John Le Mesurier

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Born John Le Mesurier Halliley (born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 1912 – 15 November 1983) was an English actor.

He is perhaps best known for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation comedy Dad's Army (1968–77).

Le Mesurier, a self-confessed "jobbing actor" who appeared in more than 120 films in a variety of genres, often in smaller supporting roles. Le Mesurier took an interest in the performance as a child and enrolled at Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art in 1933.

He began working in repertory theatre and made his debut in September 1934 at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh, J. B. Priestley plays Dangerous Corner.

In a John Gielg production of Hamlet, he later accepted an invitation to work with Alec Guinness.

In the BBC broadcast of The Marvellous History of St Bernard, Seigneur de Miolans first appeared on television in 1938.

Le Mesurier, a British soldier stationed in British India, was posted as a captain with the Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War.

He returned to acting and made his film debut in 1948, opposite Esme Percy and Ernest Jay, in the second feature comedy short Death in the Hand. Le Mesurier had a prolific film career, mostly in comedies, portraying figures of authority such as army officers, policemen, and judges.

Le Mesurier appeared in Hancock's two main films, The Rebel and The Punch and Judy Man, as well as Hancock's Half Hour.

Le Mesurier's first award, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts "Best Television Actor" award for his lead role in Dennis Potter's television play Traitor, was one of his few leading roles in his career; it was one of his few lead roles. He took a more relaxed approach to acting and discovered that his parts were those of "a decent chap all at sea in a turbulent world not of his own creation."

Le Mesurier was married three times, most notably to actress Hattie Jacques.

Le Mesurier, a heavy drinker of alcohol for the majority of his life, died in 1983, aged 71, from a stomach bloem syndrome that came as a result of liver cirrhosis.

Critics reflected that the watching public was "enormously fond of him" after his death.

Early life

On April 5, 1912, Le Mesurier was born in Bedford, John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley. Charles Elton Halliley, a solicitor, and Amy Michelle (née Le Mesurier), both of whom resided in Alderney, were affluent, and had histories of government service or work in the legal sector. The family lived in Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, when John was a child. He was sent to school, first to Grenham House in Kent and later to Sherborne School in Dorset, where one of his classmates, mathematicsematician Alan Turing, was born.

Le Mesurier reacted anaessively about both schools, citing insensitive teaching techniques and an inability to accept individualism. "I resented Sherborne for its closed mind, its collective capacity for rejecting everything that did not fit into a manhood's image was not captured in a scouting manual's ripping yarns."

Le Mesurier had been interested in acting and performing; as an infant, he had often been taken to London to see Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls perform in a series of farces at the Aldwych Theatre. The family lived less than 300 yards from the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds in his youth, and his autobiography reveals that actors from that theater were still a part of his childhood memory. These experiences fueled an early desire to pursue a career on stage. In his spare time, he was initially discouraged to follow his father's path of work as an articled clerk with Greene & Greene, a Bury St Edmunds company; in his spare time, he participated in local amateur dramas. He left the court system in 1933 and enrolled at Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art in September; a fellow student, Alec Guinness, with whom he became close friends, became a close friend.

The studio held their annual public revue in July 1934, which included Le Mesurier and Guinness; among the judges were John Gielb, Leslie Henson, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ivor Novello. Le Mesurier was awarded a Certificate of Fellowship, while Guinness took home the Fay Compton award. Le Mesurier, rather than continuing in the studio for further education, had the opportunity to join the Edinburgh-based Millicent Ward Repertory Players on a weekly basis for £3.10 (£3.50).

Traditionally, the Millicent Ward repertory company staged evening performances of three-act plays; the performances were varied each week; rehearsals were held during the daytime for the following week's performance. Le Mesurier made his stage debut in September 1934 at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh, under his birth name John Halliley. Along with three other newcomers to the company, B. Priestley plays Dangerous Corner. Le Mesurier was well cast in the role, according to the reviewer of The Scot. Appearances in Although Parents Sleep and Cavalcade were followed by a break as a result of the theater's lease issues. Le Mesurier first accepted an invitation to appear with Alec Guinness in a John Gield production of Hamlet, which began in Streatham in 1935 and later toured the English provinces. Le Mesurier understudied Anthony Quayle's role as Guildenstern and elsewhere appeared in the role as an extra.

Le Mesurier was hired by the Oldham repertory company, based in Coliseum Theatre, in July 1935; his first appearance with them was in a Wilson Collison performance, Up in Mabel's Room; he was suspended after one week for missing a performance due to oversleeping. In September 1935, he went to the Sheffield Repertory Theatre to perform in Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, and also in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night's Malvolio. "I had no idea it was going to take so long," Le Mesurier later expressed disappointment with his career's slowed progress: "I should have given it up" if I had predicted it would." He appeared in nine productions in 1936 and 1937, and then joined the Croydon Repertory Theatre in 1937. During this period, Le Mesurier changed his profession from John Halliley to John Le Mesurier; his biographer Graham McCann claims that "he never bothered, at least in public, to explain the reason for his decision." For the first time in the 1937 production of Love on the Dole, Le Mesurier used his new name.

Le Mesurier first appeared on television in 1938, making him one of the medium's pioneering actors. In a performance based on a 15th-century manuscript by Henri Ghéon, Seigneur de Miolans appeared in The Marvellous History of St Bernard for his first appearance. He continued to appear on stage in Edinburgh and Glasgow with the Howard and Wyndham Players until late 1938, when he returned to London and revived the Croydon Repertory Theatre.

He died a few months later when he went from May to October 1939, first in London and then on tour. According to Le Mesurier's "poor work," and that "the person is not overemphasised." One could praise it more if someone says Mr. Mercer is the best. Le Mesurier gives one a numbing feeling in the stomach.

Le Mesurier toured Britain from November to December 1939, a film directed by Robert Coveney. During this period, Le Mesurier met the director's daughter, June Melville, who married in April 1940. After spending January and February 1940 in French Without Tears at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool, he returned to London, where he appeared in a number of productions. Le Mesurier played a variety of roles during his repertory; his biographer Graham McCann said his portfolio included "comedies and tragedies, thrillers, and fantasies, dramatic courtroom performances, Shakespeare and Ibsen, Sheridan and Wilde, Congreve and Coward. The range was jaw-dropping."

