Biography

John Arnatt was born in Petrograd on 9 May 1917. His parents were Francis Arnatt and Ethel Marion Arnatt (née Jephcott). He attended Epworth College. Arnatt trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...

. John Arnatt died at the age of 82 on 21 December 1999.

Career

Never well known, he amassed numerous television credits in popular productions such as Keeping Up Appearances

Keeping Up Appearances

Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. Centred on the life of eccentric, social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket , the sitcom portrays a social hierarchy-ruled British society...

, Dangerfield

Dangerfield (TV series)

Dangerfield is a British drama series about a small town doctor / police surgeon, which ran for 6 series, between 1995 and 1999. Originally Nigel Le Vaillant played the central role , but this character later left the series, the focus switching to his replacement, played by Nigel Havers.The BBC...

, Lovejoy

Lovejoy

Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...

, 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...

, House of Cards

House of Cards

House of Cards is a 1990 political thriller television drama serial by the BBC in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim...

and Z-Cars

Z-Cars

Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...

. 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...

fans will recall him as the second actor to play Time Lord

Time Lord

The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...

 Cardinal Borusa in the serial The Invasion of Time

The Invasion of Time

The Invasion of Time is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 4 February to 11 March 1978...

. He had a recurring role in the early episodes of the ITV legal drama The Main Chance

The Main Chance

The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV from 1969-1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds.-Episodes:...

.

One of Arnatt's most high profile roles was as "The Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham" in the fourth and final season of 1955-60 TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene

Richard Greene

Richard Marius Joseph Greene was a noted English film and television actor. A matinee idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran for 143 episodes from 1955 to 1960.It has been...

. His character filled in for Alan Wheatley

Alan Wheatley

Alan Wheatley was a radio announcer who turned to stage and screen acting in the 1930s and was much seen in British films, being a television actor during the black and white era....

, who played the regular sheriff. Arnatt's character was introduced and interacted with Wheatley's character in the episode "The Devil You Don't Know". In the 1962 film Dr Crippen, starring Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...

, Arnatt played Chief Inspector Walter Dew

Walter Dew

Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew was a Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen.-Early life:...

. Arnatt also played an imitation "M" to Tom Adams

Tom Adams (actor)

Tom Adams is an English actor with roles in horror and mystery films, and several TV shows.He starred as Charles Vine in Licensed to Kill and the sequels Where the Bullets Fly and Somebody's Stolen Our Russian Spy .His television credits include General...

' imitation 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,...

 in two films, Licensed to Kill (1965 film)

Licensed to Kill (1965 film)

Licensed to Kill is a 1965 superspy imitation James Bond film starring Tom Adams as British secret agent Charles Vine. It was directed and co-written by Lindsay Shonteff. Producer Joseph E...

and Where the Bullets Fly

Where the Bullets Fly

Where the Bullets Fly is a 1966 British comedy spy film directed by John Gilling and starring Tom Adams as Charles Vine and John Arnatt repeating their roles from Licensed to Kill/The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World...

(1966).

In 1967, Arnatt got something of a promotion when he played the High Sheriff of Nottingham opposite Barrie Ingham

Barrie Ingham

Barrie Ingham is an English actor in stage, TV and film.-Life and career:Ingham was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, the son of Irene and Harold Ellis Stead Ingham. He was educated at Heath Grammar School and became a Royal Artillery Officer. His major theatre debut was at Manchester Library...

's Robin in the film A Challenge for Robin Hood.
Later, in the 1985 television film Marple: The Moving Finger, he played Reverend Guy Calthrop.

Selected filmography

• The Passionate Stranger
  The Passionate Stranger
  The Passionate Stranger is a 1957 British drama film, directed by Muriel Box and starring Margaret Leighton and Ralph Richardson. It uses the film within a film device, with the "real" part of the plot shot in black-and-white and the "fictional" element in colour...
  
  (1957)
• Hysteria (1965)
• Crucible of Terror
  Crucible of Terror
  Crucible of Terror is a 1971 British horror film directed by Ted Hooker and starring Mike Raven, Mary Maude and James Bolam. Its plot involves a mad sculptor killing women to use as models for his statues.-Synopsis:...
  
  (1971)

External links