Jack Hedley
Encyclopedia
Jack Hedley is an English actor, best known for his performances on television
.
His screen career began in 1950 with a 13-minute drama-documentary about polio called A Life to be Lived. In the 1950s he starred in a number of films and TV appearances, such as Left Right and Centre
, Fair Game, and the Alun Owen
-scripted No Trams to Lime Street
with Billie Whitelaw
. He became a TV star in the Francis Durbridge
-scripted BBC series The World of Tim Frazer (transmitted from November 1960 to March 1961), the 18 instalments of which comprised three separate serials of six episodes each. He also played Corrigan Blake in Alun Owen's 1962 BBC play You Can't Win 'Em All, the role being taken over by John Turner
in the series Corrigan Blake that resulted the following year. He was also in Alun Owen's 'A Little Winter Love'.
He appeared in a number of British films of the 1960s, notably Lawrence of Arabia
(1962), The Scarlet Blade
(1963), Witchcraft
(1964), Of Human Bondage
(1964), The Secret of Blood Island
(1964) and The Anniversary
(1968). He also had roles in several 1970s BBC
dramas, such as that of Lt Colonel Preston in Colditz
(1972-4) and ex-serviceman Alan Haldane in Who Pays the Ferryman?
(1977). Reportedly, the series was marked off-screen by personality clashes between Hedley and his co-stars Betty Arvaniti and Maria Sokali.
Hedley later appeared in the James Bond
film For Your Eyes Only
as Sir Timothy Havelock, also voicing Havelock's parrot. Soon after this, in the autumn of 1981 he played the lead role (cynical investigative cop Fred Williams) in Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper
(Lo squartatore di New York), in which his voice was dubbed. He also starred with Stanley Baker and Jean Seberg in the film of Irwin Shaw's 'In The French Style'.
Other TV appearances include: The Saint
, Gideon's Way
(The Alibi Man), Softly, Softly
, Dixon of Dock Green
, The Buccaneers
, Return of the Saint
, One by One
, Remington Steele
, Only Fools and Horses
(A Royal Flush
), 'Allo 'Allo, Dalziel and Pascoe
, and the television film version of Brief Encounter
.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
His screen career began in 1950 with a 13-minute drama-documentary about polio called A Life to be Lived. In the 1950s he starred in a number of films and TV appearances, such as Left Right and Centre
Left Right and Centre
Left Right and Centre is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Ian Carmichael, Patricia Bredin, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker and Alastair Sim. It was produced by Frank Launder...
, Fair Game, and the Alun Owen
Alun Owen
Alun Owen was a British screenwriter, predominantly active in television, but best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film A Hard Day's Night ....
-scripted No Trams to Lime Street
No Trams to Lime Street
No Trams to Lime Street is a 1959 British television play, written by the Welsh playwright Alun Owen for the Armchair Theatre anthology series. Produced by the Associated British Corporation for transmission on the ITV network, the play was broadcast on 18 October 1959...
with Billie Whitelaw
Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
. He became a TV star in the Francis Durbridge
Francis Durbridge
Francis Henry Durbridge was an English playwright and author. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School in Yorkshire where he was encouraged to write by his English teacher. He continued to do so whilst studying English at Birmingham University...
-scripted BBC series The World of Tim Frazer (transmitted from November 1960 to March 1961), the 18 instalments of which comprised three separate serials of six episodes each. He also played Corrigan Blake in Alun Owen's 1962 BBC play You Can't Win 'Em All, the role being taken over by John Turner
John Turner (actor)
John Turner is a British television actor.One of his most recognisable roles was that of Roderick Spode in the ITV television series Jeeves and Wooster based on the P. G. Wodehouse novels...
in the series Corrigan Blake that resulted the following year. He was also in Alun Owen's 'A Little Winter Love'.
He appeared in a number of British films of the 1960s, notably Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company, Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O'Toole in the title role. It is widely...
(1962), The Scarlet Blade
The Scarlet Blade
The Scarlet Blade is a 1963 British adventure film directed by John Gilling for Hammer Film Productions.It is a period drama set during the English Civil War. It stars Oliver Reed and Lionel Jeffries....
(1963), Witchcraft
Witchcraft (1964 film)
Witchcraft is a 1964 British black and white horror film. It was directed by Don Sharp from a script by Harry Spalding. It stars Lon Chaney Jr. in one of his last proper acting roles.-Plot:...
(1964), Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage (1964 film)
Of Human Bondage is a 1964 British drama film directed by Ken Hughes. The MGM release, the third screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel, was written by Bryan Forbes.-Synopsis:...
(1964), The Secret of Blood Island
The Secret of Blood Island
The Secret of Blood Island is a 1964 British war film directed by Quentin Lawrence and starring Jack Hedley, Barbara Shelley and Patrick Wymark. British Prisoners of War help a wounded female agent to escape the Japanese during the Second World War...
