John Le Mesurier
| John Le Mesurier | |
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| Born | John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley 5 April 1912 Bedford, Bedfordshire, England |
| Died | 15 November 1983 (aged 71) Ramsgate, Kent, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1938–83 |
| Spouse | June Melville (1939–47) (divorced) Hattie Jacques (1949–65) (divorced) Joan Malin (1966–83) (his death) |
John Le Mesurier (born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley, 5 April 1912 – 15 November 1983) was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.
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[edit] Career
Le Mesurier was born at No. 35 Chaucer Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire in 1912,[1] the son of a solicitor, Charles Elton Halliley and Amy Michelle Le Mesurier, whose family was from Alderney in the Channel Islands. He was brought up in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset before he began to study acting at the age of 20, using his mother's maiden name (common in the Channel Islands) Le Mesurier (pronounced 'Le Measurer') as his stage name.
Le Mesurier was at Drama School with Alec Guinness, and later worked with him in a production of Hamlet, directed by John Gielgud, in which the young Le Mesurier understudied Anthony Quayle as Guildenstern.[2]
He was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1941 and served in the UK and British India during the Second World War, reaching the rank of captain.
Le Mesurier appeared in over 100 films, including Private's Progress (1956), Brothers in Law (1957), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), I'm All Right Jack (1959), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Doctor in Love (1960), The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960), The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963), The Pink Panther (1963), Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), The Wrong Box (1966), The Italian Job (1969), and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972). In Ben-Hur (1959) he has an uncredited cameo role as a doctor. He also appeared in most of Tony Hancock's films and many episodes of his television series. His final film was with Peter Sellers in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu in 1980. In most of his later performances, he presented an impression of good-natured vagueness, which acquaintances claim was close to his true personality.
Le Mesurier's most popular TV (and radio) role was as the upper-class Sergeant Arthur Wilson in Dad's Army from 1968 to 1977. He accepted that role after finding out Clive Dunn, with whom he had worked in the Players' Theatre, would be playing the part of Corporal Jones. Before that, he had starred in George and the Dragon, alongside Sid James and Peggy Mount and also in a one-off pilot show entitled "Marry The Girls". He gave a memorable performance in Dennis Potter's play Traitor (1971) which won him a Society of Film and Television Arts "Best Television Actor" award. Following the success of Dad's Army, Le Mesurier recorded several wartime songs as singles: "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" / "Hometown" (the latter with Arthur Lowe) on the Warner label in 1975 and "There Ain't Much Change from a Pound These Days" / "After All These Years" with Clive Dunn on KA Records in 1982.
Along with his other work, Le Mesurier was a regular stage performer throughout his career, appearing in works by Noël Coward and Terence Rattigan. His last stage appearance was a tour of Coward's Hay Fever in 1980/81.[3]
On 13 June 1965 he appeared in a special one off performance Homage to T. S. Eliot, alongside Lord Olivier, Sir Paul Scofield, Peter O'Toole and Ian Richardson.[4]
For nearly 20 years until his death in 1983, he provided the original voice for the animated TV commercial character "Flour Grader Fred", a little man in a bowler hat who advertised Homepride Flour and related products. (The character continues, voiced by other actors.) In 1975, Le Mesurier narrated Bod, an animated children's programme from the BBC. In the series, a boy named Bod, his aunt Flo, and their friends have rather strange adventures (like falling into a manhole and finding a giant strawberry). In 1971 he appeared in Doctor at Large as the head of a health farm. He portrayed Jacob Marley in a BBC television adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which starred Sir Michael Hordern as Scrooge.
On radio, he reprised the role of Arthur Wilson in It Sticks Out Half a Mile, and played The Wise Old Bird in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1980) and Bilbo Baggins in the BBC's 1981 radio version of The Lord of the Rings.
Elsewhere, Le Mesurier played a short but significant character role in Granada TV's adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (1981) and guest starred in episodes of the British comedy television series The Goodies, Doctor in the House and an early episode of Hi-de-Hi!.
[edit] Personal life
Le Mesurier was married three times:-
- Actress June Melville (1939–1947)
- Actress Hattie Jacques (1949–1965);[5] two sons Robin (born 23 March 1953) and Kim (born 12 October 1956)[6]
- Actress Joan Malin (1966–1983)[7]
When Jacques left him for a younger man, Le Mesurier allowed the press to give him the blame for the break-up in order to save Jacques' public image. His close friendship with the comedian Tony Hancock was seriously tested early in his third marriage, when his wife Joan left him for Hancock, only to return a year later.
In private life, the actor was a heavy drinker, often seen with a drink in his hand but never noticeably drunk. Jacques claimed that his legendary calculated vagueness was the result of his "reliance on extra strong cigarettes".[8] Towards the end of Dad's Army, on medical advice he gave up alcohol but became seriously ill, and lost a great deal of weight. Friends relate that when he returned to drinking he had seven more years of life and regained his joie de vivre. His last words before slipping into a coma were reportedly, "It's all been rather lovely."[9]
He died at Ramsgate from a stomach haemorrhage, (caused by cirrhosis) on 15 November 1983, aged 71.[10] He is buried in the churchyard of the Church of St. George the Martyr, Church Hill, Ramsgate. His self-penned death notice in The Times stated that he had "conked out" and that he "sadly misses family and friends".
[edit] Portrayals
Le Mesurier's marriages have been the subject of two BBC Four biographical films - the 2008 Hancock and Joan on Joan's affair with Tony Hancock (with Le Mesurier played by Alex Jennings) and the 2011 Hattie on Hattie's affair with John Schofield (with Le Mesurier played by Robert Bathurst).
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Discography
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[edit] References
- ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1912 3b 519 BEDFORD - Halliley, John E Le M, mmn = Le Mesurier
- ^ A Jobbing Actor by John le Mesurier, Sphere Books 1985, p24
- ^ Do You Think That's Wise: The Life of John Le Mesurier by Graham McCann, Aurum, 2010, p 307
- ^ [1]
- ^ GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1949 5c 2328 KENSINGTON - John E. Le M. Halliley = Josephine E. Jacques
- ^ Do You Think That's Wise?: Biography of John Le Mesurier by Graham McCann, Aurum, 2010 p 123
- ^ Do You Think That's Wise?: Biography of John Le Mesurier by Graham McCann, Aurum, 2010 p 180
- ^ "Daily Telegraph - 18 October 2007". The Daily Telegraph (London). 18 October 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3668600/Carry-on-Hattie-Jacques.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Do You Think That's Wise: The Life of John Le Mesurier by Graham McCann, Aurum, 2010, p.298. He then held her hand tightly and added, It's all been rather lovely. He said no more..
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: DEC 1983 16 1890 THANET - John Le Mesurier, DoB = 5 April 1912
[edit] Source
- A Jobbing Actor, his autobiography (published posthumously in 1984)
[edit] External links
- John Le Mesurier at the Internet Movie Database
- John Le Mesurier at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- John Le Mesurier biography from the Tony Hancock web site.
- Audio of John Le Mesurier reading Bible stories for children at Storynory
- John Le Mesurier in the audience at a Bill Evans concert
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