Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park has paid tribute to Peter Sallis, the actor who provided the unmistakable voice of Wallace and who died earlier this week aged 96.
Nick Park and Peter Sallis first worked together on Aardman Animation’s short A Grand Day Out in 1983. Bristol-based Nick wanted a mild-mannered Northerner to voice Wallace in his first appearance and contacted Sallis, best known for his role as Cleggy in the BBC TV comedy Last of the Summer Wine. 
He admitted it was “a punt” but had no one else in mind to play the cheese-loving inventor.
He recalls he paid Sallis £50 for the role as, at the time, he was “a poor film school student”.
Sallis forgot about it until six years later when Nick phoned to say he had completed the film.
The pair went on to work together on a string of popular shorts and full-length Wallace & Gromit features, including The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which in 2005 won the best animated feature Oscar.
Writing on the Aardman website, Nick said:“I’m so sad, but feel so grateful and privileged to have known and worked with Peter over so many years. He was always my first and only choice for Wallace. He brought his unique gift and humour to all that he did, and encapsulated the very British art of the droll and understated.
“Working with Peter was always a delight and I will miss his wry, unpredictable humour and silliness – that started the moment he greeted you at the door, and didn’t stop when the mic was switched off. He had naturally funny bones and was a great storyteller and raconteur off stage too and would keep us amused for hours. He could make the simplest incident sound hilarious – just by the way he said it.
“When I look back I’m so blessed and fortunate that he had the generosity of spirit to help out a poor film school student back in the early 1980’s, when we first recorded together, when neither of us had any idea what Wallace & Gromit might become.”
Nick said he even changed the shape of Wallace’s mouth to accommodate Sallis’s exaggerated vowels.
“’’We’ve forgotten the Crackers Gromit’ and ‘Cracking toast Gromit’ or just ‘Cheeeese!’ soon lead to Wallace’s enormous ‘coat-hanger mouth’,” said Nick.
They don’t come along very often like Peter Sallis – he was a unique character, on and off screen, and an absolute honour to have known him.”
Photo courtesy of Aardman Animations