A German bomb struck Le Mesurier's rented house in September 1940, destroying all of his possessions, including his call-up papers. The theatre in Brixton, where he was working, was also struck in the same bombing attack. He appeared in basic training with the Royal Armoured Corps a few days later; in June 1941, he was first recruited into the Royal Tank Regiment. He served in the United Kingdom until 1943, when he was sent to British India, where he spent the remainder of the war. Le Mesurier later said he had "a pleasant war, with captaincy thrusting on me," before he was demobbed in 1946.

Le Mesurier returned to Britain on his return to work; he initially failed for jobs, but he ended up in little roles. He made his film debut in Death in the Hand, which starred Esme Percy and Ernest Jay in February 1948. He continued in the 1949 film Old Mother Riley's New Venture (where his name was misspelled on the credits as "Le Meseurier") and the 1950 crime film Dark Interval, which was followed by his father's identical small roles. He appeared on stage in Birmingham frequently during the same period.

In 1951, Le Mesurier appeared in Doctor Forrest in The Railway Children, the blackmailer Eduardo Lucas in Sherlock Holmes: The Second Stain, and Joseph in the nativity play A Time to Be Born. Hattie Jacques, Hattie Jacques, was the couple's second wife in 1949 following his divorce from June Melville earlier this year) in the radio series Educating Archie. Le Mesurier and Hancock became best friends; they'd often go out for drinking sessions in Soho, where they met in jazz clubs. After Hancock's departure from Educating Archie in 1952 after just one season, the friendship forged, and Jacques became a member of Hancock's Half Hour cast in 1956.

Le Mesurier played in Blind Man's Bluff and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire in 1952, as well as appearing in the films Blind Man's Bluff and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire. Parnell Bradbury, a writer for The Times, thought Le Mesurier had played the part "uniquely well," Harold Hobson, writing in The Sunday Times, believes that "the challenge with Mr. John Le Mesurier's Dr. Weston is that he approaches the man in a way that would be unacceptable elsewhere." He appeared in 1953 as a bureaucrat in the short film The Pleasure Garden, which took the Prix du Film de Fantaisie Poétique at the Cannes Film Festival. According to Philip Oakes, after a long line of minor roles in second films, his 1955 portrayal of the registrar in Roy Boulting's comedy Josephine and Men "jerked him out of the rut."

In their 1956 Second World War film Private's Progress, Le Mesurier was cast as a psychiatrist after his appearance in Josephine and Men, John and Roy Boulting cast Le Mesurier as a psychiatrist. The cast included several leading British actors of the day, including Ian Carmichael and Richard Attenborough. The cast was "embellished" by Le Mesurier's presence, according to Dilys Powell, who wrote for The Sunday Times, among other things. Le Mesurier appeared in Attenborough's The Baby and the Battleship and Roy Boulting's Brothers in Law in 1956, the latter of which also featured Carmichael and Terry-Thomas. He appeared on television in a number of roles in Douglas Fairbanks Presents, a series of short dramas.

When Hancock asked Le Mesurier to be one of the regular supporting actors in Hancock's Half Hour, it became a new source of income. Le Mesurier appeared in seven episodes of the show from 1957 to 1960, as well as in an episode of a sequel to Hancock. He appeared in ten films in 1958, including Roy Boulting's comedy Happy Is the Bride, about which Dilys Powell wrote in the Sunday Times: "M]y vote for the most entertaining contributions... goes to the two fathers, John Le Mesurier and Cecil Parker." Le Mesurier appeared in 13 films, including I'm All Right Jack, the most popular of Le Mesurier's credited films this year, during his career; he also performed as a doctor in Ben-Hur in 1959.

In 1960, Le Mesurier appeared in nine films as well as nine television series, including episodes of Hancock's Half Hour, Saber of London, and Danger Man. Mr. Topaze, Peter Sellers' debut film that met both critically and commercially, was his first film role. In a recording of excerpts from R. H. Lawrence's Lover, which also included Michael Hordern and Maurice Denham, he performed Mr. Justice Byrne. J.W. Le Mesurier had "precisely the air of confidence incredulity" that the learned man displayed in court, according to Lambert, who was writing for The Sunday Times. In the first of Tony Hancock's two most notable film vehicles, The Rebel, later this year.

Powell appeared in Wendy Toye's comedy film We Joined the Navy before reuniting with Peter Sellers in Sidney Gilliat's film That Uncertain Feeling, "the armour of his gravity was penetrated by polite bewilderment." She likened Le Mesurier with American straight-face comedian John McGiver. After appearing in another Sellers film in 1962—Waltz of the Toreadors—Le Mesurier joined him in the 1963 comedy The Wrong Arm of the Law. Powell referred to John Le Mesurier's film once more, claiming that "I assumed I knew every shade in his performance (not that I could ever get sick of any of them); but there does seem to be a new light here). In the second and last of Tony Hancock's film, The Pink Panther, he appeared in a third Sellers film, The Pink Panther, as a defense lawyer, as well as in the second and last of his actor appearances, The Punch and Judy Man. In the second film, Le Mesurier played Sandman; Powell said that the role "allowed a gentler and subtler character than normal." In 1964, he appeared in a series of Homepride flour commercials, giving the voiceover for animated character Fred the Flourgrader; he remained as the voice until 1983.

Le Mesurier portrayed Reverend Jonathan Ives in Jacques Tourneur's 1965 science fiction film City Under the Sea, before returning to comedy in Where the Spies Are, a comedy-adventure film directed by Val Guest, starring David Niven. Le Mesurier appeared in 1966 on the ITV sitcom George and the Dragon, as Colonel Maynard, as well as Sid James and Peggy Mount. Between 1966 and 1968, the show spanned 26 episodes. He appeared in four episodes of a Coronation Street spin-off series Pardon the Expression, in which he appeared opposite Arthur Lowe.

