Mervyn Johns | |
|---|---|
 Johns inThe Halfway House (1944) | |
| Born | David Mervyn Johns (1899-02-18)18 February 1899 Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales |
| Died | 6 September 1992(1992-09-06) (aged 93) Northwood, London, England |
| Education | Llandovery College Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1923–1979 |
| Works | Full list |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Glynis Johns |
| Relatives |
|
David Mervyn Johns (18 February 1899 – 6 September 1992) was a Welsh stage, film and television actor who became a fixture of British films during theSecond World War. Johns appeared extensivelyon screen and stage with over 100 credits between 1923 and 1979.
He made his theatrical debut while on tour of the Britishdominions in 1923. After graduating from theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art with honours in 1924, he appeared in a succession of diverse roles in theWest End andBristol. He made his screen debut withLady in Danger in 1934 and appeared in several supporting roles in the 1930s before becoming a leading man in the 1940s and 50s. In his most critically acclaimed period, he became an indelible part of Britishwartime cinema with starring roles inSaloon Bar (1940),The Next of Kin (1942),Went the Day Well? (1942),The Halfway House (1944),Twilight Hour (1945), andDead of Night (1945).
In the postwar era, Johns worked regularly as a character actor atEaling Studios with roles inThey Knew Mr. Knight (1946),The Captive Heart (1946),Captain Boycott (1947),Easy Money (1948), andScrooge (1951). He settled into supporting roles in later years with guest appearances ontelevised plays andanthology series. Johns also appeared in two films alongside his daughterGlynis Johns.
David Mervyn Johns was born on 18 February 1899 inPembroke, Wales.[1] He attendedLlandovery College,[2] an independent boarding school inSouth Wales,[3] following the graduation of his brother Howard Johns, later rector ofPusey andWeston-on-the-Green.[4] From 1913, he played cricket and rugby for the school's national teams.[5][6]
Upon leaving, he wanted to pursue a career in medicine and so attendedRoyal London Hospital, where he trained as a medical student. While there, he met concert pianist Alyce Steele-Wareham, who was studying at theRoyal Academy of Music. She encouraged him to pursue a career in drama and so he enrolled at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art. They married on 17 November 1922 inSt Giles, London, and began touring with her family's theatre company. While touring South Africa on 23 October 1923, their only child,Glynis Johns was born.[7] They returned to England a few weeks later and Johns re-enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he graduated in 1924 with a gold medal.[1]
Johns also served as acombat patrolpilot in theRoyal Flying Corps and later in theRoyal Air Force during theFirst World War.[8][9] Of his time in the service, he declared "I don’t think there was a single moment when I was not scared to death".[9]
Johns made his stage debut while he and his first wife, Alyce Steele-Wareham, were touring the Britishdominions of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in 1923. He had various roles inWest End productions throughout the 1920s following his graduation from theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1924 when he made his West End debut withLondon's Grand Guignol, aComedy Theatre production directed byLewis Casson.[10] From 24 January 1926, he portrayed Mr Mingan inAllan Monkhouse's playSons and Fathers with RADA. From 1931 to 1932, Johns starred in two productions at the Little Theatre in Bristol:When Knights Were Bold by Charles Marlowe andA Cup of Kindness byBen Travers; at the same theatre from 16 to 21 October 1932, he played Mr Blanquet inJohn Drinkwater's comedyBird In Hand. From 1932 to 1933, he starred in two more productions at Bristol's Little Theatre:The Rivals byRichard Brinsley Sheridan andSaint Joan byGeorge Bernard Shaw. Following this, he played the Magistrate's Clerk inWalter Hackett'sHyde Park Corner from 5 October 1934 to 11 April 1935 at theApollo Theatre in London, the same year as theeponymous film.[11]
Johns made his screen debut in 1934 as the reporter inBen Travers'comedythrillerLady in Danger, going on to play Hemp inDavid MacDonald's 1937crime filmThe Last Curtain, Sir Wilfred Lucas in the 1938 TV Movie[clarification needed] adaptation of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudice, and Percival Clicker inOswald Mitchell's 1938comedy filmAlmost a Gentleman.[12]
In 1936, he starred as Sir John Brute alongside Kulia Crawley andMarda Vanne in anEmbassy Theatre production ofSir John Vanbrugh'sThe Provoked Wife,[13] prompting the renowned theatre critic and newspaper journalistJames Agate (styled "the best judge of acting of the day") to remark that his acting was "blazingly good" and his role a "magnificent performance which would have warmed the heart's cockles of the old playgoers", saying that "in this actor's hands, Sir John is a brute indeed, not a pewling mooncalf, but a roaring bull. Mr Johns lets us see the pleasure he is taking in the fellow's brutish gusto. There are actors who could make the man as unbearable to an audience as he was to his own circle. Mr Johns, by lifting a corner of the brute's mind to show us his own, is right with Garrick."[1][11]
Two years later, Johns was cast inIvor Novello's playComedienne (directed by Murray Macdonald), at theAldwych Theatre in London. From 26 August 1937 to 12 March 1938, he played Ernest Beevers in J. P. Mitchelhill's adaptation of theJ. B. Priestleytime playTime and the Conways at theDuchess Theatre in London, and from 17 February to 17 June 1939, he played Sir Patrick Cullen inThe Doctor’s Dilemma at the London Mask Theatre,Westminster Theatre andWhitehall Theatre.[11] Of this role, Sieghard Erich Krueger writes that he "acheives [sic] a fine effect of crusted and downright integrity."[14]
