R.I.P. Rashid Karapiet

[Reza]

Rashid Karapiet obituary

Madhav Sharma guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 May 2013 13.12 EDT

Rashid Karapiet, who has died aged 84, was an actor, singer, playwright, broadcaster and teacher. He was not a star but a jobbing professional, one of the unsung heroes of the theatrical profession, a good companion with, as Tom Stoppard described it, a "vivid" personality. Rashid was also a much-loved and loyal friend.

The second of five children of Edward and Marie-Therese Carrapiett, he was born Reginald Carrapiett in India, and went to school at St Columba's, Delhi, and then St Joseph's and the Agricultural College in Allahabad. He travelled to Britain in the 1950s to train at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school, then took a teacher-training course at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and adopted Rashid Karapiet as his professional name. An accomplished linguist, he taught for many years in Germany and the Netherlands.

In 1960, Rashid appeared in Santha Rama Rau's dramatisation of A Passage to India (one of the first times brown-skinned actors were seen in leading roles in the West End of London). Later roles were in Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (1995), Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams (2002) and Ayub Khan Din's Last Dance at Dum Dum (2006). With the New Sussex Opera, he was in Peter Grimes (1981), directed by Nicholas Hytner.

He appeared in David Lean's film of A Passage to India (1984), Ronald Neame's Foreign Body (1986), Jamil Dehlavi's Jinnah (1998) and Dustin Hoffman's Quartet (2012). On television, Rashid's work ranged from The Jewel in the Crown (1984) to the groundbreaking soap opera about Asian families in Birmingham, Family Pride (1991-92), and a 2012 episode of Doctor Who.

His voice could be heard on All India Radio and in BBC radio drama. Rashid's plays were performed at the Sussex Arts Club. He had a strong social conscience, and his last public performance, in October, was reading poems by Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu in aid of a charity to help victims of the Bhopal disaster.

He is survived by his younger brother, Edward.