James Booth

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James Booth

Born David Geeves
December 19, 1927(1927-12-19)
Croydon, Surrey, England
Died August 11, 2005 (aged 77)
Hadleigh, Essex, England
Years active 1958-2005
Spouse(s) Paula Delaney (1960-2005)

James Booth (19 December 1927-11 August 2005) was the stage name of David Geeves. He was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter. Though handsome enough to play leading roles, and versatile enough to play a wide variety of character parts, Booth naturally projected a shifty, wolfish, or unpredictable quality that led inevitably to villainous roles and comedy, usually with a cockney flavour.

He was born in Croydon, Surrey on 19 December 1927, the son of a probation officer. He was educated at Southend Grammar School, which he left aged 17 to join the army. He rose to the rank of captain. He was trained at RADA and he made his first professional appearance as a member of the Old Vic company, before joining Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in 1958. The Workshop's musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be became a hit and Booth, who played its most pungent character, looked poised for stardom. Producer Irving Allen signed Booth to an exclusive contract with Warwick Films. The sixties, and especially the early sixties, represented the most active period of Booth's movie career, with Zulu being the film for which he is best remembered. He will also be remembered for playing the part of Kenny Ames, a pornography baron living in enforced exile in Spain, in series 2 of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in 1985.

Though many observers expected Booth to become a mega-star, Booth's acting career stalled and nearly died. In interviews, Booth was surprisingly forthcoming about the reasons for his professional difficulties. These included his appearance in the flop Twang!!, his alcoholism, his unaggressive approach to selling himself, his lack of connections, the decaying state of the British film industry in the seventies, and his own failure to work hard because everything came so easily to him at first. Booth also turned down the lead role of Alfie.

When no one would offer Booth an acting job, he tried his hand at screenwriting and found a market for his services in Hollywood. From the mid-seventies to sometime in the nineties, Booth lived in southern California and worked primarily as a screenwriter, with occasional film or TV appearances.

In late life Booth moved back to England. He never retired.

He married Paula Delaney in 1960 and they had two sons and two daughters. He died in Hadleigh, Essex on 11 August 2005 aged 77.

Contents

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Selected stage work

[edit] Further reading

  • Noble, Peter. British Film and Television Yearbook: 1960/61. British and American Film Press, 1961.
  • Walker, John. The Once and Future Film: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. London: Methuen, 1985.

[edit] External links

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