(1964) and The Anniversary
The Anniversary (film)
The Anniversary is a 1968 British black comedy film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The screenplay by Jimmy Sangster is based on the 1966 play of the same title by Bill MacIlwraith.-Plot:...
(1968). He also had roles in several 1970s 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...
dramas, such as that of Lt Colonel Preston in Colditz
Colditz (TV series)
Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974.The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to...
(1972-4) and ex-serviceman Alan Haldane in Who Pays the Ferryman?
Who Pays the Ferryman?
Who Pays the Ferryman? was a television series produced by the BBC in 1977. The title of the series refers to the ancient religious belief and mythology of Charon the ferryman to Hades...
(1977). Reportedly, the series was marked off-screen by personality clashes between Hedley and his co-stars Betty Arvaniti and Maria Sokali.
Hedley later appeared in the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only (film)
For Your Eyes Only is the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It marked the directorial debut of John Glen, who had worked as editor and second unit director in three other Bond films. The screenplay by Richard Maibaum...
as Sir Timothy Havelock, also voicing Havelock's parrot. Soon after this, in the autumn of 1981 he played the lead role (cynical investigative cop Fred Williams) in Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper
The New York Ripper
The New York Ripper, original title Lo squartatore di New York, is a 1982 Italian horror film directed and co-written by Lucio Fulci.The film score was written by Francesco De Masi...
(Lo squartatore di New York), in which his voice was dubbed. He also starred with Stanley Baker and Jean Seberg in the film of Irwin Shaw's 'In The French Style'.
Other TV appearances include: 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...
, Gideon's Way
Gideon's Way
Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey . The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series...
(The Alibi Man), Softly, Softly
Softly, Softly (TV series)
Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern - supposedly in the Bristol and Chepstow area of the UK...
, 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:...
, The Buccaneers
The Buccaneers
The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. It was unfinished at the time of her death in 1937, and published in that form in 1938. Wharton's manuscript ends with Lizzy inviting Nan to a house party to which Guy Thwarte has been invited too...
, Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...
, One by One
One By One (TV series)
One By One is a British television series made by the BBC between 1984 and 1987.The series, created by Anthony Read, followed the career of international veterinarian David Taylor and his work caring for exotic animals at zoos in Britain, from the 1950s to the 1970s...
, Remington Steele
Remington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
, Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
(A Royal Flush
A Royal Flush
"A Royal Flush" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses, first screened on 25 December 1986. It was the second feature-length edition of the show, and the fifth Christmas special. It was re-edited into a shorter version with added laughter track and released on DVD in 2004...
), 'Allo 'Allo, Dalziel and Pascoe
Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)
Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...
, and the television film version of Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
.
Selected filmography
- Behind the MaskBehind the Mask (1958 film)Behind the Mask is a 1958 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ian Bannen and Lionel Jeffries. It portrays the life of a surgeon in a busy hospital.-Cast:...
(1958) - Room at the TopRoom at the TopRoom at the Top is a 1959 British film based on the novel of the same name by John Braine. The novel was adapted by Neil Paterson with uncredited work by Mordecai Richler. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by James Woolf and John Woolf....
(1959) - Left Right and CentreLeft Right and CentreLeft Right and Centre is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Ian Carmichael, Patricia Bredin, Richard Wattis, Eric Barker and Alastair Sim. It was produced by Frank Launder...
(1959) - Cone of SilenceCone of Silence (1960 film)Cone of Silence is a film about the investigation into a series of crashes involving the fictional "Atlas Aviation Phoenix" jetliner. In the United States, the film was released under the title Trouble in the Sky...
(1960) - Make Mine MinkMake Mine MinkMake Mine Mink is a 1960 British comedy directed by Robert Asher and featuring Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques, Billie Whitelaw, Elspeth Duxbury, Jack Hedley and Raymond Huntley, with cameos by Kenneth Williams and Irene Handl. A group of misfits go on a spree, stealing mink coats...
(1960) - The Very EdgeThe Very EdgeThe Very Edge is a 1962 British drama film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Anne Heywood, Richard Todd, Jack Hedley, Jeremy Brett and Maurice Denham...
(1962) - WitchcraftWitchcraft (1964 film)Witchcraft is a 1964 British black and white horror film. It was directed by Don Sharp from a script by Harry Spalding. It stars Lon Chaney Jr. in one of his last proper acting roles.-Plot:...
(1964) - How I Won the WarHow I Won the WarHow I Won the War is a black comedy film directed by Richard Lester, released in 1967. The film stars Michael Crawford as bungling British Army Officer Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody, with John Lennon , Jack MacGowran , Roy Kinnear and Lee Montague as soldiers under his command...
(1967) - The AnniversaryThe Anniversary (film)The Anniversary is a 1968 British black comedy film directed by Roy Ward Baker. The screenplay by Jimmy Sangster is based on the 1966 play of the same title by Bill MacIlwraith.-Plot:...
(1968)