Alan Edgar Stratford Johnson (22 September 1925 – 29 January 2002), known as Stratford Johns, was a British stage, film and television actor known for playing the role of senior CID officer Charlie Barlow, a character he originated in the long-running
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
police series ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...
'', and continued to play in several spin-off series in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early life
Johns was born and grew up in
Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
.
After serving as a
deckhand in the
South African Navy
The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force.
The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prote ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he worked for a time in accountancy before becoming involved in amateur theatre.
Career
In 1948, Johns bought a one-way ticket to Britain and learned his craft working in repertory theatre at
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
for almost five years. He began to appear in British films from the mid-1950s, including a bit part in the classic
Ealing comedy
The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the ...
''
The Ladykillers'' (1955). He ran a small hotel in London during the 1950s, and was a member of the
English Stage Company at the
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
during the
Angry Young Men period when new playwrights, including
John Osborne
John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war theatre. Born in London, he briefly worked as a jo ...
, introduced new themes to British theatre. His most famous character, Barlow, was noted for his hard edges, owing much to the changes in characterisation pioneered at the Royal Court.
In 1961, he appeared in ''
The Avengers'' Season One episode "The Frighteners" in the role of Sir Thomas Weller.
In 1962, he won the part of Barlow in ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...
'' and soon became one of the most familiar and popular faces on British television. During the long run (1962–1978) of ''Z-Cars'', he transferred his character to the spin-off series, ''
Softly, Softly'' (1966–1969), and later ''
Softly, Softly: Task Force'' (1969–1972). He also played the voice of the mysterious "Guvnor" in ''
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
''The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery'' is a British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, written by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, and released on 4 April 1966. It is the last of the original series of films based on the ' ...
'' (1966).
He was the subject of ''
This Is Your Life'' in October 1963 when he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...
at BBC Television Centre.
In the 1970s, he starred in a third spin-off series, ''
Barlow at Large'' (1971, 1973), which saw the character transferred to
British Intelligence
The Government of the United Kingdom maintains several intelligence agencies that deal with secret intelligence. These agencies are responsible for collecting, analysing and exploiting foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intell ...
: it was later retitled simply ''
Barlow'' (1974–1975). Although the Barlow character remained popular (and appeared in another spin-off, in which he investigated the ''
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...
'' murders), ratings for these solo spin-offs declined, and the final series ended in 1975. Barlow was seen once more in 1976, in the series ''
Second Verdict''.
Johns appeared as President of the Council
Bradshaw in the 1970 award-winning film ''
Cromwell'' with
Richard Harris
Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. Having studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave. He received numerous a ...
in the role of
Cromwell and Sir
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...
as
King Charles I.
In 1973, Johns was named BBC TV Personality of the Year by the
Variety Club of Great Britain. He portrayed the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
-supporting Namib mine superintendent Mr. Zimmerman in two episodes of the 1985 mini-series ''
Master of the Game''.
Johns later appeared in the
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...
films ''
Salome's Last Dance'' and ''
The Lair of the White Worm'' (both 1988),
followed by the mid-1980s
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
series ''
Brond'', in which he played the title character.
His many stage credits include Daddy Warbucks in the original West End run of ''
Annie'' – he can be heard on the original London
cast album
A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...
– and the
Ghost of Christmas Present
The Ghost of Christmas Present is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits that appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of Redemption (theology), redemption.
...
in the original
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
cast of the stage adaptation of the film musical ''
Scrooge'' (1970), on the recording of which he can also be heard. His guest appearances on TV include ''
The Avengers'', ''
Department S'', ''
Neverwhere
''Neverwhere'' is an urban fantasy television miniseries by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC 2. The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was de ...
'', the ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' serial ''
Four to Doomsday'' (1982) and the ''
Blake's 7
''Blake's 7'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four series of thirteen 50-minute episodes were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, prod ...
'' episode "Games". He had a prominent role as
Calpurnius Piso in the BBC's acclaimed adaptation of
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...
' ''
I, Claudius'' (1976); he played Magwitch in the BBC's 1981 adaptation of Dickens' ''
Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by English author Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. The novel is a bildungsroman and depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens' second novel, after ''Dav ...
'', and the jailer in ''The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs''. Johns appeared in the 1984 pop video for ''
Young at Heart'' recorded by The Bluebells. With him were veteran Scottish actress
Molly Weir and Scots singer/actress
Clare Grogan. In 1993, Johns appeared in the BBC period drama ''
Scarlet and Black'' alongside a young
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...
and
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970) is an English actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Rachel Weisz, several awards, including an Academy Award, ...
.
Johns played the role of Cyril Isaiah Greengrass, the conniving brother of Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the nostalgic
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
series, ''
Heartbeat.''
He was also the author of the children's book ''Gumphlumph''; in the mid-1960s, at the height of his fame as Barlow, he read it on the children's television series ''
Jackanory
''Jackanory'' was a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in Reading (activity), reading. The programme was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the ...
''. ''Gumphlumph'' would be revived, again with Johns narrating, for the
TV-am
TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...
children's programme ''
Rub-a-Dub-Tub'' in the 1980s.
Personal life
He married Nanette Ryder in 1955; they had four children. He ran the small hotel in
St Martins Lane called the St Martins Hotel; it was managed by Elizabeth Kissick-Jones, formerly Hartnell, who was the aunt of his wife Nanette. The hotel was very popular with actors and he ran it until 1976.
After several years of poor health, Johns died from heart disease in 2002, aged 76.