Johns' final film role of the interwar era was as Thomas in the 1939 Britishadventurethriller filmJamaica Inn, directed byAlfred Hitchcock.[15]
The Second World War ushered in a new era for Britishtheatre andcinema. Johns avoided conscription due to his age, and thus began his career in various roles, though most often as the quirky yet dignified "frightened men" described by Adam Benedick.[1] Among his dozens of film roles were the ultracrepidarian Charlie Wickers in thethriller filmSaloon Bar (1940) and the church warden Charlie Sims in thewar filmWent the Day Well? (1942). In theSecond World Warpropaganda filmThe Next of Kin (1942), Johns starred as the determined Agent 23 (Mr Arthur Davis), described by Robert Murphy as "the most cautious and effective agent – all the more sinister for being played by the kindly Welshman of so many other films of the period, Mervyn Johns."[16] Following this, Johns played the homicidal maniac Arthur Grimshaw in theblack-and-whitecomedyfarceMy Learned Friend (1943), the proprietor Rhys in thedrama filmThe Halfway House (1944), and Major John Roberts in the drama filmTwilight Hour (1945). Commenting on his role as the fearful architect Walter Craig in the 1945mystery filmDead of Night,The Independent's Adam Benedick describes his approach as having a "masterly touch".[1]
Of Johns' stage work, Benedick writes that he "showed a relish for Restoration comedy, but was also rated a ‘quintessential’ Priestley and Shavian actor in such shows as...Heartbreak House (1943), in which he replaced Robert Donat as Captain Shotover, and as Dolittle inPygmalion (1947)"; his work of the prewar era was just the same.[1] Less well-known are his roles inFrank Harvey's playSaloon Bar from 15 November 1939 to 30 March 1940 atWyndham’s Theatre in London,Ken Attiwill andEvadne Price's playOnce a Crook as Hallelujah Harry from 3 June 1940 to 12 July 1941, and Patrick Hamilton's playThe Duke in Darkness from 1942 to 1943 at theBristol Hippodrome.[11]
Following the end of the Second World War on 4 September 1945, Johns continued to be cast in leading roles. InRobert Hamer's 1945crimedrama filmPink String and Sealing Wax, he played the "unexpectedly severe" Mr. Edward Sutton,[17] a middle-class Victorian and newly appointed court analyst;[18] inNorman Walker's 1946drama filmThey Knew Mr. Knight, he played the main protagonist Tom Blake, playing to his "fretful features";[19] inPaul L. Stein's 1948thriller filmCounterblast, he played Doctor Bruckner the Beast of Ravensbruck, an escaped Nazi who murders a visiting scientist from Australia and assumes his identity,[20] "in splendid villainous mode".[21] His supporting roles in this era included playing Ernest Bennett in Ralph Thomas'romantic comedy filmHelter Skelter, and Bob Cratchit inBrian Desmond Hurst's 1951Christmasfantasydrama filmadaptation ofCharles Dickens'sA Christmas Carol, withAlastair Sim as the cantankerous title character and miser.
On stage, he appeared inErskine Caldwell andJack Kirkland's production ofTobacco Road at the West End in 1949, Michael Norbury's playLove’s a Funny Thing from 10 to 12 March 1949 atThe Ambassadors Theatre in London, Harold Martin's playThe Martins’ Nest from 12 April to 12 May 1951 at theWestminster Theatre in London, James Forsyth's playFulbert as the uncle and guardian of Heloise beginning on 14 November 1951 at theDuke of York's Theatre in London, andEric Linklater's playThe Mortimer Touch as Shurie from 30 April to 7 June 1952 at the same theatre.[11]
Though he had appeared in onetelevision film (a made-for-television production ofPride and Prejudice in 1938), Johns made his television series debut relatively late when he was cast as Harold Simpson in the episodeThe Happy Sunday Afternoon ofBBC Sunday Night Theatre in 1950.[22] On the same show, he was given the role of Albert Eccles in the 1954 episodeCaste, Samuel Pepys in the 1954 episodeNinety Sail, Rough in the 1957 episodeGaslight, and His Excellency the Governor in the 1957 episodeHis Excellency. In 1956, Johns was given the lead role of J. Philimore Sparkes in six episodes of the television seriesNew Ramps For Old, in which he was cast alongsideHarry H. Corbett andColin Tapley, who played Kegworthy and Detective Inspector Welsh respectively. Following this, he was given the lead role of Lawrence Todhunter in six episodes of the television seriesLeave It to Todhunter in 1958. He is remembered for standout roles as Arthur Charles Parfitt and Edward Lumsden in five episodes of the courtroom drama television seriesCrown Court alongside his grandson, actorGareth Forwood, from 1973 to 1975. In 1987, Johns appeared as a contributor in the documentaryThe Cavalry of the Clouds, produced by British regional commercial television stationHTV West.[23]
Johns was known for his "mostly mild-mannered, lugubrious, amusing, sometimes moving 'little men'" in over 100 films and television series.[1] He is recurrently hailed as one ofEaling Studios' most prolific actors. In his bookRealism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48, Robert Murphy describes Johns as a "mainstay of so many Ealing films".[24] In September 2022, he was named the 40th most popular Welsh actor of all time, after being absent from public attention for almost fifty years and dead for thirty.[25]
Johns married twice. His first wife was concert pianist Alyce Maude Steele-Wareham, whom he married on 17 November 1922 inSaint Giles, London, and with whom he had his only child, the actressGlynis Johns, while on tour inPretoria,South Africa. He and Glynis appeared together in two drama films:The Halfway House in 1944 andThe Sundowners in 1960. After Alyce's death on 1 September 1971, he married actressDiana Churchill on 4 December 1976 inHillingdon, London.[1]
Johns died on 6 September 1992 inNorthwood, London at the age of 93. His funeral was held privately.[1]
