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John Bown

British actor, film director, screenwriter (1934–2017) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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John Bown (1 July 1934 – 5 November 2017) was a British actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Commander Neil Stafford in the final season of the television series Doomwatch.

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Life and career

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John Bown was born on 1 July 1934 in Corfe Mullen, Dorset[2] and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wimborne Minster.[3] He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and some time after went into repertory in Salisbury and Birmingham.[3] He played Jack Hunter in the British premiere of The Rose Tattoo, performed by the New Shakespeare Theatre Company under the direction of Sam Wanamaker in November 1958,[4] and continued in the role when the company transferred the production to the New Theatre, London in 1959.[5][6] His performance was described as "impressive" by one critic,[7] with another saying "the love-scene between Miss Feller and Mr Bown, for all its wild abandon on her part and desperate abstentions on his, has a rare and tender radiance."[4] Earlier the same year, he had appeared as Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with the same company. A critic wrote "One will not quickly forget ... that interminable second act showdown between the life-loving father (Leo McKern) and the wife-hating son (John Bown), each condemned to suffer in the way that hurts most."[8] In 1960, his performance as Richard Rich in the premiere of A Man for All Seasons was described by a critic in The Stage as "notable".[9]

In the 1960s, he directed and wrote the screenplay for the short (11-minute) film North West Confidential and the feature film Monique, which starred his wife Sibylla Kay in the title role;[10][11] they had married in 1960.[1] Afterwards, Bown was planning his next project titled Hey, You! but could not find the backing for it. He resumed acting.[12]

From 1974 to 1975 he played Colonel Maurel in the play Grand Manoeuvres by A. E. Ellis at The Old Vic, London.[13] Also in 1975, he appeared with the Oxford Playhouse Company in The Caretaker[14] and Death of a Salesman, of which a critic wrote that Bown and Richard Durden "give passionate accounts of the sons. The blood pressure never drops."[15] From 1976 to 1979 he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company,[12] appearing in 16 productions in seven major theatres.[16] Among them was the play Half an hour please! which he wrote and acted in, with the production designed by Judi Dench.[17] One reviewer described it as "a jewel of a piece [that] would lend itself superbly to television."[18]

On television, he appeared in Dr. Who and the Daleks as Antodus (1965),[19] in Doomwatch as Commander Neil Stafford (1972),[19] and as the lead character Detective Inspector Tom Masefield in Margot Bennett's 1965 series The Big Spender.[20][21] He also appeared in such television series as The Four Just Men, No Hiding Place, The Baron, The Champions and Blake's 7.

Bown had two children with his wife Sibylla.[10] He died in Hampstead in 2017.[22]

Selected stage performances

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Filmography

Actor

Director and screenwriter

  • North West Confidential (1969)
  • Monique (1970)
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References

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