Selected filmography
Film
* ''
Burnt Evidence'' (1954) - 2nd Fireman (uncredited)
* ''
The Night My Number Came Up'' (1955) - Sergeant (uncredited)
* ''
The Ship That Died of Shame'' (1955) - Garage Worker (uncredited)
* ''
The Ladykillers'' (1955) - Security Guard (uncredited)
* ''
Who Done It?'' (1956) - P.C. Coleman
* ''
Women Without Men'' (1956) - 1st Reveller (uncredited)
* ''
The Long Arm'' (1956) - Constable (uncredited)
* ''
Tiger in the Smoke'' (1956) - Police Constable
* ''
Across the Bridge'' (1957) - Detective in Schaffner's Office (uncredited)
* ''
The One That Got Away'' (1957) - Second Detective (uncredited)
* ''
Violent Playground'' (1958) - (uncredited)
* ''
Indiscreet'' (1958) - Waiter (uncredited)
* ''
Law and Disorder'' (1958) - Driver of Prison Van (uncredited)
* ''
A Night to Remember'' (1958) - Crewman on Upturned Lifeboat (uncredited)
* ''
The Professionals'' (1960) - Lawson
* ''
Hand in Hand'' (1960)
* ''
Two Letter Alibi'' (1962) - Bates
* ''
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
''The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery'' is a British comedy film, directed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, written by Sidney and Leslie Gilliat, and released on 4 April 1966. It is the last of the original series of films based on the ' ...
'' (1966) - The Voice/Guvnor (voice)
* ''
Rocket to the Moon'' (1967) - Warrant Officer
* ''
The Plank'' (1967) - Warrant Officer
* ''
Cromwell'' (1970) - President Bradshaw
* ''
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It'' (1977) - Chief Commissioner Blocker
* ''
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu'' (1980) - Ismail
* ''
George and Mildred'' (1980) - Harry Pinto
* ''
Dance with a Stranger
''Dance with a Stranger'' is a 1985 British film directed by Mike Newell (director), Mike Newell. Telling the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain (1955), the film won critical acclaim, and aided the careers of two of its ...
'' (1985) - Morrie Conley
* ''
Wild Geese II'' (1985) - Mustapha El Ali
* ''
Car Trouble'' (1986) - Reg Sampson
* ''
Foreign Body
A foreign body (FB) is any object originating outside the body of an organism. In machinery, it can mean any unwanted intruding object.
Most references to foreign bodies involve propulsion through natural orifices into hollow organs.
Foreign b ...
'' (1986) - Mr. Plumb
* ''
Salome's Last Dance'' (1988) - Herod / Alfred Taylor
* ''
The Lair of the White Worm'' (1988) - Peters
* ''
The Fool'' (1990) - Arthur Shillibeer
* ''
Splitting Heirs'' (1993) - Butler
Television
* ''
The Avengers'' (1961) - Sir Thomas Weller (episode "
The Frighteners
''The Frighteners'' is a 1996 supernatural comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with Fran Walsh. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, R. Lee Ermey an ...
")
* ''
Maigret
Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a '' commissaire'' ("commissioner") of the Paris ''Brigade Criminelle'' ('' Direction Régionale de la Police Judiciaire de Paris:36, Quai des Orfèvres''), created ...
'' (1961, 1962) - Keller (episodes "The Cactus" and "Murder on Monday")
* ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by ...
'' (1962–1965) - Barlow
* ''
This Is Your Life'' (1963) - self
* ''
Softly, Softly'' (1966–1969) - Barlow
* ''
The Avengers'' (1968) - Mr. Street (episode "Legacy of Death")
* ''
Department S'' (1969) - Paul Trenton (episode "The Man in the Elegant Room")
* ''
Softly, Softly: Task Force'' (1969–1972) - Barlow
* ''
Barlow at Large'' (1971, 1973) - Barlow
* ''
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...
'' - Barlow
* ''
Barlow'' (1974–1975) - Barlow
* ''
Second Verdict'' (1976) - Barlow
* ''
I, Claudius'' (1976) -
Calpurnius Piso
* ''
Moynihan'' (1976) - (episode "The Going Rate")
* ''
Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by English author Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. The novel is a bildungsroman and depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens' second novel, after ''Dav ...
'' (1981) -
Abel Magwitch
Abel Magwitch is a major fictional character from Charles Dickens' 1861 novel ''Great Expectations''.
Synopsis
Charles Dickens set his story in the early 19th century, setting his character Abel Magwitch to meet a man called Compeyson at the Epso ...
* ''The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs'' (1981) - Warrant Officer Snyman
* ''
Blake's 7
''Blake's 7'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four series of thirteen 50-minute episodes were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, prod ...
'' (1981) - Belkov (episode "Games")
* ''
Four to Doomsday'' (1982) - Monarch (''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' serial in 4 episodes, part of series 19)
* ''
Master of the Game'' (1984) - Zimmerman
* ''
Brond'' (1987) - Brond
* ''
The Secret Agent
''The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale'' is an anarchist spy fiction novel by Polish-British author Joseph Conrad, first published on 12 September 1907.. The story is set in Soho, London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a sp ...
'' (1992) - The Home Secretary
* ''
Scarlet and Black'' (1993) - Abbé Pirard
* ''
Minder
A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds".
Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...
'' (1994) - Knowles (episode "Bring Me the Head of Arthur Daley")
* ''
Neverwhere
''Neverwhere'' is an urban fantasy television miniseries by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC 2. The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was de ...
'' (1996) - Mr. Stockton (episode "Earl's Court to Islington")
* ''
Heartbeat'' (1998) - Cyril Isiah Greengrass
References
External links
*
Stratford Johnsat the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Stratford
1925 births
2002 deaths
English male film actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
People from Pietermaritzburg
South African emigrants to the United Kingdom
South African military personnel of World War II
South African male film actors
South African male stage actors
South African male television actors