John Carson (actor)
Encyclopedia
John Carson is a British
actor noted for his appearances in film and television.
Making his film debut in 1947, he carved out a career appearing in low budget British movies such as Seven Keys
(1961); Smokescreen
(1964); and Master Spy (1964). His saturnine looks and sinister voice (not unlike James Mason
) led to him starring in a number of horror films including The Night Caller
(1965); Plague of the Zombies (1965); The Man Who Haunted Himself
(1970); Taste the Blood of Dracula
(1970); and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1972).
Beside his appearances in horror films he is also known for his many villainous turns in adventure series of the sixties, such as The Avengers
; The Saint
; Adam Adamant Lives!
; The Baron
; Man in a Suitcase
; The Champions
; and Department S
.
His long and varied list of television credits include The Adventures of Robin Hood
; Emergency - Ward 10; Ivanhoe
; William Tell
; Armchair Theatre
; Maigret
; Out of the Unknown
; Emma
(as Mr. Knightley); Dixon of Dock Green
; Crown Court
; The New Avengers; Secret Army
; The Professionals
; Tales of the Unexpected
; Hammer House of Horror
; Doctor Who
; and Poirot. He was also famously the voice-over on the Sunsilk TV commercial that featured the John Barry music "The girl with the sun in her hair".
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 noted for his appearances in film and television.
Making his film debut in 1947, he carved out a career appearing in low budget British movies such as Seven Keys
Seven Keys (film)
Seven Keys is a 1961 British crime thriller directed by Pat Jackson and starring Alan Dobie.-Plot:Alan Dobie plays a convict who is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner. After discovering that the deceased was an embezzler who stole £20,000 that was never recovered; he sets out to...
(1961); Smokescreen
Smokescreen (film)
Smokescreen is a 1964 British crime thriller, written and directed by Jim O'Connolly, and starring Peter Vaughan.-Cast:* Peter Vaughan as Roper* John Carson as Trevor Bayliss* Yvonne Romain as Janet Dexter* Gerald Flood as Graham Turner...
(1964); and Master Spy (1964). His saturnine looks and sinister voice (not unlike James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
) led to him starring in a number of horror films including The Night Caller
The Night Caller
The Night Caller is a 1998 thriller film starring Shanna Reed and Tracy Nelson about a crazed woman who becomes obsessed with a radio talk-show personality.It was directed by Robert Malenfant...
(1965); Plague of the Zombies (1965); The Man Who Haunted Himself
The Man Who Haunted Himself
The Man Who Haunted Himself is a 1970 British psychological thriller film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Roger Moore. It was based on the novel The Strange Case of Mr Pelham by Anthony Armstrong....
(1970); Taste the Blood of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1970. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and was directed by Peter Sasdy...
(1970); and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1972).
Beside his appearances in horror films he is also known for his many villainous turns in adventure series of the sixties, such as The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
; The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
; Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
; The Baron
The Baron
The Baron is a British television series, made in 1965/66 based on the book series by John Creasey, written under the pseudonym Anthony Morton, and produced by ITC Entertainment. It was the first ITC show without marionettes to be produced entirely in colour...
; Man in a Suitcase
Man in a Suitcase
Man in a Suitcase is a 1967 television series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.-Origins and overview:Man in a Suitcase was effectively a replacement for Danger Man, whose production had been curtailed when its star Patrick McGoohan had decided to create his own series, The Prisoner...
; The Champions
The Champions
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company...
; and Department S
Department S
Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It starred Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King , Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst...
.
His long and varied list of television credits include The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a popular British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show aired weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV in London in the...
; Emergency - Ward 10; Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
; William Tell
William Tell
William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland. His legend is recorded in a late 15th century Swiss chronicle....
; Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
; Maigret
Maigret
Jules Maigret, Maigret to most people, including his wife, is a fictional police detective, actually a commissaire or commissioner of the Paris "Brigade Criminelle" , created by writer Georges Simenon.Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories about Maigret were published between 1931 and...
; Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
; Emma
Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among...
(as Mr. Knightley); Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
; Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
; The New Avengers; Secret Army
Secret Army (TV series)
Secret Army is a television drama series made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT created by Gerard Glaister. The series chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the...
; The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
; Tales of the Unexpected
Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)
Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. Filming began in 1978.The series was an anthology of different tales...
; Hammer House of Horror
Hammer House of Horror
In 1980, Hammer Films created a series for British television, the Hammer House of Horror, which ran for 13 episodes with 51 minutes per episode...
; 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...
; and Poirot. He was also famously the voice-over on the Sunsilk TV commercial that featured the John Barry music "The girl with the sun in her hair".
Selected filmography
- Conspiracy in Teheran (1946)
- Quentin DurwardThe Adventures of Quentin DurwardThe Adventures of Quentin Durward, known also as Quentin Durward, is a 1955 historical film released by MGM. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman...
