James Beck

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This article is about the actor. For other people of the same name, see James Beck (disambiguation).

James Beck
as Private Joe Walker in Dad's Army, (The Honourable Man) 1973 just over a week before his collapse.
Born	Stanley James Carroll Beck (1929-02-21)21 February 1929 Islington, London, England ^[1]
Died	6 August 1973(1973-08-06) (aged 44) Roehampton, Wandsworth, London, England ^[2]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1961–73
Spouse(s)	Kay Beck (?–1973) (his death)

Stanley James Carroll Beck (21 February 1929 – 6 August 1973) was an English actor best remembered for his role as Private Joe Walker, the cockney spiv in the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army.

Early life

James Beck was born in Islington, North London and attended Popham Road Primary School. His childhood was hard, with his father frequently unemployed and his mother making artificial flowers to provide a small income.

After attending art college and doing his national service in the army, Beck took up acting. His early roles included Charlie Bell in an episode of Dr. Finlay's Casebook (Conduct Unbecoming - 1962), and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 1963, for which he gained positive reviews. Moving to London, he concentrated on television, and was as a policeman in an episode of Coronation Street involving a train crash. He also appeared in an uncredited policeman in Gideon's Way (1965), and was regularly seen in TV drama, with one-off roles in series such as The Troubleshooters (1965, 1967, 1970) and the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series with Peter Cushing in the lead ("The Blue Carbuncle", 1968).

In 1968 he was offered the role of Private Walker in Dad's Army, originally written by Jimmy Perry for himself. Perry approved of the casting of Beck: "He had the right mix of cheekiness and charm. He gave the role a bit of oomph."^[3] While popular, Beck yearned for the challenge of other roles.

Always in demand, he continued to work on TV programmes including A Family at War (1970) and Romany Jones (1972-73), in which he played the lead character of Bert Jones. He also recorded a pilot for an uncommissioned series called Bunclarke With an E (1973),^[3] to be based on scripts originally written for Hancock's Half Hour scripts, performing with Arthur Lowe.

Death

By 1973, Beck had already recorded five series of Dad's Army and was working on the sixth, besides working on the radio series of the show. Location filming for series six was completed when Beck suddenly fell ill whilst opening a school fete^[3] in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind. He returned home and within an hour was rushed to Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton^[4] suffering from pancreatitis. He died there three weeks later at age 44 and was cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery, where a tree was planted in his memory, with a marker bearing his name.

His death was a great shock to his fellow cast members, as well as to Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Perry has said heavy drinking was common in show business at the time, and that he paid little attention to Beck's habit until "I saw Jimmy’s legs and they were purple. It was the last episode he appeared in before he died.".^[3]

In series six, during the episode "Things that Go Bump in the Night", Walker is only present in the location scenes in the second half of the episode, as these were filmed weeks earlier than the studio scenes. In the following episode, "The Recruit" (the series' finale) Mainwaring reads Walker's note apologising for his absence, as he has gone "up the Smoke" (to London) to conduct one of his deals. This was the last time the character was mentioned. In the radio adaptations of Dad's Army, Graham Stark stood in until Larry Martyn portrayed Walker for subsequent shows. In 1976 John Bardon played Walker in the stage production.

Television roles

Year	Title	Role
1968	The Blue Carbuncle	James Ryder
1968–1973	Dad's Army	Private Joe Walker
1969	Two In Clover	Dr. Molineux
1972–1973	Romany Jones	Bert Jones

Filmography

Carry on Loving (1970) (Scenes Deleted from final film)
Groupie Girl (1970)
Dad's Army (1971)
A Couple of Beauties (1971)
Love Thy Neighbour (1973)

References

↑ GRO Register of Births: MAR 1929 1b 407 ISLINGTON - Stanley J. C. Beck, mmn = Beck
↑ GRO Register of Deaths: SEP 1973 5E 1087 WANDSWORTH - Stanley James C. Beck, DoB = 21 Feb 1929
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Neil Clark "James Beck: the Dad’s Army star cut off in his prime", telegraph.co.uk, 6 August 2013
↑ The Times, death notice and obituary, 7 August 1973

External links

James Beck at the Internet Movie Database
James Beck at Find a Grave

Dad's Army

Characters

Television
episodes

Series 1	"The Man and the Hour" "Command Decision" "The Enemy Within the Gates" "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" "Shooting Pains"

Series 2	"Operation Kilt" "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker" "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret" "A Stripe for Frazer" "Under Fire"

Series 3	"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" "Battle School" "The Lion Has Phones" "The Bullet is Not for Firing" "Something Nasty in the Vault" "Room at the Bottom" "Big Guns" "The Day the Balloon Went Up" "War Dance" "Menace from the Deep" "Branded" "Man Hunt" "No Spring for Frazer" "Sons of the Sea"

Series 4	"The Big Parade" "Don't Forget the Diver" "Boots, Boots, Boots" "Sgt – Save My Boy!" "Don't Fence Me In" "Absent Friends" "Put That Light Out!" "The Two and a Half Feathers" "Mum's Army" "The Test" "A. Wilson (Manager)?" "Uninvited Guests" "Fallen Idol"

Series 5	"Asleep in the Deep" "Keep Young and Beautiful" "A Soldier's Farewell" "Getting the Bird" "The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones" "If the Cap Fits..." "The King was in his Counting House" "All is Safely Gathered In" "When Did You Last See Your Money?" "Brain Versus Brawn" "A Brush with the Law" "Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel" "Time on My Hands"

Series 6	"The Deadly Attachment" "My British Buddy" "The Royal Train" "We Know Our Onions" "The Honourable Man" "Things that Go Bump in the Night" "The Recruit"

Series 7	"Everybody's Trucking" "A Man of Action" "Gorilla Warfare" "The Godiva Affair" "The Captain's Car" "Turkey Dinner"

Series 8	"Ring Dem Bells" "When You've Got to Go" "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" "Come In, Your Time Is Up" "High Finance" "The Face on the Poster"

Series 9	"Wake Up Walmington" "The Making of Private Pike" "Knights of Madness" "The Miser's Hoard" "Number Engaged" "Never Too Old"

Specials	"Untitled Sketch" "Broadcast to the Empire" "Battle of the Giants!" "My Brother and I" "The Love of Three Oranges"

Spin-offs

Persondata
Name	Beck, James
Alternative names	Beck, Stanley James C.
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	1929-02-21
Place of birth	Islington, London
Date of death	1973-08-06
Place of death	Wandsworth, London

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