Jack Elvyn Barrett (18 February 1910 – 22 May 1983) was a British actor on film, television and stage, best known for his roles as Smellie Ibbotson in '' The Dustbinmen'' and

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's father in ''

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''.

Biography

Born in Rochdale in 1910, Barrett worked in a family business there, and in the 1930s began working in the theatre. He started as an assistant stage manager, and at different times worked as an actor, stage manager, director and actor-manager. Before and during World War II he produced and acted in local productions in Rochdale. Following the war, he joined weekly repertory companies across England, working in places such as

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and

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in Sussex,

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in Hampshire,

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in Dorset, and

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in Lancashire.
In the mid 1950s, he made his first appearances on screen and thereafter had frequent roles on television and in films. In the 1960s and 1970s, he acted in London at the

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and the National Theatre under directors like William Gaskill,

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and Bill Bryden. The ''

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'' wrote in 1976 that Barrett, then aged 66, "has the sort of career that makes him the envy of many younger actors". In 1968, he played the lead role in a revival of

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

's play ''A Collier's Friday Night'', with reviewers saying, "The director, Peter Gill, elicits admirable style and even ensemble from a first-rate cast including John Barrett as the collier, Anne Dyson as his wife, Victor Henry as the son, and Jenifer Armitage as Maggie." "The characters have the ring of truth about them. Old Lambert (John Barrett) is marked physically and mentally by his work at the coalface. ... All are excellently portrayed in this first-rate production." In 1970, Barrett played the lead role in

Barry Hines Melvin Barry Hines, FRSL (30 June 1939 – 18 March 2016) was an English author, playwright and screenwriter. His novels and screenplays explore the political and economic struggles of working-class Northern England, particularly in his native W ...

's play ''Billy's Last Stand''. One reviewer wrote, "Both John Barrett as Billy and

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cu ...

as Darkly give powerful performances, each sombre, thoughtful, balanced and real, though, by the end, the melodrama seems even to have seeped through to their performances." Another said, "The acting is first-rate. ... John Barrett is wonderfully solid and self-satisfied at the start as an innocent faced by capitalism; and in his final gritty resignation to his fate the actor never puts an eyelid wrong."

Filmography

Film

Television

Selected stage performances

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, John 1910 births 1983 deaths Male actors from Rochdale British male film actors 20th-century British male actors