John Laurie

John Laurie
John Laurie in the 1951 film Happy Go Lovely Born John Paton Laurie
25 March 1897(1897-03-25)
Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, ScotlandDied 23 June 1980(aged 83)
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England [1]Cause of death emphysema & lung ailment Occupation Actor Spouse Florence Saunders (1924 - 24 January 1926, her death)
Oona V. Todd-Naylor (? - 23 June 1980, his death) Children 1 child by 2nd wife

John Paton Laurie (25 March 1897 – 23 June 1980) was a Scottish actor born in Dumfries, Scotland. He is probably most recognisable for his role as Private James Frazer, the gaunt-faced, intense, pessimistic undertaker and Home Guard soldier in the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 to 1977. When the plot resulted in the characters being left in some perceived peril, Frazer would spin a tale about people in similar situations coming to a bad end, finishing "We're doomed, I tell ye!", delivered in his well-known and much-loved Scottish brogue.

The son of a mill worker, he was a pupil at Dumfries Academy and abandoned a career in architecture to serve in World War I. After the war, he trained to become an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and first acted on stage in 1921.

A prolific Shakespearian actor, Laurie spent much of the time between 1922 and 1939, playing Shakespearian parts including Hamlet, Richard III and Macbeth at the Old Vic or Stratford-upon-Avon. He starred in all four of his friend Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare films, As You Like It (1936), Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). During the Second World War, Laurie served in the Home Guard - the only future Dad's Army cast member to do so.

His early work in films included Juno and the Paycock (1930), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. His breakthrough third film was Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) in which his menacing, understated performance as a crofter (opposite Peggy Ashcroft) is particularly memorable. Other work included Candy's batman in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), the farmer recruit in The Way Ahead (1944), the brothel proprietor in Fanny by Gaslight (1944) and the repugnant Pew in Disney's Treasure Island (1950). In the 1945 film I Know Where I'm Going!, Laurie had a small speaking part in a céilidh sequence for which he was also credited as an adviser.

One of his final appearances, looking slightly frail, was in Return to the Edge of the World, directed by Michael Powell in 1978.

Partial filmography

Juno and the Paycock (1930)
The 39 Steps (1935)
As You Like It (1936)
The Edge of the World (1937)
The Four Feathers (1939)
Dangerous Moonlight (1941)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
The Way Ahead (1944)
Fanny by Gaslight (1944)
The Way Ahead (1944)
Henry V (1944)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

References

^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1980 19 1081 CHILTERN/B - John Paton Laurie, DoB = 25 Mar 1897

External links

John Laurie at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Major Cast Members of Dad's Army Arthur Lowe • John Le Mesurier • Clive Dunn
• John Laurie • James Beck • Arnold Ridley • Ian Lavender
• Bill Pertwee • Frank Williams • Edward Sinclair • Janet Davies • Pamela Cundell

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Laurie PersondataNAME Laurie, John ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laurie, John Paton SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor DATE OF BIRTH 1897PLACE OF BIRTH Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, ScotlandDATE OF DEATH 1980PLACE OF DEATH Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England