Le Mesurier was offered a role in a new BBC situation comedy starring an upper-middle-class Sergeant Arthur Wilson in Dad's Army in 1968; he was the second choice after Robert Dorning. Le Mesurier was unsure about participating in the final series of George and the Dragon and did not want to commit to another long-term television presence. Both by an increase in his pay — to £262.50) per episode — and the casting of his old friend Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones, he was persuaded. Le Mesurier was initially uncertain of how to act his character, and series writer Jimmy Perry encouraged him to write the role from scratch. Le Mesurier decided to base the character on himself, later writing, "I thought, not just be myself, use an extension of my own name, and behaving as I had done in the army." So I never went through a button or two and had the sleeve of my battle dress sleeve barely turned up. I spoke softly, gave orders as if they were invitations (not likely to be accepted) and generally assumed a benign air of helplessness. Later in life, Perry said, "We wanted Wilson to be the face of sanity; he has become John."

Nicholas de Jongh said in a tribute written after Le Mesurier's death that it was in Wilson's role that Le Mesurier played a leading role. Captain George Mainwaring's friendship with Arthur Lowe's character was described as "a memorable piece of one of television's most popular shows." "It was the hesitant exchanges of one-upmanship between Le Mesurier's Wilson, a model of delicate gentility, and Arthur Lowe's pompous, middle-class platoon leader Captain Mainwaring that added to the best scenes" on the British Film Institute's Screenonline, as Tise Vahimagi commented. Le Mesurier loved watching the series, especially during the fortnight filming in Thetford each year. The program ran for nine years and featured eighty episodes, beginning in 1977.

During the filming of the series in 1969, Le Mesurier was flown to Venice over a weekend to star in Alf Kjellin's film Midas Run, which also stars Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood, and Fred Astaire. During the filming, Le Mesurier became friends with Astaire, and they often dined in a local cafe when watching horse racing on television. Norman Cohen produced a feature film about Dad's Army in 1971; Le Mesurier appeared as Wilson in a stage revival that toured the UK in 1975-1976. Le Mesurier's son's Army's success, Le Mesurier recorded the single "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" on the reverse side of "Hometown" (the former with Arthur Lowe). In 1975, Warner Records released this, as well as an album entitled Dad's Army, starring the entire cast.

Le Mesurier appeared in films, including the role of the prison governor opposite No.l Coward in the 1969 Peter Collinson-directed The Italian Job, including his appearances in Dad's Army. Le Mesurier's role to his Sergeant Wilson's "mild demeanour" was praised by cinema historian Amy Sargeant. Le Mesurier appeared in Ralph Thomas' Doctor in Trouble in 1970; he also appeared in Vincente Minnelli's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, a romantic fantasy musical.

Le Mesurier appeared in Dennis Potter's television play Traitor in 1971, in which he portrayed a "boozy British aristocrat who became a spy for the Soviets." His achievement earned him the British Academy of Film and Television Arts "Best Television Actor" award. Sergio Angelini, a writer for the British Film Institute, found that "Le Mesurier is utterly convincing in a rare role." Chris Dunkley, a columnist for The Times, described the performance as "a superbly convincing portrait, made vividly real by one of Mr Mesurier [sic]'s finest performances ever." The Sunday Times' critic agreed with Le Mesurier's claim that "after a lifetime of supporting other actors with the strength of a pit-prop," he appears, sounds, and feels just right." Nancy Banks-Smith wrote an article for The Guardian and said that the role was "his Hamlet" and that it was worth waiting for. Le Mesurier, although delighted to have received the award, said that the aftermath was "something like an anticlimax." "No exciting jobs came in."

Le Mesurier appeared in Val Guest's 1972 sex comedy Au Pair Girls, and he appeared in Bob Kellett's The Alf Garnett Saga alongside Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols. In 1974, he appeared as a police inspector in a Val Guest parody, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, alongside Robin Askwith and Antony Booth. He narrated Bod, an animated children's show from the BBC, the following year; there were thirteen episodes in total.

Jacob Marley was portrayed in a BBC television adaptation of A Christmas Carol, starring Michael Hordern as Ebenezer Scrooge; Sergio Angelini, writing for the British Film Institute, said that "although not scary, he does have a strong sense of melancholy, and every step and inflection seem to have tinged with sadness and remorse." In 1979, he played Sir Gawain in Walt Disney's Unidentified Flying Oddball, directed by Russ Mayberry and co-starring Dennis Dugan, Jim Dale, and Kenneth More. Time Out's review described the film, which was based on Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, as "an intelligent film with a cohesive plot and amusing script" and dubbed "one of the best Disney efforts to hop on the sci-fi bandwagon." The reviewers praised the cast, particularly Kenneth More's Arthur and Le Mesurier's Gawain, who were "rather touchingly portrayed as companions who have grown old together," they wrote.

In the 1981 radio version of The Lord of the Rings, Le Mesurier appeared in The Wise Old Bird on BBC Radio 4's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and he appeared on the same station as Bilbo Baggins. In a production of No.l Coward's 1920s play Hay Fever, he appeared as David Bliss alongside Constance Cummings —as Judith Bliss. Robert Cushman of The Observer believed that Le Mesurier embodied "deeply grizzled torpor," while Michael Billington, who was reviewing for The Guardian, saw him as a "grey, delicate wisp of a man, full of half-completed gestures and seraphic smiles."

In Granada Television's 1981 version of Brideshead Revisited, he played Father Mowbray. In an early episode of Hi-de-Hi!, he appeared in episodes of the British comedy television series The Goodies and in an early episode of Hi-dea Hi! Peter Sellers' last film role, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, was completed just months before Sellers' death in July 1980.

