Laurence Payne
Encyclopedia
Laurence Payne was an English
actor and novelist.
. His father died when he was three years old, and he and his elder brother and sister were brought up in by their mother, a Wesleyan Methodist
in Wood Green
, London. He attended Belmont
school and Tottenham
Grammar school, leaving at 16 to take a clerical job. After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
in 1939, he was exempted from war service as a conscientious objector
on condition that he went on tour with the Old Vic during the war
.
in London, also directing and broadcasting for the first times during this period. At Stratford-on-Avon he played, among other parts, Romeo
in Peter Brook
's 1947 production.
After more work at London theatres, he played leading roles at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic
, and after that rejoined the London Old Vic company. At the Embassy Theatre
in London he played Hamlet
.
His film credits include: The Trollenberg Terror
(aka. The Crawling Eye), Vampire Circus
, The Tell-Tale Heart
and Ben-Hur
. His television
credits include: Z-Cars
, Moonstrike
, The Sandbaggers
, Airline
, Telephone Soup, and Tales of the Unexpected
.
He appears in three Doctor Who
serials: The Gunfighters
, The Leisure Hive
and The Two Doctors
, playing a different role in each. Perhaps his most famous role was as TV's Sexton Blake
(1968–71) on ITV in Britain. It was while filming an episode of Sexton Blake, that he lost the sight in his left eye during rehearsal of a sword fighting scene with actor Basil Henson
, following a hard sword blow against the side of his head. Peter Moffatt
took him straight away to Moorfields Eye Hospital and Payne was told that if he could lay still for a week without moving his head, his retina would join up again so preserving his sight. Instead of doing this, Payne went back to work, got hit in a fist fight, and so lost his sight in that eye.
After retiring from acting, Payne continued to concentrate on writing crime/detective novels (his first novel having been published in 1961). By 1993, he had published 11 novels.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actor and novelist.
Early life
Laurence Stanley Payne was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His father died when he was three years old, and he and his elder brother and sister were brought up in by their mother, a Wesleyan Methodist
Methodist Church of Great Britain
The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...
in Wood Green
Wood Green
Wood Green is a district in north London, England, located in the London Borough of Haringey. It is situated north of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London.-History:...
, London. He attended Belmont
Belmont, Harrow
Belmont is an area of the London Borough of Harrow.The area is named after the mound, constructed in the early 18th century by Henry James Brydges - Earl of Carnarvon and first Duke of Chandos. He had a summer house built atop the mound for the wonderful view...
school and Tottenham
Tottenham
Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...
Grammar school, leaving at 16 to take a clerical job. After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, opened by Laurence Olivier in 1946, is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an organisation securing the highest standards of training in the performing arts, and is an associate school of the Faculty of Creative Arts of the University of the...
in 1939, he was exempted from war service as a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
on condition that he went on tour with the Old Vic during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Career
Payne made his professional debut at the Old Vic Theatre in 1939 and remained with the company for several years. He then performed at the Chanticleer and Arts theatresArts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
in London, also directing and broadcasting for the first times during this period. At Stratford-on-Avon he played, among other parts, Romeo
Romeo Montague
Romeo is one of the fictional protagonists in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is the son of old Montague and his wife, who secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet...
in Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
's 1947 production.
After more work at London theatres, he played leading roles at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic
The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
, and after that rejoined the London Old Vic company. At the Embassy Theatre
Embassy Theatre (London)
The Embassy Theatre is a theatre at 64, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London.- Early years :The Embassy Theatre was opened as a repertory company in September 1928 on the initiative of Sybil Arundale and Herbert Jay., when the premises of Hampstead Conservatoire of Music were adapted by architect...
in London he played Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
.
His film credits include: The Trollenberg Terror
The Trollenberg Terror
The Trollenberg Terror is the title of both a 1956 "Saturday Serial" ITV UK television programme and a better-known 1958 black and white science fiction film. The latter is also known as The Crawling Eye, Creature from Another World, The Creeping Eye, and The Flying Eye...
(aka. The Crawling Eye), Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus
Vampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young for Hammer Film Productions. It stars Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins . The story concerns a travelling carnival whose vampiric artistes prey on the children of a 19th-century Austrian village...
, The Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart (1960 film)
The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1960 British horror film directed by Ernest Morris. The screenplay by Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard is a loose adaptation of the 1843 short story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe.-Plot:...
and Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
. His television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
credits include: 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...
, Moonstrike
Moonstrike
Moonstrike is a British television series produced by the BBC in 1963.The series was an anthology programme: a collection of self-contained stories about acts of resistance in occupied Europe during the Second World War...
, The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage game on the personal and professional lives of British and...
, Airline
Airline (1982 TV series)
Airline is a British television series produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in 1982.The series starred Roy Marsden as Jack Ruskin, a pilot demobbed after the end of the Second World War who starts up his own air freight business....
