David Jason

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
David Jason in A Touch of Frost.
Enlarge
David Jason in A Touch of Frost.

Sir David Jason OBE (born February 2, 1940) is a highly regarded English actor, admired equally for his dramatic work as for his comedy roles. He is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of "Del Boy" in the BBC television situation comedy Only Fools and Horses which made him a household name in the United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] Early career

David Jason with Denise Coffey and (back row) future "Pythonites" Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Eric Idle, in Do Not Adjust Your Set (ITV, 1967 – 1969).
Enlarge
David Jason with Denise Coffey and (back row) future "Pythonites" Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Eric Idle, in Do Not Adjust Your Set (ITV, 1967 – 1969).

David Jason was born David John White in Edmonton, London. Brought up in Lodge Lane, North Finchley, he went to Northside primary school on the same road. After leaving school he trained as an electrician while negotiating his way into repertory theatre. On discovering there was already a David White on EQUITY's books, he took the stage name Jason - either from his twin brother who died just two weeks after his birth, or from his favourite film of the time Jason and the Argonauts[citation needed]. His elder brother, Arthur White, is also a character actor.

He started his television career in 1964 playing the part of Bert Bradshaw in Crossroads. In 1967 he played a spoof super-hero Captain Fantastic (and also other roles), in the television sketch comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set. His co-stars were Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Humphrey Barclay, who recruited David Jason to appear in Do Not Adjust Your Set (partly to offset the rather intellectual style of Idle, Jones and Palin), admired David's masterful sense of timing.

Jason also appeared in variety shows in support of stars such as Dick Emery, and his performances caught the attention of Ronnie Barker, who was soon to become a mentor to Jason. In 1969 Jason was recruited to appear in Hark At Barker, starring Ronnie Barker as Lord Rustless, as Dithers, the hundred-year old gardener. There was also a sequel, His Lordship Entertains. In 1973 he played junior employee Granville in the first programme of the comedy anthology Seven of One, called Open All Hours and starring Barker as the miserly proprietor of a corner shop. Four series of Open All Hours were subsequently made from 1976 to 1985. He also featured in Barker's Porridge, a prison-based comedy, as Blanco. He also took the lead role in ITV sitcom A Sharp Intake Of Breath.

In 1974, Jason also played the part of the inept spy Edgar Briggs in the television comedy series The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs, long before the time of spoof spy thrillers such as Austin Powers and Johnny English.

In the 1970s he also acted in radio comedies, including Week Ending (in which he regularly satirised such figures as then UK Foreign Secretary Dr David Owen) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (as the "B Ark Captain" in the sixth episode).

[edit] Maturity and success

In 1981 he found his most enduring and popular role. Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses (created by John Sullivan) is a wide-boy who makes a dubious living in Peckham, south London, trading in shoddy and counterfeit goods. He is assisted by his brother Rodney (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Grandad (played by Lennard Pearce) or, in later episodes, Uncle Albert (played by Buster Merryfield). In this role Jason popularised some slang words and phrases; examples being the mild insults "dipstick" and "plonker", and the celebratory "lovely jubbly".

He has also earned acclaim for a string of straight roles. These include Skullion in Porterhouse Blue, Pa Larkin in the rural idyll The Darling Buds of May (based on the H. E. Bates novel) which also featured Catherine Zeta-Jones before she achieved success in Hollywood, and Detective Jack Frost in the TV series A Touch of Frost.

In addition to these dramatic roles he has also worked as a voice artist for Cosgrove Hall on a number of children's television productions, providing voices for DangerMouse, The BFG, Count Duckula and Toad from The Wind in the Willows, as well as several other cartoon voice-overs and advertising work including the DIY chain Do It All in 1988.

In 1993, David Jason was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and twelve years later, in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2005, he was knighted for services to acting. On the day his knighthood was announced, many British newspapers used the headline "Arise Sir Del Boy" or similar, in reference to his most famous role. The Daily Mirror ran the headline "It's Sir Del and Sir Tel" (popular BBC Radio 2 DJ Terry Wogan was also knighted on the same day).

He nursed long-time partner Myfanwy Talog prior to her death in 1995 after a long battle with breast cancer. He married his second wife, Gill Hinchcliffe, with whom he has a daughter, in a secret ceremony at the Dorchester Hotel in London on 30 November 2005.

On 1 December, 2005, David Jason received his knighthood from The Queen at Buckingham Palace. The actor said he was "humbled" by the "fantastic tribute".

David Jason more recently starred in the two part ITV drama Ghostboat and presented a special programme celebrating the work of Cosgrove Hall Films `Cartoon Kings' for ITV1. He peppered his narration with the voices of Dangermouse, Count Duckula, Toad from Wind in the Willows and the BFG.

In September 2006, he was voted by the general public as number 1 in ITV's poll of TV's Greatest Stars

[edit] Radio

[edit] TV

[edit] Films

[edit] Animation

[edit] External links


John Sullivan's
Only Fools and Horses
Regular Characters:
Del Boy | Rodney | Grandad | Uncle Albert
Trigger | Boycie | Raquel | Cassandra | Denzil | Mickey Pearce | Mike | Marlene | Sid | Notable Guests
Episodes:
Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 | Series 5 | Series 6 | Series 7 | Christmas Specials
Regular Cast:
David Jason | Nicholas Lyndhurst | Lennard Pearce | Buster Merryfield
Roger Lloyd Pack | John Challis | Tessa Peake-Jones | Gwyneth Strong
Paul Barber | Patrick Murray | Kenneth MacDonald | Sue Holderness | Roy Heather
See also:
John Howard Davies | The Green Green Grass | Ronnie Hazlehurst | Peckham | Reliant Regal


Do Not Adjust Your Set
Denise Coffey — Eric Idle — David Jason — Terry Jones — Michael Palin


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/a/v/David_Jason_a0a1.html"
In other languages