(1955) - Ramsbottom Rides AgainRamsbottom Rides AgainRamsbottom Rides Again is a 1955 British western comedy film starring Arthur Askey as the title hero Bill Ramsbottom, with Sid James, pop singer Frankie Vaughan and Campbell Singer in supporting roles....
(1956) - Intent to KillIntent to KillIntent to Kill is a 1958 British thriller film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Richard Todd, Betsy Drake and Herbert Lom. The film was based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Brian Moore...
(1958) - The Lady Is a SquareThe Lady Is a SquareThe Lady Is a Square is a 1959 British comedy musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and featuring Anna Neagle, Frankie Vaughan and Janette Scott. An aspiring singer goes to work as a butler in the house of a classical music patron...
(1959) - Seven KeysSeven Keys (film)Seven Keys is a 1961 British crime thriller directed by Pat Jackson and starring Alan Dobie.-Plot:Alan Dobie plays a convict who is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner. After discovering that the deceased was an embezzler who stole £20,000 that was never recovered; he sets out to...
(1961) - Guns of DarknessGuns of DarknessGuns of Darkness is a 1962 British drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring David Niven, Leslie Caron and James Robertson Justice...
(1962) - SmokescreenSmokescreen (film)Smokescreen is a 1964 British crime thriller, written and directed by Jim O'Connolly, and starring Peter Vaughan.-Cast:* Peter Vaughan as Roper* John Carson as Trevor Bayliss* Yvonne Romain as Janet Dexter* Gerald Flood as Graham Turner...
(1964) - Master SpyMaster SpyMaster Spy is a 1964 British spy film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Stephen Murray, June Thorburn and Alan Wheatley.-Partial cast:* Stephen Murray as Boris Turganev* June Thorburn as Leila* Alan Wheatley as Paul Skelton...
(1964) - The Night CallerThe Night CallerThe Night Caller is a 1998 thriller film starring Shanna Reed and Tracy Nelson about a crazed woman who becomes obsessed with a radio talk-show personality.It was directed by Robert Malenfant...
(1965) - The Plague of the ZombiesThe Plague of the ZombiesThe Plague of the Zombies Hammer Horror film directed by John Gilling. It stars André Morell, John Carson, Jacqueline Pearce, Brook Williams and Michael Ripper...
(1966) - Thunderbird 6Thunderbird 6Thunderbird 6 is a 1968 British science-fiction and adventure film written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, directed by David Lane and produced by Century 21 Cinema...
(1968) - The Man Who Haunted HimselfThe Man Who Haunted HimselfThe Man Who Haunted Himself is a 1970 British psychological thriller film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Roger Moore. It was based on the novel The Strange Case of Mr Pelham by Anthony Armstrong....
(1970) - Taste the Blood of DraculaTaste the Blood of DraculaTaste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1970. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and was directed by Peter Sasdy...
(1970) - Male Bait (1971)
- Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974)
- City of BloodCity of BloodCity of Blood is a 1983 South African thriller film directed by Darrell Roodt and starring Joe Stewardson, Ian Yule, Ken Gampu.-Plot:A coroner becomes involved with a prostitute, while investigating a series of murders.-Cast:...
(1983) - An African Dream (1987)
- Shaka Zulu (1987)
- Tenth of a Second (1987)
- Survivor (1987)
- Coastwatcher (1989)
- Schweitzer (1990)
- My Daughter's Keeper (1991)
- The Sheltering DesertThe Sheltering DesertThe Sheltering Desert is a 1990 drama film directed by Regardt van den Bergh and starring Jason Connery, Rupert Graves and Joss Ackland. The film was a co-production between South Africa, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is listed in the movie list of the British production...
(1992) - Woman of DesireWoman of Desire-Plot:Two men – Jack Lynch and Jonathan Ashby – are confronted by a beautiful woman, Christina Ford -Starring:*Bo Derek as Christina Ford*Robert Mitchum as Walter J. Hill*Jeff Fahey as Jack Lynch...
(1993) - I Dreamed of AfricaI Dreamed of AfricaI Dreamed of Africa is a 2000 film starring Kim Basinger, Vincent Perez, Eve Marie Saint, Garrett Strommen, Liam Aiken and Daniel Craig. It is based on the autobiographical novel I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann, an Italian writer who moved to Kenya and became involved in conservation work...
(2000) - Build (2004)
- The DealThe Deal (2008 film)The Deal is a 2008 American satirical comedy film directed by Steven Schachter. The screenplay by Schachter and William H. Macy is based on the 1991 novel of the same title by Peter Lefcourt. Macy and Meg Ryan co-star....
(2008) - DoomsdayDoomsday (film)Doomsday is a 2008 British science fiction film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film takes place in the future. Scotland has been quarantined because of a deadly virus. When the virus is found in London, political leaders send a team led by Major Eden Sinclair to Scotland to find a...
(2008)