Potter was born in
Leicester. His family moved to Wales, and he learned to speak fluent Welsh as a boy, while his father worked on rocket technology during the war. He sang as a boy soprano in the church choir. Potter's family moved to
Farnham, Surrey, where he played principal roles with the Farnham Amateur Operatic Society, including Strephon in
Iolanthe (1955) and Barinkay in
The Gypsy Baron (1956). He studied singing at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he won prizes as a tenor and graduated with a teaching degree. Potter taught school for a while, and then debuted in the 1958 production of ''
Where's Charley? at the Palace Theatre. In 1959, he appeared in Marigold
, Flower Drum Song and Chu Chin Chow''. Potter joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1961, appearing as Earl Tolloller in
Iolanthe and Colonel Fairfax in
The Yeomen of the Guard. Soon afterwards, he assumed the additional roles of Frederic in
The Pirates of Penzance, Prince Hilarion in
Princess Ida, Nanki-Poo in
The Mikado, and occasionally Marco and later, Luiz, in
The Gondoliers. When
Thomas Round left the company in 1964, Potter also took over the role of the Defendant in
Trial by Jury and the Duke of Dunstable in
Patience. He also sang Richard Dauntless in
Ruddigore, beginning when that opera was revived in 1967. ==Later life==