Ian Wallace (singer), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Ian Wallace (singer)

English opera singer and actor

Date of Birth: 10-Jul-1919

Place of Birth: London

Date of Death: 12-Oct-2009

Profession: actor, singer, opera singer, autobiographer

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Ian Bryce Wallace OBE (10 July 1919 – 12 October 2009) was an English bass-baritone opera and concert singer, actor and broadcaster of Scottish extraction. His family intended him for a career in the law, but he was attracted to the stage.
Originally an actor in non-musical plays, he was persuaded to try opera and made an immediate success.
He played a range of buffo parts in operas, at Glyndebourne and internationally.
Wallace maintained a simultaneous career in revue, straight theatre, and broadcasting.
He appeared in pantomime and at the Royal Variety Performance.
As a broadcaster, he was a long-time panellist on the BBC radio panel game My Music, and he presented a television series of introductions to operas in the 1960s, as well as appearing in light entertainment shows singing a range of songs from ballads to comedy numbers.
He performed his one-man show for many years.
Flanders and Swann wrote several songs for him, and their best-known novelty song, "The Hippopotamus", became indelibly associated with him.