Friar Tuck royal writs in 1417 refer to Robert Stafford, a Sussex chaplain who had assumed the alias of Frere Tuk. This "Friar Tuck" was still at large in 1429. These are the earliest surviving references to a character by that name. In the 1891 romantic opera "Ivanhoe" by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Julian Sturgis, Friar Tuck was played by Avon Saxon. In the film "Robin Hood" (1922) he was portrayed by Willard Louis. In the film, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) the character Friar Tuck was played by actor Eugene Pallette as a fat individual fond of food but also
Robin Hood (1973 film) of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), so Little John was the only Merry Man who remained in the film, while Friar Tuck was put as a friend of Robin's who lived in Nottingham, and Alan-a-Dale was turned into the narrator. Because of the time spent on developing several settings and auditioning actors to voice Robin Hood, production fell behind schedule. In order to meet its deadline, the animators decided to recycle dance sequences from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), "The Jungle Book" (1967), and "The Aristocats" (1970). By October 1970, most of the voice actors were