JOHN THAW

'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 grew up in the Burnage area of the city. 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.

Contents

Career

Personal life

Performance

Television series

TV movie

TV specials

Film

Stage

External links

Career

On leaving RADA, Thaw was awarded a contract with the Liverpool Playhouse. His first film role was a big part in the 1962 adaptation of ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'' starring Tom Courtenay; He appeared in several episodes of the seminal police series ''Z Cars'' in 1963-64 as a detective constable with a drink problem. Then between 1964-66 he appeared as the central role of hard-nosed military policeman Sgt John Mann in two series of the ITV series ''Redcap''. 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, as well as appearing in TV plays such as ''The Talking Head'' and episodes of series such as ''Budgie'', where he played against type (opposite Adam Faith ) as an effeminate failed playwright with a full beard and a Welsh accent!
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 but well educated 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 working class Lancastrian 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.

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 in 2002.
Thaw had two daughters: Abigail Thaw from his first marriage, and Joanna Thaw from his second. He also adopted Sheila Hancock's daughter Melanie from her first marriage.
Abigail has also entered the acting profession.
In her 2004 autobiography, '', Hancock, who also starred alongside him in an episode of Kavanagh QC, 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. A car accident in his early twenties exacerbated the problem.

Performance

Television series ★ 1965-66 ''Redcap'' ★ 1966-67 "Inheritence" ★ 1974 ''Thick As Thieves'' ★ 1974-78 ''The Sweeney'' ★ 1983 ''Mitch'' ★ 1985-89 ''Home to Roost'' ★ 1987-2000 ''Inspector Morse'' ★ 1991 ''Stanley and the Women'' ★ 1992 ''A Year in Provence'' ★ 1995-2001 ''Kavanagh QC'' ★ 2000 ''Monsignor Renard''

TV movie ★ 1981 ''Rake's Venture'' ★ 1987 ''The Sign of Four'' ★ 1998 ''Goodnight Mister Tom'' TV specials ★ 1974 ''Regan'' ★ 1984 ''The Life and Death of King John'' ★ 1992 ''Bomber Harris'' ★ 1993 ''The Mystery of Morse'' ★ 1994 ''The Absence of War''

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 ''Sweeney!''

★ 1978 ''Sweeney 2''

★ 1978 ''Dinner at the Sporting Club''

★ 1981 ''The Grass is Singing''

★ 1987 ''Asking for Trouble''

★ 1987 ''Business As Usual''

★ 1987 ''Cry Freedom''

★ 1992 ''Chaplin''

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'' by David Hare

External links

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