Jack Watling
Encyclopedia
Jack Watling was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Early life

Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936. He made his first film appearances (all uncredited) in Sixty Glorious Years
Sixty Glorious Years
Sixty Glorious Years is a 1938 British film directed by Herbert Wilcox. The film is a sequel to the 1937 film Victoria the Great.The film is also known as Queen of Destiny in the US.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria...

, Housemaster (both 1938) and Goodbye, Mr Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

(1939).

Theatre

In 1941, he played Bill Hopkins in Once a Crook in his West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 debut. Later that same year, he played George Perrey in Cottage to Let. He starred as Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham in the original 1942 production of Terence Rattigan
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background...

's Flare Path
Flare Path (play)
-1942–43 Broadway production:Flare Path had a short run on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre from December 1942 to January 1943. Alec Guinness played Teddy and Nancy Kelly played Patricia. The play was Guinness's Broadway debut, and he was granted leave from the Royal Navy in order to take the role...

.

Film

He had a long career in low-key British films, originally in easy-going boyish roles. Early appearances were in We Dive at Dawn
We Dive at Dawn
We Dive at Dawn is a 1943 war film directed by Anthony Asquith, starring John Mills and Eric Portman as Royal Navy submariners in the Second World War. It was written by Val Valentine and J. B. Williams with uncredited assistance from Frank Launder...

(1943), The Way Ahead
The Way Ahead
The Way Ahead is a British Second World War drama released in 1944. It stars David Niven and Stanley Holloway and follows a group of civilians who are conscripted into the British Army to fight in North Africa. In the U.S., an edited version was released as The Immortal Battalion.The film was...

(1944), The Winslow Boy
The Winslow Boy (1948 film)
The Winslow Boy is a 1948 film adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy. It was made by De Grunwald Productions and distributed by the British Lion Film Corporation. It was directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Anatole de Grunwald with Teddy Baird as associate producer. The...

(1948) and Meet Mr. Lucifer
Meet Mr. Lucifer
Meet Mr. Lucifer is a black and white British comedy satire film released in 1953 starring Stanley Holloway. Filmed at Ealing Studios, London, The film is based on the play Beggar My Neighbour by Arnold Ridley -Plot:When Mr Pedelty leaves his firm, he is given a...

(1953). In 1955 he appeared in Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

' Mr. Arkadin
Mr. Arkadin
Mr. Arkadin is a French-Spanish-Swiss coproduction film, written and directed by Orson Welles and shot in several Spanish locations, including Segovia, Valladolid and Madrid.Its history is convoluted...

.

In 1958 he played Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall
Joseph Boxhall
Commander Joseph Groves Boxhall RD RNR was the Fourth Officer on the , and later served as a naval officer in World War I.-Early life:...

 in the critically acclaimed docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....

 A Night To Remember. In 1960 he appeared in the film Sink the Bismarck
Sink the Bismarck
"Sink the Bismark" is a song, written by country music singer Johnny Horton and Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, during World War II. Horton released this song in 1960, where it reached #3 on the charts...

.

Television

His reputation as an effective and reliable television actor took root in the early 1960s. Between 1964-69 he was Don Henderson, the troubled conscience to tough businessman John Wilder (Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark , was a British, stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England...

) in The Plane Makers
The Plane Makers/The Power Game
The Plane Makers is a British television series made by ATV for ITV between 1963 and 1965.The series focused on the power struggles between the trades union and the management on the shop floor of an aircraft factory, Scott Furlong Ltd, as well as the political in-fighting between the management...

and its sequel The Power Game
The Plane Makers/The Power Game
The Plane Makers is a British television series made by ATV for ITV between 1963 and 1965.The series focused on the power struggles between the trades union and the management on the shop floor of an aircraft factory, Scott Furlong Ltd, as well as the political in-fighting between the management...

. Watling also appeared as Doc Saxon in the 1970s series Pathfinders
Pathfinders (TV series)
Pathfinders is a 1970s ITV drama set in World War 2 and follows the story of the fictitious Royal Air Force 192 Pathfinder squadron. The Pathfinders were specialised RAF squadrons that marked targets for the RAF's heavy bombers....

. He played Professor Travers in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 science-fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

in the serials The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....

(1967) and The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...

(1968), and reprised the role decades later in the independent Doctor Who spin-off video Downtime
Downtime (Doctor Who)
Downtime is a direct-to-video spin-off of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was released direct-to-video and produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures...

(1995).

His final roles were all on television, in series such as Bergerac
Bergerac (TV series)
Bergerac was a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and screened on BBC1, it starred John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" Bergerac was a British television show...

and Heartbeat.

Personal life

Watling was married to former actress Patricia Hicks. He was the father of actors Dilys Watling
Dilys Watling
Dilys Watling is an English actress, possibly best known for appearing on British television ....

, Deborah Watling
Deborah Watling
Deborah Watling is a British actress best known for her role as Victoria Waterfield, a companion of the Second Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who....

