic under Val May from 1972-75. He
performed a notable Menenius in Coriolanus at the RSC Stratford in 1977 and again in the Aldwych
season 1978-1979. Following that, he played a variety of parts at Birmingham Rep, Manchester Royal
Exchange, Hornchurch, Newbury and Northampton, and at the National Theatre in 1983.
In 1984 he performed as Mr Crabtree in the English Touring Theatre's School for Scandal, as well as a
TV role in Dombey and Son.
In 2000 Imbusch was at the Whitehall Theatre in Penny for a Song and he went on to take part in the
Peter Gill season at Sheffield in 2002.
Paul Imbusch's career ended on February 15, at the age of 84. His will stated: "I have enjoyed my life." John Atterbury
PAUL IMBUSCH AT THE QUESTORS 1954 A Jig for a Gypsy 1954 King John 1955 The World's Wonder 1956 Getting Married 1956 Gilgamesh 1956 SS Tenacity 1957 The Golden Cuckoo 1957 The Government Inspector 1957 The Miser 1957 Pygmalion 1958 Julius Caesar 1958 The Long Spoon 1958 Maria Marten or The Murder in The Red Barn 1959 The Drunkard 1959 Questrionics 1960 The Beggars' Opera 1960 The House of Cowards 1960 Misalliance 1960 Professor Taranne 1960 Three Sisters 1960 The Ticket of Leave Man 1961 Charley's Aunt 1961 Lady Audley's Secret 1961 The Living Room 1962 Bulldog Drummond 1962 Going-Going 1962 Pygmalion 1964 Dandy Dick 1964 A Midsummer Night's Dream 1964 Nathan and Tabileth 1964 No Quarter 1964 Pop 1964 Sweeney Todd 1965 The Confidential Clerk 1965 How I Assumed the Role of a Popular Dandy
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