Arthur Wilson played Arthur Wilson in It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a radio sequel to Dad's Army in which Wilson had taken over as the bank manager of the Frambourne-on-Sea branch, although Arthur Lowe's character, Captain George Mainwaring, was trying to apply for a loan to renovate the local pier. Because of Lowe's death in April 1982, only a pilot episode was recorded, and the project was suspended. Lowe's role was revived later this year with two other Dad's Army cast members, Pike, directed by Ian Lavender, and Hodges, played by Bill Pertwee. A pilot and twelve episodes were later recorded and broadcast in 1984. Le Mesurier also teamed up with Clive Dunn, another ex-Dad's Army colleague, to record "After All These Years," a tribute song that had been written by Le Mesurier's stepson David Malin, who had been writing "It't Much Change from a Pound This Days." In 1982, a single was released on KA Records.

In a four-part television series called A Married Man, he appeared in A Married Man in March 1983 before he began narrating The Passionate Pilgrim, an Eric Morecambe film that was Morecambe's last film before his death.

Le Mesurier accepted a part in Robert Morley's Goodness, How Sad!, directed by June Melville's father Frederick owned many theatres, including the Lyceum, Prince's, and Brixton in 1939. Melville and Le Mesurier married in April 1940, and soon began a romance. In September 1940, Le Mesurier was drafted into the army but after his demobilization in 1946, he discovered that his wife had become a alcoholic: "She became more concerned about appointments and haphazard professionally." As a result, the couple split in 1949 and were divorced.

Le Mesurier and fellow actor Geoffrey Hibbert appeared at the Players' Theatre in London in June 1947, where Hattie Jacques was among the performers. Le Mesurier and Jacques began to see each other regularly; Le Mesurier was still married, but his wife was still divorced from him. "Don't you think it's about time we get married?" Jacques argued to Le Mesurier in 1949, when his divorce fell through. Robin and Kim, the couple's two sons, were born in November 1949 and had two sons.

Jacques began an affair in 1962 with her chauffeur, John Schofield, who gave her the attention and care that Le Mesurier did not have. Le Mesurier was moved into a separate room and began to restore the marriage after Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family's house. "I should have walked out," he later said about this period, but I loved Hattie and the children and was confident that the harm would be fixed," he said. He collapsed on holiday in Tangier in 1963 and was hospitalized in Gibraltar, triggering a health scare. He returned to London to discover that his wife and her lover's relationship was stable, which led to a relapse.

Le Mesurier first met Joan Malin at the Establishment club in Soho in 1963 during the final stages of his marriage's dissolution. He moved out of his marital home the following year, and Joan was thrilled with his proposal. Le Mesurier allowed Jacques to file a divorce lawsuit on the grounds of his own infidelity in order to ensure that the press blamed him for the break-up, effectively avoiding any negative publicity for Jacques. In March 1966, Le Mesurier and Malin married. Joan began a relationship with Tony Hancock shortly after they married, and Le Mesurier was forced to join the comedian. By this time, Hancock had self-confessed alcohol and had been verbally and physically abused Joan during their marriage.

Joan was determined she could no longer live with Hancock after a year as a result of Hancock's violence toward her worsening, she committed suicide; she later discovered that she could no longer live with Hancock and returned to her husband. Despite this, Le Mesurier remained a collaborator with Hancock, who described him as "a true genius, with great warmth and compassion, but also as a tormented and unhappy man." Joan resumed her lemmurier's knowledge, and, when the comic moved to Australia in 1968, she planned to trace him if she could have beat his alcoholism. After Hancock committed suicide on June 25, she scrapped these plans and remained with Le Mesurier.

Le Mesurier was a heavy drinker, but he wasn't particularly inebriated. He died in Australia in 1977 and returned home, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and ordered not to drink alcohol. He didn't believe himself an alcoholic before that; instead, he accepted that "it was the cumulative effect over the years that had caused the harm." It was a year and a half before he drank alcohol again, but only beer was consumed.

Jacques said that his calculated ambiguity was a result of his marijuana use, but Le Mesurier said the drug was not to his liking; he smoked it only after a period of alcohol abstinence. Le Mesurier's favorite pastime was visiting the jazz clubs in Soho, such as Ronnie Scott's, and he wrote that "listening to musicians such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, or Alan Clare made life seem a little bit brighter."

Le Mesurier's autobiography, A Jobbing Actor, was released in 1984, toward the end of his life; after his death. Le Mesurier's health has clearly declined since being hospitalized for a brief period of time after suffering a haemorrhage in July 1983. When the illness resurfaced later this year, he was admitted to Ramsgate Hospital, where he said, "It's all been so lovely" after his wife told him, and died on November 15, 1983, aged 71. His remains were cremated and the ashes were buried at the Church of St. George the Martyr, Ramsgate, before. "John Le Mesurier" is the epitaph's. Much loved actor. "Rested" is the word that comes to mind. In a self-penned death note in The Times of 16 November 1983, he "conked out" and that he "sadly misses family and friends."

Eric Sykes, a comedian who died after Le Mesurier's death, said: "I never heard a bad word said against him." He was one of the earliest drolls of our time. Bill Pertwee, a Le Mesurier Army actor, mourned the death of his friend, saying, "It's a sad loss." He was a great professional, but with a sarcastic sense of humor." "He could lend distinction to the smallest part," director Peter Cotes wrote in The Guardian, while The Times obituarist noted that he "could lend distinction to the smallest part."

The Guardian explored Le Mesurier's fame, observing that "No wonder so many people whose lives were very different from his own" came to be so devoted to him." On the 16th of February 1984, a memorial service was held at "Actors' Church" in St Paul's Covent Garden, where Bill Pertwee spoke at.

Personal life

Le Mesurier accepted a part in Robert Morley's play Goodness, How Sad!, directed by June Melville, Frederick's father Frederick owned many theatres, including the Lyceum, Prince's, and Brixton. Melville and Le Mesurier married in April 1940, a spark that was not immediately apparent. Le Mesurier was called into the army in September 1940, but after his demobilization in 1946, he discovered that his wife had become an alcoholic: "She became more concerned about appointments and haphazard professionally." As a result, the couple split and were divorced in 1949.