 (who played the Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....

's companion Victoria Waterfield
Victoria Waterfield
Victoria Waterfield is a fictional character played by Deborah Watling in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A native of Victorian England, she was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1967 to 1968.-Character history:Victoria first...

) and Giles Watling
Giles Watling
Giles Watling is an English actor.Giles is the son of actor Jack Watling and actress Patricia Watling, and the brother of actresses Dilys Watling and Deborah Watling...

, and of sculptor Nicky Matthews.

Selected filmography

  • Once a Sinner
    Once a Sinner
    Once a Sinner is a 1950 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert.-Cast:* Patricia Kirkwood as Irene James* Jack Watling as John Ross* Joy Shelton as Vera Lamb* Sydney Tafler as Jimmy Smart* Thora Hird as Mrs. James...

    (1950)
  • Father's Doing Fine
    Father's Doing Fine
    Father's Doing Fine is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Henry Cass and starring Richard Attenborough, Heather Thatcher, Noel Purcell and Sid James. It was based on the 1950 play Little Lambs Eat Ivy by Noel Langley.-Cast:...

    (1952)
  • Stryker of the Yard
    Stryker of the Yard
    Stryker of the Yard is a 1953 British crime film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Clifford Evans, Susan Stephen, Jack Watling and Eliot Makeham....

    (1953)
  • Dangerous Cargo
    Dangerous Cargo
    Dangerous Cargo is a 1954 British crime film directed by John Harlow starring Jack Watling, Susan Stephen, Richard Pearson, Terence Alexander and John Le Mesurier.British crime reporter Percy Hoskins provided the story.-Cast:...

    (1954)
  • Trouble in the Glen
    Trouble in the Glen
    Trouble in the Glen is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Margaret Lockwood, Orson Welles and Forrest Tucker...

    (1954)
  • The Golden Link
    The Golden Link
    The Golden Link is a 1954 British crime film directed by Charles Saunders and starring André Morell, Thea Gregory and Patrick Holt. Police try to solve a case involving a woman who fell to her death from the top of a block of high-rise flats.-Cast:...

    (1954)
  • A Time to Kill
    A Time to Kill (1955 film)
    A Time to Kill is a 1955 British crime film starring Jack Watling, Rona Anderson, John Horsley and John Le Mesurier.-Cast:* Jack Watling as Dennis Willows* Rona Anderson as Sallie Harbord* John Horsley as Peter Hastings...

    (1955)
  • Reach for the Sky (1956)
  • The Birthday Present
    The Birthday Present
    The Birthday Present is a 1957 British drama film directed by Pat Jackson. It stars Tony Britton, a top toy salesmen returning from a business trip to Germany with a watch hidden inside a toy, intended as a birthday present for his wife Sylvia Syms. He is caught by customs, arrested, and sentenced...

    (1957)
  • The Admirable Crichton
    The Admirable Crichton (film)
    The Admirable Crichton is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Sally Ann Howes and Cecil Parker. The film was based on J. M...

    (1957)
  • That Woman Opposite
    That Woman Opposite
    That Woman Opposite is a 1957 British crime drama, directed by Compton Bennett and starring Phyllis Kirk, Dan O'Herlihy and William Franklyn...

    (1957)
  • Gideon's Day
    Gideon's Day (film)
    Gideon's Day is a 1958 British crime film directed by John Ford and starring Jack Hawkins, Dianne Foster and Cyril Cusack. An adaptation of John Creasey's novel of the same name it is the first film to feature the character George Gideon of Scotland Yard, here played by Jack Hawkins. A police...

    (1958)
  • A Night To Remember (1958)
  • Sink the Bismarck
    Sink the Bismarck
    "Sink the Bismark" is a song, written by country music singer Johnny Horton and Tillman Franks, based on the pursuit and eventual sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941, during World War II. Horton released this song in 1960, where it reached #3 on the charts...

    (1960)
  • Nearly a Nasty Accident
    Nearly a Nasty Accident
    Nearly a Nasty Accident is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton and Eric Barker.-Cast:* Jimmy Edwards as Group Captain Kingsley* Kenneth Connor as AC 2 Alexander Wood...

    (1961)
  • Mary Had a Little...
    Mary Had a Little...
    Mary Had a Little... is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Agnès Laurent, Hazel Court and Jack Watling. It takes its title from the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, and is sometimes credited as Britain's first sex comedy....

    (1961)
  • Nothing Barred
    Nothing Barred
    Nothing Barred is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Leo Franklyn and Naunton Wayne.-Main cast:* Brian Rix - Wilfred Sapling* Leo Franklyn - Barger* Naunton Wayne - Lord Whitebait* Charles Heslop - Spankworth...

    (1961)
  • Father, Dear Father
    Father, Dear Father (film)
    Father, Dear Father is a 1973 film based on the popular Thames Television sitcom of the same name Father, Dear Father and directed by William G...

    (1973)

External links

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