John Thaw
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| John Thaw CBE | |
 John Thaw (left) as Inspector Morse |
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| Birth name | John Edward Thaw |
| Born | 3 January 1942 Longsight, Manchester |
| Died | 21 February 2002 |
| Years active | 1964–2002 |
| Spouse(s) | Sally Alexander (1964–1968) Sheila Hancock (1973–2002) |
| Notable roles | The Sweeney (1975–1978) Inspector Morse (1987–2000) Kavanagh QC(1995–1999) |
| BAFTA Awards | |
|---|---|
| Best TV Actor 1989 Inspector Morse 1992 Inspector Morse BAFTA Fellowship 2001 Lifetime achievement Nominated Best TV Actor 1990 Inspector Morse 1991 Inspector Morse Nominated Best Supporting Actor 1987 Cry Freedom |
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John Edward Thaw CBE (3 January 1942 – 21 February 2002) was an English actor who achieved his first starring role in the military police television drama Redcap (1964 – 1966), and subsequently appeared in a range of television, stage and cinema roles.
Thaw came from a working class background, having been born in Longsight, Manchester to parents John and Dorothy. He entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 17, where he was a contemporary of Tom Courtenay. Soon after made his stage début in A Shred of Evidence at the Liverpool Playhouse.
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[edit] Career
On leaving RADA, Thaw was awarded a contract with the Liverpool Playhouse. His first film role was a bit part in the 1962 adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner starring Tom Courtenay; and he also guested in an early episode of The Avengers. In 1967 he appeared in the Granada TV serial, Inheritance, alongside James Bolam and Michael Goodliffe.
Thaw will perhaps be best remembered for two roles: the hard-bitten Flying Squad detective Jack Regan in the television series (and two films) The Sweeney (1975 – 1978), which established him as a major star in the United Kingdom, and as the quietly-spoken, introspective and bitter detective Inspector Morse (1987 – 2000), with specials in 1995 – 1998 and 2000.
He won two BAFTA awards for Inspector Morse.
He subsequently played liberal barrister James Kavanagh in Kavanagh QC (1995 – 1999), with a special in 2001. Thaw also tried his hand at comedy with two sitcoms - Thick as Thieves (1974) and Home to Roost (1985 – 1990). His only screen projects not considered a popular success were the BBC series A Year in Provence and the LWT series Mitch, in which he played a journalist.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Thaw frequently appeared in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. He appeared in a number of films, including Cry Freedom, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and Chaplin for director Richard Attenborough.
Thaw also appeared in the TV adaptation of the Michelle Magorian book, Goodnight Mister Tom as the title character.
[edit] Personal Life
In 1964 Thaw married Sally Alexander, but they divorced four years later. He married actress Sheila Hancock in 1973 and remained with her until his death from oesophageal cancer in 2002, aged 60.
Thaw had two daughters: Abigail Thaw from his first marriage, and Joanna Thaw from his second. He also adopted Sheila Hancock's daughter from her first marriage, Melanie. Both Joanna and Melanie have entered the acting profession.
In her 2004 autobiography, The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw, Sheila Hancock revealed the extent of Thaw's alcoholism that had started in the late 1970s and caused problems in their marriage and the gaps in Thaw's career in the early 1980s and later 1990s. Thaw was eventually able to get his alcoholism under control a year before his death.
Thaw was awarded the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1994.
In September 2006, he was voted by the general public as number 3 in a poll of TV's Greatest Stars.
John Thaw had a noticeable peculiarity of gait, his right leg showing evidence of 'dorsiflexor paralysis' or ‘foot drop’, for which there have been several different explanations. Some even speculated that he had a wooden leg below the knee, or that he had contracted Poliomyelitis as a child. Several sources state that it resulted from an accident at the age of 15 when he tripped over a kerb and broke his foot whilst rushing to catch a bus to school.[1] However, in her biography Sheila Hancock says that John's grandfather had a withered leg and walked with a limp; John apparently copied him and also walked with a limp all his life and the later accident further exaggerated this.
[edit] Performance
[edit] Television series
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[edit] TV movie
[edit] TV specials
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[edit] Film
- 1962 Nil Carborundum
- 1962 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
- 1963 Five to One
- 1965 Dead Man's Chest
- 1968 The Bofors Gun
- 1970 Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition
- 1970 The Last Grenade
- 1971 The Abominable Dr Phibes
- 1972 Dr Phibes Rises Again
- 1976 The Sensible Action of Lieutenant Holst
- 1977 The Sweeney!
- 1978 The Sweeney II
- 1978 Dinner at the Sporting Club
- 1981 The Grass is Singing
- 1987 Asking for Trouble
- 1987 Business As Usual
- 1987 Cry Freedom
- 1992 Chaplin
[edit] Stage
- 1960 A Shred of Evidence
- 1961 The Fire Raisers
- 1962 Women Beware Women
- 1962 Semi-Detached (with Sir Laurence Olivier)
- 1969 So What About Love?
- 1970 Random Happenings in the Hebrides
- 1971 The Lady from the Sea
- 1973 Collaborators
- 1976 Absurd Person Singular
- 1978 Night and Day
- 1982 Sergeant Musgrave's Dance
- 1983 Twelfth Night
- 1983 The Time of Your Life
- 1983 Henry VIII
- 1984 Pygmalion
- 1988 All My Sons
- 1993 Absence of War
[edit] External links
- John Thaw at the Internet Movie Database