Le Mesurier and fellow actor Geoffrey Hibbert performed at the Players' Theatre in London in June 1947, where Hattie Jacques was one of the performers. Le Mesurier and Jacques began to see each other on a daily basis; Le Mesurier, despite being estranged from his wife, was still married. Jacques suggested to Le Mesurier, "Don't you think it's about time we got married?" when his divorce came through. The couple married in November 1949 and had two sons, Robin and Kim.

In 1962, Jacques began an affair with her chauffeur, John Schofield, who gave her the attention and support that Le Mesurier did not have. Le Mesurier stepped into a separate room and attempted to restore the marriage when Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family's house. "I could have walked out," Hattie and the children were referring to, but I was positive—I could have been certain—that we could restore the harm." He died while on holiday in Tangier in 1963 and was hospitalized in Gibraltar, sparking a decline in his health. He returned to London to find that his wife and her lover's marriage was unchanged, triggering a relapse.

Le Mesurier met Joan Malin at the Establishment club in Soho in 1963 during the final stages of his marriage's demise. He moved out of his marital home the following year, and Joan was notified that he had accepted his invitation. Le Mesurier allowed Jacques to file a divorce lawsuit on the grounds of his own infidelity in order to ensure that the public blamed him for the failure, avoiding any negative publicity for Jacques. In March 1966, Le Mesurier and Malin married. Joan began a relationship with Tony Hancock and Le Mesurier was forced to join the comedian just a few months after they were married. By this time, Hancock had become a self-confessed alcoholic and physically abused Joan during their marriage.

Joan attempted suicide after a year together, with Hancock's violence toward her worsening, she then realized she could no longer live with Hancock and returned to her husband. Despite this, Le Mesurier remained friends with Hancock, who described him as "a genius of true genius, with high warmth and compassion, but also as a tormented and unhappy man." Joan revived her affair with Hancock without Le Mesurier's knowledge, and, when the comedian returned to Australia in 1968, she planned to trace him if she were to recover his alcoholism. Since Hancock committed suicide on June 25, she discarded these plans and remained with Le Mesurier.

Le Mesurier was a heavy drinker, but he was never particularly inebriated. He died in Australia in 1977 and flew home, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and banned from drinking. He had not identified himself as an alcoholic before, but it was acknowledged that "it was the cumulative effect over the years that had done the harm." It was a year and a half before he revived alcohol, when he avoided spirits and drank only beer.

Jacques claimed that his calculated confusion was a result of his cannabis use, but Le Mesurier said the drug was not to his liking; he used it only during his period of alcohol abstinence. "Listing to artists like Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, or Alan Clare made life seem a little bit better." Le Mesurier's favourite pastime was visiting the jazz clubs in Soho, such as Ronnie Scott's.

Le Mesurier's autobiography, A Jobbing Actor, was published in 1984, four years after his death; it came near to the end of his life. Le Mesurier's health has dramatically decreased since July 1983 when he was hospitalized for a short time after suffering from a haemorrhage. When the illness recurred later this year, he was admitted to Ramsgate Hospital, saying, "It's all been lovely," he died on November 15, 1983, aged 71. His remains were cremated, and his ashes were buried at the Church of St. George the Martyr, Ramsgate. "John Le Mesurier" appears on his epitaph. Much loved actor. "I'm tired," the singer said. According to his self-penned death note in The Times of November 16, he had "conked out" and that he "sadly misses family and friends."

Eric Sykes, a comedian, said against Le Mesurier after his death: "I never heard a bad word said against him." He was one of the earliest drolls of our time. Bill Pertwee, Le Mesurier's fellow Army soldier, mourned the death of his friend, saying, "It's a sad loss." He was a fantastic professional, but with a keen sense of humor." "Award-winning screen actor" Peter Cotes, writing in The Guardian, dubbed him one of Britain's "most original screen characters actors," while The Times obituary noted that "could lend respect to the smallest part."

"No wonder so many people whose lives were very different from his own came to be so fond of him," the Guardian reflected on Le Mesurier's fame. On Sunday, "Actors' Church" in St Paul's, Covent Garden, where Bill Pertwee spoke, was a memorial service.

Source

Career

The Millicent Ward repertory company staged evening performances of three-act plays; the pieces remained each week, and rehearsals were held during the following week's performance. Le Mesurier, a boy under his birth name, made his stage debut at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh, J. B. Priestley and three other newcomers to the company reside in Dangerous Corner. Le Mesurier was well cast in the role, according to the Scotsman's reviewer. Appearances in While Parents Sleep and Cavalcade were followed by a break, as issues with the theatre's lease were uncovered. Le Mesurier was first accepted by Alec Guinness in a John Giel Guinness's Hamlet film, which began in Streatham in 1935 and later toured the English provinces. Le Mesurier understudied Anthony Quayle's role as Guildenstern, as well as other actors who appeared in the role as an extra.

Le Mesurier, a founder of the Oldham repertory company headquartered in Coliseum Theatre in July 1935, was fired after one week for missing a performance after oversleeping. He travelled to the Sheffield Repertory Theatre in September 1935 to appear in Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, and also in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night's Malvolio. "I had no idea it was going to take so long," Le Mesurier said later on his career's stagnation: "I should have given the whole thing up." He appeared in nine productions in 1936 and 1937, he joined the Croydon Repertory Theatre in 1937. During this time, Le Mesurier's profession changed from John Halliley to John Le Mesurier, and his biographer Graham McCann notes that "he never bothered, at least in public, to clarify the reason for his decision." For the first time in the 1937 production of Love on the Dole, Le Mesurier used his new name.

Le Mesurier first appeared on television in 1938, becoming one of the medium's first stars. He appeared in The Marvelous History of St Bernard, in which he appeared as Seigneur de Miolans in a play based on a 15th-century manuscript by Henri Ghéon. He performed on stage in Edinburgh and Glasgow with the Howard and Wyndham Players, at least until 1938, when he returned to London and revived the Croydon Repertory Theatre.

He died a few months later, when he went from May to October 1939, first in London and then on tour. Le Mesurier's "poor performance" was considered by the reviewer of The Manchester Guardian, who said that "the voice is not overemphasised." One can praise it more by quoting Mr. X. Le Mesurier gives one a very uncomfortable feeling in the stomach."

