Paxton Whitehead’s American Way

In 1960, Paxton Whitehead was a fledgling actor toiling without much success in his native England.

“I hadn’t done anything of great distinction,” admits Whitehead, currently appearing as Helen Mirren’s understanding, klutzy doctor in the acclaimed production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Woman in Mind” at the Tiffany Theatre.

His biggest claim to fame was a stint in 1958 with the Shakespeare Memorial Theater, now the Royal Shakespeare Company.

“But I was the lowest of lows,” Whitehead says. “I was a spear carrier and with the last name of Whitehead, you were right down at the bottom--the spear carriers were listed alphabetically. I didn’t have very much to do.”

So, he decided to embark on an “adventure” and seek his fame in New York. “My mother is an American, so I had been there before,” Whitehead says. “That gave me the rights to take employment there. I expected to stay about nine months and now it has been 32 years.”

America proved to be his land of milk and honey. Whitehead got his big break on Broadway in 1963, replacing Jonathan Miller in the smash comedy “Beyond the Fringe.” Over the years, he’s lit up the Broadway and Los Angeles stage in such hits as “Noises Off,” the Richard Burton revival of “Camelot,” for which he received a Tony nomination, “A Little Hotel on the Side,” “The Pirates of Penzance” and “Heartbreak House.”

A California resident, Whitehead, 54, says he never regrets moving to America. “After two years, you realized the people you knew in England had either forgotten about you or had dropped dead,” he explains. “I realized I knew more people and more people knew me here than they did in England. It became harder and harder to go back. If I would have gone home to England, I would have had to start again as a spear carrier with a last name beginning with the letter ‘W.’ ”