John Laurie

Infobox Person
name=John Laurie


image_size=280px
caption=John Laurie in the 1951 film "Happy Go Lovely"
birth_name=John Paton Laurie
birth_date=birth date|1897|3|25|df=y
birth_place=Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
death_date=death date and age|1980|6|23|1897|3|25|df=y
death_place=Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England [GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1980 19 1081 CHILTERN/B - John Paton Laurie, DoB = 25 Mar 1897]
death_cause=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

:"For the Canadian mountain, see Mount John Laurie."

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 burr.

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 his friend Laurence Olivier's three Shakespearean films, "Henry V" (1944), "Hamlet" (1948) and "Richard III" (1955). He and Olivier also appeared in "As You Like It" (1936). 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 Peter Manson in "The Edge of the World", Clive 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), the repugnant Pew in Disney's "Treasure Island" (1950), and Dr. MacFarlane in "Hobson's Choice" (1954). 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.

He died aged 83 in the Chalfont and Gerrards Cross Hospital, Chalfont St Peter, from emphysema. [ "The Times", death notice, 25 June 1980]

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 Ghost of St Michaels" (1941)
*"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943)
*"The Way Ahead" (1944)
*"Fanny by Gaslight" (1944)
*"Henry V" (1944)
*"I Know Where I'm Going!" (1945)
*"School for Secrets" (1948)
*"Hamlet" (1948)
*"Treasure Island" (1950)
*"Happy Go Lovely" (1951)
*"Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" (1951)
*"Laughter in Paradise" (1951)
*"Devil Girl from Mars" (1954)
*"Hobson's Choice" (1954)
*"Richard III" (1955)
*"Kidnapped" (1960)
*"Siege of the Saxons" (1963)
*"The Prisoner of Zenda" (1979)

References

External links

*imdb name|0491406
*Screenonline name|id=449038|name=John Laurie

Persondata
NAME = Laurie, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Laurie, John Paton
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Actor
DATE OF BIRTH = 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH = Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH = 1980
PLACE OF DEATH = Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England