WATCH: Emotional tributes by family and friends at Jamie Bartlett’s private funeral
Jamie Bartlett’s funeral opened with the harmonious sounds of Isibane se Afrika, a traditional African gospel choir based in Khayelitsha, resonating through St George's Cathedral, Cape Town.
It was quite befitting this choir, whose name means “The Light of Africa”, was chosen.
Bartlett was a leading light to all who knew him in South Africa and beyond our borders. He passed away from cardiac arrest in his sleep on May 23. He was 55.
Bartlett rose to prominence as Mike O’Reilly in Gray Hofmeyr’s pioneering SABC3 soapie, “Isidingo” and went on to achieve greater success as David Genaro in e.tv’s “Rhythm City”.
He also left deep footprints in theatre and film.
Childhood friend Nicholas “Nick” Ashby led the tributes at his funeral.
He recalled their first meeting in 1970 and regaled the gathered friends and family with memories of their childhood to when Bartlett bagged an acting prize in Standard 5 (Grade 7).
They drifted apart only to reconnect at drama school – a back and forth which continued throughout their adult life.
He described Bartlett and his love affair with arts in the most poetic and poignant light.
Ashby added: “His last years with you Rosa (Onious), who I have not met until now, but kept hearing of when he was down here in Cape Town. He’d keep saying he wished to share this or that experience with you.
“Thank you for the love, the joy of home life you provided, your companionship he cherished.
“One of the last things he told me before he said the last, ‘Goodbye Bootie’, was how grateful he was for you because without you, and your young family, his life in Johannesburg over the last few years would have been so lonely.”
He also touched on Bartlett’s close relationship with his parents, Lola and Rick.
He said: “You both were his life, number one heroes. Vicky, too, and Grant, Oscar and his cousins, for whom he cared so deeply and cherished time spent. There were so many mates, it feels wrong not to mention.
“He was always fully and potently engaged. So what else to say of you, Jamie. I guess it is what you would say to us all, ‘I love you’,” Ashby added.
Bartlett’s actress ex-wife Camilla Waldman, whom he shares a son, Hector, with, was mentioned several times and referred to as his “artistic equal”. The love and friendship they had continued after the divorce.
Ashby also praised Hector for the strength and grace that he has shown during this difficult time.
Victoria took the podium next.
“In 1986, I was doing my matric drama exam and I asked Jay some advice on what I should perform and he gave me a poem, it was one of his favourites,” she recalled.
“Over the years, it became our poem. And it is a poem that speaks of courage and my brother among many things gave me so much courage in my life. Later, of course, this poem became very famous but before that, it was just our poem and it feels right to speak it now.”
She proceeded to recite the words to William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus”.
Writer and director Craig Freimond and Bartlett went to the same high school. However, they became friends through their work in the industry several years later.
An emotional Freimond asked everyone to “bear with me or weep with me”, and continued: “I first met Jamie when he arrived like a hurricane at my school in matric, after being expelled from a nearby school that should not be named… Bryanston High seemed to have an accept-all policy in those days, which made it an interesting and somewhat treacherous place.
“Jamie was large, wild and terrifying. He was an extraordinary rugby player. The sight of Bartlett already with that huge frame, barrelling down that touchline was an awe-inspiring sight, especially to the poor soul charged with stopping him. I was not friends with him in those days. I’m not sure we even exchanged greetings.
“Some years later, I heard he became an actor. Over the years, I found this an incredibly moving and inspiring story about the redemptive power of art and creativity.
“How a person with this, with this sometimes wild, crazy and potentially self-destructive energy could channel that into art. Into a creative pursuit. It was a story I have often told to young people with similar dispositions.”
Freimond added: “I also think that is what made Jamie such an extraordinary actor. He brought everything that he was, all that power and all that energy, into his roles.
“I only really got to know him and become friends with him many years later and we would go on to work together many times. To me, he was the most exciting actor I have ever worked with and will probably ever work with.
“Jamie never wanted to settle for the simple choice, the expected choice. He was always pushing, he was always searching, he was always trying something. In a sense, he worked without fear, like Nick was saying. He didn’t mind if he embarrassed himself. He just wanted to try it like a tightrope walker without a net.
“I experienced this most when I worked in theatre with him, where we had time to play, to explore. Many times he would make the most outrageous proposal and laugh hilariously and I would look at him and laugh too, at the sheer preposterousness of this proposal.
“And out of that, reaching for that, searching, often came, a moment, a gesture, a move, a something that was utterly extraordinary. Those times in a rehearsal with Jay, just playing together, were some of the happiest moments in my life. Pure joy and creativity.
“Jamie loved to act. He loved to be immersed in a character in a moment. He did not understand half-measures. He didn’t really know any other way beside full commitment to the moment. He acted and lived, in many ways, like he played rugby: running full tilt down the wing, giving everything he had.”
Sadly, several people that were meant to fly in for the funeral were unable to do so due to Comair suspending all flights from British Airways (operated by Comair) and kulula.com.