Le Mesurier toured Britain from November to December 1939, working with Goodness, How Sad, during which he met the director's daughter, June Melville, whom he married in April 1940. After appearing in a number of productions in Blackpool between January and February 1940, he returned to London, where he appeared at the Brixton Theatre in Blackpool. Le Mesurier played many roles throughout repertory, including "comedies and tragedy, thrillers, and fantasies, dramatic courtroom romances, Shakespeare and Ibsen, Sheridan and Wilde, Congreve and Coward. The range was amazing."

A German bomb wreaked havoc on Le Mesurier's rented house in September 1940, destroying all of his possessions, including his call-up papers. The theatre in Brixton, where he was working, was also struck in the same bombing attack. He joined the Royal Armoured Corps for basic training; in June 1941, he was called into the Royal Tank Regiment just a few days later. He was in Britain until 1943, before being sent to British India, where he spent the remainder of the war. I had "a good war, with captaincy thrusting on me," Le Mesurier later said, long before I was demobbed in 1946.

Le Mesurier returned to Britain; he struggled for jobs, appearing in only a few small roles. In February 1948, he made his film debut in the second feature comedy short Death in the Hand, starring Esme Percy and Ernest Jay. He continued with smaller roles in the 1949 film Old Mother Riley's New Venture (where his name was mispelt on the credits as "Le Meseurier") and the 1950 crime film Dark Interval, where his name was mispelled on the credits as "Le Meseurier." He appeared on stage in Birmingham often during the same period.

Le Mesurier appeared on television in 1951, including that of Doctor Forrest in The Railway Children, Ed Manuelo Lucas in Sherlock Holmes: The Second Stain, and Joseph in the nativity film A Time to Be Born. In the radio series Educating Archie, Tony Hancock joined Le Mesurier's second wife, Hattie Jacques (the couple married in 1949 following his separation from June Melville earlier this year). Le Mesurier and Hancock became best friends; they'd often go for drinking sessions in Soho, where they met in jazz clubs. After Hancock's dissolution of Educating Archie in 1952 after one season, the two friendship continued, and Jacques became a member of Hancock's Half Hour cast in 1956.

Le Mesurier appeared in the films Blind Man's Bluff and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire in 1952, as well as appearing in the films Blind Man's Bluff and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire. Parnell Bradbury, writing in The Times, thought that Le Mesurier had played the role exemplaryly; Harold Hobson of The Sunday Times said that "the difficulty with Mr. John Le Mesurier's Dr. Weston is that he approaches the man too snarlingly [it] is a sense of genius that would be unacceptable outside of Victorian melodrama." He appeared in 1953 as a bureaucrat in the short film The Pleasure Garden, which received the Prix du Film de Fantaie Poétique at the Cannes Film Festival. According to Philip Oakes, after a long line of small roles in second films, his 1955 portrayal of the registrar in Roy Boulting's comedy Josephine and Men "joked him out of the rut."

Private's Progress, a television show of war II, Le Mesurier appears as a psychiatrist in Josephine and Men, John and Roy Boulting's 1956 film, Private's Progress. Many leading British actors of the time, including Ian Carmichael and Richard Attenborough, were among the cast members. The cast was "embellished" by Le Mesurier's presence, according to Dilys Powell, a Sunday Times columnist. Le Mesurier appeared in Attenborough's The Baby and the Battleship, and Roy Boulting's Brothers in Law, the latter of which also featured Carmichael and Terry-Thomas. He appeared on television in a number of roles in Douglas Fairbanks Presents, a series of short dramas.

When Hancock invited Le Mesurier to be one of Hancock's regular supporting actors, it provided a new source of income as it went from radio to television. Le Mesurier appeared on seven episodes of the show between 1957 and 1960, as well as in an episode of a sequel to Hancock. He appeared in ten films in 1958, one of which was Roy Boulting's comedy Happy Is the Bride, which Dilys Powell wrote in The Sunday Times: "[M]y vote for the most entertaining contributions... goes to the two fathers, John Le Mesurier and Cecil Parker." Le Mesurier appeared in 13 films, including "All Right Jack," the most well-received of Le Mesurier's credited films this year; he also served as a doctor in Ben-Hur in 1959, the busiest year of his career;

In 1960, Le Mesurier appeared in nine films, as well as nine television shows, including episodes of Hancock's Half Hour, Saber of London, and Danger Man. Mr. Topaze, Peter Sellers' directorial debut, was a film that debounded both critically and commercially. In a recording of excerpts from R vs. Penguin Books Ltd's trial concerning the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, which also featured Michael Hordern and Maurice Denham, Mr. Justice Byrne appeared. J.W. Le Mesurier gave "precisely the air of innate incredulity" which the learned man exhibited in court, according to Lambert, who was writing for The Sunday Times. In the first of Tony Hancock's two main film cars, The Rebel, he appeared in Hancock's office manager.

Powell appeared in Wendy Toye's comedy film We Joined the Navy before reuniting with Peter Sellers in Sidney Gilliat's film That Uncertain Feeling, "the armour of his gravity was penetrated by polite bewilderment." Le Mesurier was compared by her to American straight-face comedian John McGiver. Le Mesurier joined him in the 1963 comedy The Wrong Arm of the Law after appearing in another Sellers film, "Waltz of the Toreadors." Powell weighed in on John Le Mesurier's film once more, claiming that "I think I knew every shade of him" by now (not that I could ever get sick of them); but there seems to be a new light here. In the second and last of Tony Hancock's acting vehicles, The Punch and Judy Man, he appeared in a third Sellers film, The Pink Panther, as a defense lawyer, as well as in The Pink Panther, a third one. In the second film, Le Mesurier played Sandman; Powell wrote that the role "allowed a more delicate and subtler character than normal." He appeared in a series of advertisements for Homepride flour in 1964, including the voice-over for animated character Fred the Flourgrader; he remained as the voice until 1983.

