 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "John Sharp" actor – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
John Sharp | |
|---|---|
_playing_Percy_Spendilow_in_the_episode_%2522A_Clear_Conscience%2522_in_the_series_%2522The_Onedin_Line%2522.png) John Sharp, playing Percy Spendilow in the seriesThe Onedin Line. | |
| Born | John Herbert Sharp (1920-08-05)5 August 1920 Bradford,West Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK |
| Died | 26 November 1992(1992-11-26) (aged 72) London, England, UK |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1949–1991 |
John Herbert Sharp ((1920-08-05)5 August 1920 –(1992-11-26)26 November 1992) was a British actor who made numerous appearances on television during a career spanning 42 years.[1]
Sharp made more than 130 appearances in television and occasionally films between 1949 and 1991.[1] Although active in theatre, Sharp began as a film actor in 1949 and appeared in films throughout the 1950s.[2][3] By the mid-1960s he mostly appeared in British television on popular shows of the era such asThe Avengers in the 1967"Murdersville" episode as the publican, theRandall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode"The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo";The Prisoner,Not on Your Nellie oppositeHylda Baker,Z-Cars, and in 1976 inThe Sweeney episode"On the Run" in which he playedUncle, a homosexual retiredMagistrate who becomes embroiled in the escape of apsychopathic prisoner having befriended the prisoner's former accomplice.[4] He performed inCharles Dickens TV adaptations in the 1980s.[5] In 1991, he made his last television appearance in the programmeLovejoy.[6] He played the role of the "apparently cynical" Uncle Will inLuigi Comencini's 1966Incompreso.[7]
Sharp's most notable television appearances in a recurring role was on theAll Creatures Great and Small television series, in which he portrayed Ezra Biggins, an aged, parsimonious and awkward Yorkshire dairy farmer.[8] "John Sharp was just like you see him," recalledPeter Davison, who playedTristan Farnon in the series. "He was a wonderfulraconteur and would tell you these long stories."[9]Christopher Timothy, who played the leading role ofJames Herriot, added: "I found myself getting quite moved when I watched an episode recently, not because of what we were doing, but because all those lovely people are no longer with us. John Sharp was a lovely, lovely man."[9]
