Stratford Johns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stratford Johns, born Alan Stratford Johns, (February 22, 1925 - 29 January 2002) was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin. He was the younger brother of the actor Mervyn Johns and uncle to actress Glynis Johns.
Johns was born in Pietermaritzburg and grew up in South Africa, where his parents had emigrated, and after serving in the South African navy during World War II, Johns worked for a time in accountancy, but soon became involved in amateur theatre.
In 1948, he bought a one way ticket to Britain and learned his craft working in repertory theater at Southend-on-Sea for almost five years. He began to appear in British films from the mid-1950s, including a role in the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers (1955). He was a member of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre during the Angry Young Men period when new playwrights, including John Osborne 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 1962 he won the part of Barlow in Z-Cars 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 (1966-1972), later retitled Softly Softly Task Force.
In the 70's he starred in a third spin-off series, Barlow at Large, which saw the character transferred to British Intelligence; this was later retitled simply Barlow and proved as popular as Z-Cars had been. In 1973 he was named BBC TV Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain. He also landed in a cameo role as the racist chief-miner Zimmerman in the short series Diamond Crack Diamond.
Johns later appeared in the much-maligned Ken Russell films Salome's Last Dance and The Lair of the White Worm (both 1988), followed by the lead role in the Channel 4 thriller Brond.
His many stage credits include Daddy Warbucks in the West End version of Annie. His guest appearances on TV include The Avengers, Department S, Neverwhere, the Doctor Who serial Four to Doomsday (1982) and the Blake's 7 episode Games. He had a prominent role as Calpurnius Piso in the BBC's acclaimed adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius (1976), played Magwich in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, and the jailer in The Secret Life of Albie Sachs.
He was also the author of the children's science fiction book Gumphlumph.
After several years of poor health, Johns died from heart disease, aged 76.