Le Mesurier played Reverend Jonathan Ives in Jacques Tourneur's 1965 science fiction film City Under the Sea before returning to comedy in Where the Spies Are, a comedy-adventure film starring David Niven. Le Mesurier appeared in 1966 and 1966 in the ITV sitcom George and the Dragon, as Colonel Maynard, as well as Sid James and Peggy Mount. There were four series in 1966 and 1968, with a total of 26 episodes. He appeared in four episodes of a Coronation Street spin-off series Pardon the Expression, in which he co-starred Arthur Lowe.

In 1968 Le Mesurier was offered a role in a new BBC situation comedy starring an upper-middle-class Sergeant Arthur Wilson in Dad's Army; he was the second choice after Robert Dorning. Le Mesurier was unsure about taking the part as he was wrapping up George and the Dragon's last series and didn't want to appear on another long-running television role. He was persuaded by an increase in his salary — to £262.50) per episode — and the casting of his old friend Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones. Le Mesurier was initially uncertain about how to portray his role, and series writer Jimmy Perry recommended that you make the role your own. Le Mesurier decided to base the character on himself, later writing, "I thought, why not just be myself, use an extension of my own identity, and be more like I had in the army." So I always had a button or two on hand, and the sleeve of my battle dress was just slightly altered. I spoke softly, gave orders as if they were invitations (the sort that are unlikely to be accepted) and generally assumed a calm air of helplessness. "We wanted Wilson to be the face of sanity," Perry later said, "We want Wilson to be the voice of sanity; he has become John."

Nicholas de Jongh said in a tribute written after Le Mesurier's death that Wilson influenced Le Mesurier's death that it was in his role as a performer. The Times described Captain George Mainwaring's appearance as "a memorable piece of one of television's most popular shows." "It was the tentative exchanges of one-upmanship between Le Mesurier's Wilson, a figure of delicate gentility, and Arthur Lowe's pompous, middle-class platoon leader Captain Mainwaring that added to the best scenes," Tise Vahagi, writing for the British Film Institute's Screenonline, commented. Le Mesurier loved making the film, particularly fortnight, where the cast would film in Thetford each year filming the outside scenes. The program lasted nine years and included eighty episodes, ending in 1977.

Le Mesurier was flown to Venice over a weekend to appear in the film Midas Run, an Alf Kjellin-directed crime film that also starred Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood, and Fred Astaire during the filming of the series in 1969. During the filming, Le Mesurier became a colleague of Astaire, and they often dined together in a local cafe while watching horse racing on television. Norman Cohen produced a feature film about Dad's Army in 1971; Le Mesurier later appeared as Wilson in a stage revival that toured the UK in 1975–76. Le Mesurier produced the single "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" on the reverse side, with Arthur Lowe appearing on the former. In 1975, Warner's Army, as well as an album, Dad's Army, starring the whole cast, was released on the Warner label.

Le Mesurier appeared in films, including the role of the prison governor opposite No.l Coward in the 1969 Peter Collinson-directed The Italian Job, with the exception of his father's Army appearances. Le Mesurier's role in his Sergeant Wilson character's "mild demeanour" was praised by cinema historian Amy Sargeant. Le Mesurier appeared in Ralph Thomas' Doctor in Suffering as the purser in 1970; he also appeared in On a Sunny Day You Can See Forever, a romantic fantasy musical.

Le Mesurier, a 1971 actor, appeared in Dennis Potter's television play Traitor, in which he portrayed a "boozy British aristocrat who became a spy for the Soviets," and his role earned him the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' "Best Television Actor" award. Sergio Angelini, a writer for the British Film Institute, thought "Le Mesurier is utterly persuasive in an atypical role." The performance by Chris Dunkley, a contributing writer to The Times, described it as "a stunning portrait made vividly true by one of Mr Mesurier [sic]'s finest performances ever given." The Sunday Times' reviewer confirmed that Le Mesurier, who has spent a lifetime helping other actors with the support of a pit-prop, gets the lead role; he looks, sounds, and feels exactly right." Nancy Banks-Smith, a Guardian reporter, called the job "his Hamlet" and said it was worth waiting for. Although we were delighted to have been rewarded, Le Mesurier remarked that the aftermath was "something of an anticlimax." There were no exciting offers of work in."

Le Mesurier appeared in Val Guest's 1972 sex comedy Au Pair Girls, and starred alongside Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols in Bob Kellett's The Alf Garnett Saga. In 1974, he appeared as a police inspector in a Val Guest film called Confessions of a Window Cleaner, alongside Robin Askwith and Antony Booth. Bod, an animated children's programme from the BBC, was also narrated this year; there were thirteen episodes in total.

"Because never frightening, he does have a strong sense of melancholy," Le Mesurier's performance of Jacob Marley in a BBC television adaptation of A Christmas Carol, which starred Michael Hordern as Ebenezer Scrooge; Sergio Angelini, writing for the British Film Institute, expressed concern and sadness in 1977. Sir Gawain appeared in Walt Disney's Unidentified Flying Oddball, directed by Russ Mayberry and co-starring Dennis Dugan, Jim Dale, and Kenneth More in 1979. Time Out praised the film as "an intelligent film with a cohesive plot and an amusing script" and cited it as "one of the best Disney attempts to hop on the sci-fi bandwagon" as "one of the best Disney attempts to jump on the sci-fi bandwagon." The reviewers praised the cast, particularly Kenneth More's Arthur and Le Mesurier's Gawain, who were "rather touchingly portrayed as friends who have grown old together."

In the 1981 radio version of The Lord of the Rings, Le Mesurier appeared in The Wise Old Bird on BBC Radio 4's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and he appeared on the same station as Bilbo Baggins. In a production of Nol Coward's 1920s play Hay Fever, he appeared alongside David Bliss alongside Constance Cummings, as Judith Bliss. Robert Cushman wrote for The Observer, but Michael Billington, writing for The Guardian, thought Le Mesurier served as a "grey, delicate wisp of a man, full of half-completed gestures and seraphic smiles."

