Griffith Jones (actor)
Griffith Jones | |
---|---|
Born | Harold Jones 19 November 1909 London, England |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. London, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1932-1999 |
Griffith Jones (born Harold Jones; 19 November 1909 – 30 January 2007) was an English film, stage and television actor.
Contents
Early life
Born in London, on 19 November 1909, Jones was the son of a Welsh-speaking dairy owner. In 1930 Jones was studying law at University College London when Kenneth Barnes, the Principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, noticed him in a student performance and offered him a career as an actor. His first professional engagement was in Carpet Slippers at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, in 1930, while still at RADA. He won the annual RADA Gold Medal in 1932.[citation needed]
Career
His first West End production was Vile Bodies at the Vaudeville and Richard of Bordeaux (in which he appeared with John Gielgud) at the Noël Coward Theatre. The following year he appeared with Laurence Olivier in The Rats of Norway. In 1932 he made his film debut, in The Faithful Heart, and he continued to appear in British films throughout the 1930s. He made a success as "Caryl Sanger" with Elizabeth Bergner in the 1935 Escape Me Never.[citation needed]
In 1940 he joined the British Army, but spent most of the Second World War in a touring concert party, returning to the West End in 1945 to star in Lady Windermere's Fan.[citation needed]
Royal Shakespeare Company
He was a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in 50 productions with the company between 1975 and 1999.[1]
His first season was in director Buzz Goodbody's noted opening year at The Other Place theatre, playing the Ghost to Ben Kingsley's Hamlet and Sir William Stanley in Perkin Warbeck. His later roles included Duncan, opposite Ian McKellen, in Macbeth, Antigonus in The Winter's Tale, Aegeon in A Comedy of Errors, Gower in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Comedy of Errors, Chebutiken and Ferrapont in separate productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters and Tim Linkinwater and Fluggers in Nicholas Nickleby.
His last role, at the age of 90, was Tubal in The Merchant of Venice.
Death
Jones died at his home in London, England, on 30 January 2007.
Selected filmography
- Money Talks (1933)
- The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
- First a Girl (1935)
- Escape Me Never (1935)
- The Wife of General Ling (1937)
- Return of a Stranger (1937)
- The Mill on the Floss (1937)
- The Four Just Men (1939)
- Young Man's Fancy (1939)
- Atlantic Ferry (1941)
- Uncensored (1942)
- This Was Paris (1942)
- Henry V (1944)
- The Rake's Progress (1945)
- The Wicked Lady (1945)
- They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
- Miranda (1948)
- Once Upon a Dream (1949)
- Honeymoon Deferred (1950)
- The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954)
- Star of My Night (1954)
- Kill Her Gently (1957)
- Not Wanted on Voyage (1957)
- Face in the Night (1957)
- Account Rendered (1957)
- The Crowning Touch (1959)
- Strangler's Web (1965)
- Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher (1968)
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Obituary in The Independent
- Obituary in The Times
- Obituary in The Guardian
- Performances with the RSC
External links
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- Articles with hCards
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2013
- 1909 births
- 2007 deaths
- English male film actors
- English male stage actors
- English male television actors
- Male actors from London
- Royal Shakespeare Company members
- Alumni of University College London
- Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
- 20th-century English male actors