, Telephone Soup, and 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...
.
He appears in three 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...
serials: The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters
The Gunfighters is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, set in 19th Century America on the days leading up to the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
, The Leisure Hive
The Leisure Hive
The Leisure Hive is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 August to 20 September 1980.-Plot:...
and The Two Doctors
The Two Doctors
The Two Doctors is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts from 16 February to 2 March 1985. It starred Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and his companion Peri, respectively...
, playing a different role in each. Perhaps his most famous role was as TV's Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who appeared in many British comic strips and novels throughout the 20th century. He was described by Professor Jeffrey Richards on the BBC in The Radio Detectives in 2003 as "the poor man's Sherlock Holmes"...
(1968–71) on ITV in Britain. It was while filming an episode of Sexton Blake, that he lost the sight in his left eye during rehearsal of a sword fighting scene with actor Basil Henson
Basil Henson
Basil Henson was a British actor. Henson had a lengthy career on stage and television. His stage performances included a number of parts in Shakespeare productions, including once opposite Dustin Hoffman...
, following a hard sword blow against the side of his head. Peter Moffatt
Peter Moffatt
Peter Moffatt was a British television director.His work includes Crane , All Creatures Great and Small and The Gentle Touch...
took him straight away to Moorfields Eye Hospital and Payne was told that if he could lay still for a week without moving his head, his retina would join up again so preserving his sight. Instead of doing this, Payne went back to work, got hit in a fist fight, and so lost his sight in that eye.
After retiring from acting, Payne continued to concentrate on writing crime/detective novels (his first novel having been published in 1961). By 1993, he had published 11 novels.
Selected filmography
- Train of EventsTrain of EventsTrain of Events is a 1949 British film made by Ealing Studios directed by Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden.A portmanteau work, it tells the various stories of the passengers who are on a train which crashes into a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing.-Plot:The film opens with a...
(1949) - Dangerous ExileDangerous ExileDangerous Exile is a 1957 British historical drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Anne Heywood and Richard O'Sullivan. It concerns the fate of Louis XVII, who died in 1795 as a boy, yet was popularly believed to have escaped from his French...
(1957) - Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)
- A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities (1958 film)A Tale of Two Cities is a 1958 British film of the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities. It starred Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin, and was directed by Ralph Thomas.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Sydney Carton*Dorothy Tutin as Lucie Manette...
(1958) - The Trollenberg TerrorThe Trollenberg TerrorThe Trollenberg Terror is the title of both a 1956 "Saturday Serial" ITV UK television programme and a better-known 1958 black and white science fiction film. The latter is also known as The Crawling Eye, Creature from Another World, The Creeping Eye, and The Flying Eye...
(1958) - Ben-HurBen-Hur (1959 film)Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
(1959) - The Tell-Tale HeartThe Tell-Tale Heart (1960 film)The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1960 British horror film directed by Ernest Morris. The screenplay by Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard is a loose adaptation of the 1843 short story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe.-Plot:...
(1960) - The Singer Not the SongThe Singer Not the SongThe Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British drama film based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain.-Cast:*Dirk Bogarde as Anacleto Comachi*John Mills as Father Michael Keogh...
(1961) - The Third AlibiThe Third AlibiThe Third Alibi is a 1961 British thriller film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Laurence Payne, Patricia Dainton, Jane Griffiths and Edward Underdown.-Cast:* Laurence Payne - Norman Martell* Patricia Dainton - Helen Martell...
(1961) - The Queen's GuardsThe Queen's GuardsThe Queen's Guards is a 1961 military drama film directed by Michael Powell from a script by Simon Harcourt-Smith and Roger Milner. It stars Daniel Massey, Raymond Massey, Robert Stephens, and Ursula Jeans.-Plot:...
(1961) - Barabbas (1961)
- The Court Martial of Major KellerThe Court Martial of Major KellerThe Court Martial of Major Keller is a 1961 British film directed by Ernest Morris and written by Brian Clemens. It starred Laurence Payne, Susan Stephen and Austin Trevor. The film is based around the court martial for murder of Major Keller, a British army officer during the Second World War....
(1961) - CrosstrapCrosstrapCrosstrap is a 1962 British B-movie crime film starring Laurence Payne, Jill Adams and Gary Cockrell and marking the directorial debut of Robert Hartford-Davis...
(1962) - Mystery SubmarineMystery Submarine (1963 film)Mystery Submarine is a 1963 British war film directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards and starring Edward Judd, James Robertson Justice and Laurence Payne...
(1963) - Vampire CircusVampire CircusVampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young for Hammer Film Productions. It stars Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins . The story concerns a travelling carnival whose vampiric artistes prey on the children of a 19th-century Austrian village...
(1972)