Kenneth Sandford (28 June 1924 – 19 September 2004) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.
After service the Royal Air Force during World War II, Sandford turned away from a career in art and studied singing. He performed in musical theatre in the West End and on tour between 1950 and 1956, including 800 performances starring in a revue called Jokers Wild with The Crazy Gang. He also began a concert career. In 1957, he was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and immediately began to perform eight principal roles in repertory, including Pooh-Bah in The Mikado. He remained with the company for 25 years until it closed, also making about twenty recordings with the company, and several recordings for Reader's Digest and others.
In later years, Sandford continued to tour in and direct Gilbert and Sullivan productions, often with his former D'Oyly Carte colleague Roberta Morrell. After The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was established in 1994, he often performed and lectured for the festival's audiences and held master classes for its performers.
Beginnings
Kenneth Sandford was born Kenneth Parkin in Godalming, Surrey and raised in Sheffield, where his father became landlord of a pub. Sandford hoped to be an artist, studying painting at the College of Arts and Crafts in Sheffield, where he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London. After he returned from service in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he attended that college, but he took up singing and became intrigued by the theatre. He began to perform in musicals, concerts and oratorios and switched to opera school. At this time he adopted his mother's maiden name as his professional surname, believing that Parkin "hardly rang with theatrical overtones."
Sandford played roles in several shows in the West End and on tour between 1950 and 1956, including Carousel at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (1950–51) (understudying and appearing as Billy Bigelow); on tour as Count Igor Staniev in King's Rhapsody; as Sandy Twist in Paint Your Wagon at His Majesty's Theatre (1953–54); in Kismet (understudying and going on for Alfred Drake) and 800 performances starring in a revue called Jokers Wild with The Crazy Gang at Victoria Palace Theatre (1954–56). In April 1955, he appeared in the Royal Variety Show supporting The Crazy Gang in a bill that featured Gracie Fields, George Formby and the young team of Morecambe and Wise. He also sang in concert as a tenor during this period, including a Wigmore Hall recital in April 1951 in songs by composers as diverse as Wolf-Ferrari, Rachmaninoff and Medtner.
In 1952, he married Pauline Joyce, and the couple had a son and a daughter.
D'Oyly Carte years
Sandford joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1957, for the pay of £37 and 10 shillings a week (about £700 at 2007 values) He immediately assumed eight principal baritone roles: the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance, Archibald Grosvenor in Patience, Private Willis in Iolanthe, King Hildebrand in Princess Ida, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado, Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore, Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Don Alhambra del Bolero in The Gondoliers. He dropped the role of Sergeant of Police in 1962 (which he found uncomfortably low for his "creamy and slightly breathy" lyric baritone voice) and added Dr. Daly to his repertoire when The Sorcerer was revived in 1971. In 1962, he played Shadbolt in a grand production of Yeomen staged by Anthony Besch at the Tower of London as part of the first City of London Festival. The Times said, "Mr Kenneth Sandford's lean, melancholy, decidedly sympathetic Shadbolt steals the show." By this time, the copyrights on Gilbert and Sullivan had expired and, to Sandford's delight, Besch's production was completely restaged, allowing Sandford to develop a new interpretation of the role.