In Granada Television's 1981 version of Brideshead Revisited, he played Father Mowbray. He appeared on episodes of The Goodies, a British comedy television series, and in an early episode of Hi-de-Hi! Peter Sellers' last film role, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, was completed just months before Sellers' death in July 1980.

Arthur Wilson appeared in It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a radio sequel to Dad's Army, in which Wilson had been named as the bank manager of the Frambourne-on-Sea branch, although Arthur Lowe's character, Captain George Mainwaring, was trying to apply for a loan to renovate the local pier. Because of Lowe's death in April 1982, only a pilot episode was recorded, and the project was suspended. Lowe's role was revived later this year when two other Dad's Army cast members were recalled, including Pike, played by Ian Lavender, and Hodges, played by Bill Pertwee. A pilot and twelve episodes were later recorded and broadcast in 1984. Le Mesurier has collaborated with Clive Dunn, an ex-Dad's Army colleague, to produce "There Ain't Much Change in a Pound These Days"/"After All These Years," which had been written by Le Mesurier's stepson, David Malin. In 1982, the single was released on KA Records.

In a four-part television series A Married Man, he appeared alongside Anthony Hopkins in March 1983, before he started narration on the short film The Passionate Pilgrim, an Eric Morecambe vehicle, which was Morecambe's last film before his death.

Le Mesurier played in The Robert Morley play Goodness, How Sad!, directed by June Melville in 1939; his father Frederick owned many theatres, including the Lyceum, Prince's, and Brixton. Melville and Le Mesurier married in April 1940, sparking a passion. In September 1940, Le Mesurier was called into the army but after his demobilization in 1946, he discovered that his wife had become an alcoholic: "She became very worried about appointments and haphazard professionally." As a result, the couple split and were divorced in 1949.

Le Mesurier and fellow actor Geoffrey Hibbert performed at the Players' Theatre in London in June 1947, where Hattie Jacques was one of the performers. Le Mesurier and Jacques began to see each other on a daily basis; Le Mesurier was still married but estranged from his wife. "Don't you think it's about time we got married?" Jacques suggested to Le Mesurier in 1949, when his divorce fell through. Robin and Kim, the couple's two sons, were born in November 1949 and had two sons.

Jacques began a life in 1962 with her driver John Schofield, who gave her the attention and care that Le Mesurier didn't have. Le Mesurier converted into a separate room when Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family's house and attempted to restore the marriage. "I could have walked out," he later wrote about this period, but I was proud of Hattie and the boys, but I was certain—we could fix the harm." He died on holiday in Tangier in 1963 and was hospitalized in Gibraltar, which caused a decline in his health. He returned to London to find that his wife and her lover were unresolved, which resulted in a relapse.

Le Mesurier met Joan Malin at the Establishment club in Soho in 1963 during the final stages of his marriage's breakdown. He moved out of his marital home the following year, and Joan was invited to marry him the following day, who accepted his invitation. Le Mesurier allowed Jacques to bring a divorce lawsuit on the grounds of his own infidelity in order to ensure that the public blamed him for the break-up, thus avoiding any negative publicity for him. In March 1966, Le Mesurier and Malin married. Joan started a dating relationship with Tony Hancock and Le Mesurier was left homeless after being married. By this time, Hancock had become a self-confessed alcoholic and was verbally and physically threatening to Joan during their relationship.

Joan attempted suicide after a year together, with Hancock's unrest toward her worsening, she decided she could no longer live with Hancock and returned to her husband. Despite all this, Le Mesurier remained friends with Hancock, describing him as "a true genius, with a remarkable sense of warmth and compassion but also as a tormented and unhappy man." Joan resumed her affair with Hancock without Le Mesurier's knowledge, and when the comedians returned to Australia in 1968, she planned to track him if he could have escaped his alcoholism. After Hancock committed suicide on June 25, she scrapped these plans and remained with Le Mesurier.

Le Mesurier was a heavy drinker, but he was never drunk. He died in Australia in 1977 and landed in Australia, where he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and was forbidden from drinking. He didn't consider himself alcoholic before that, but he acknowledged that "it was the cumulative effect over the years that had caused the harm." It was a year and a half before he drank alcohol again, when he avoided spirits and drank only beer.

According to Jacques, his calculated uncertainty was the result of his marijuana use; however, Le Mesurier said that the drug was not to his liking; he only smoked it during his period of alcohol absorption. Le Mesurier's favorite pastime was visiting the jazz clubs in Soho, such as Ronnie Scott's, and he said, "listening to musicians like Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, or Alan Clare always made life seem that little bit better."

Le Mesurier's autobiography, A Jobbing Actor, was published in 1984, shortly after his death. Le Mesurier's health had drastically decreased from July 1983 when he was hospitalized for a short time after suffering a haemorrhage. When the illness resurfaced later this year, he was admitted to Ramsgate Hospital, but after telling his wife, "It's all lovely," he fell into a coma and died on November 15, 1983, aged 71. His remains were cremated and his remains were buried at the Church of St. George the Martyr, Ramsgate's Church Hill. "John Le Mesurier" is the epitaph in his epitaph. Actor Hugh Shepard is a much-loved actor. "Resting is the best thing." According to his self-penned death note in The Times on November 16, he had "conked out" and that he "sadly misses family and friends."

Eric Sykes, a comedian, reacted angrily after Le Mesurier's death, wrote: "I never heard a bad word against him." He was one of the greatest drolls of our time." Bill Pertwee, Le Mesurier's fellow Army soldier, mourned the loss of his friend, saying, "It's a sad loss." He was a superb professional, but with a vivacious sense of humor." "Because of the smallest part," director Peter Cotes wrote in The Guardian, called him one of Britain's "most accomplished screen actor actors," according to The Times' obituary, "could lend respect to the smallest part."

"No wonder so many people whose lives were very different from his own were so fond of Le Mesurier," the Guardian said. On Sunday, February 16th, 1984, a memorial service was held at the "Actors' Church" in St Paul's, Covent Garden, at which Bill Pertwee delivered the eulogy.

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