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Dean Lawrence

Dean Lawrence (born 3 October 1961) is a British actor who is best known for his role as Gypsy boy Tyso Boswell in the children's science fiction television series The Tomorrow People. A native of Bristol, South West England, Dean had wanted to act since the age of three, learning his craft from mimicking people and acting his way out of "tight corners". His mother had promised young Dean that if he strove for good results in primary school, he would go on to a good stage school. After the deal was made, Dean's marks sat above satisfactory level in his end-of year exams, so he was enrolled at the Barbara Speake Stage School at the age of eleven. Since his enrollment, Dean appeared in various commercials, doing modelling jobs for everything from bikes to cars and sung on records with Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart and Max Wall, to name but two. He also performed in quite few West End Productions, including Carry On London and Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. It was also said in a Look-In article that he avidly supported the football team Bristol Rovers and that his favourite hobby was girls. It was after filming an appearance on 'Robin Hood Junior' as Edmund that he got the part as Tyso Boswell on The Tomorrow People. Filming for Dean's television debut as Tyso took place in late 1974. The character of Tyso had extra-sharp senses and mild claustrophobia, however, these quirks of Tyso never made it past Lawrence's second appearance, Worlds Away. Both Tyso and Stephen Jameson (who Tyso shared a special friendship with) were retired from the series at the end of 1976 in the episode Into the Unknown. After The Tomorrow People Dean had quite a few more acting jobs, such as Jerry in the short-lived American sitcom Another Day, Ron Harvey in Westaway, a Knob in The Lords of Discipline and Jack in House of Caradus. In 1997 Dean was interviewed for the Tomorrow People documentary Beyond Tomorrow, which remained unreleased until October 2005. It was then released on a DVD separate from the actual Tomorrow People series by Fantom Films. His latest public appearance was at Hyperspace 2008, a Tomorrow People convention held in Lensbury, London, in September 2008.