John Bown

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

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

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Author	Theatre	Role	Company
1955	Both Ends Meet	Arthur Macrae	Spa Theatre, Whitby		[23]
1956	The Spring Pattern	Margaret Luce	Playhouse, Salisbury		[24]
1956	The School for Wives	Molière	Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham	Horace	Alexandra Repertory Company [25]
1957	The Touch of Fear	Dorothy and Campbell Christie	Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham	Michael Stanham	Alexandra Repertory Company[26]
1957	Plaintiff in a Pretty Hat	Hugh Williams and Margaret Williams	Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham	Lord Plynlimmon	Alexandra Repertory Company[27]
1958	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Tennessee Williams	New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool	Brick	New Shakespeare Theatre Company[28][8]
1958	The Deserters	Norman Thaddeus Vane	Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool	Eddy	[28][29]
1958	Bus Stop	William Inge	New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool	Beauregard "Bo" Decker	New Shakespeare Theatre Company[28]
1958	The Rose Tattoo	Tennessee Williams	New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool	Jack Hunter	New Shakespeare Theatre Company; British premiere [7][4]
1959	The Rose Tattoo	Tennessee Williams	New Theatre, London	Jack Hunter	Donmar Productions Ltd, Gilda Dahlberg and Sam Wanamaker Productions Ltd, and New Shakespeare Theatre Club[6][5]
1960	A Man for All Seasons	Robert Bolt	Gielgud Theatre, London	Richard Rich	Premiere[9]
1961	The Bird of Time	Peter Mayne	Savoy Theatre, London	Captain Alan Craig	Allan Davis Company[30]
1962	In the Jungle of Cities	Bertolt Brecht	Theatre Royal Stratford East	George Garga	[31]
1966	The Birdwatcher	Georges Feydeau, translated and adapted by Richard Cottrell	Hampstead Theatre Club	Duchotel	Hampstead Theatre Club[32][33]
1966	The Clandestine Marriage	Colman and Garrick	Chichester Festival Theatre	Lovewell	[34]
1973	A Winter's Tale	Shakespeare	Ludlow Festival	Leontes	[35]
1974	The Front Page	Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur	Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney; Comedy Theatre, Melbourne; Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide		Royal National Theatre[36]
1975	Death of a Salesman	Arthur Miller	Greenwood Theatre, King's College London; Arts Theatre, London	Biff Loman	Oxford Playhouse Company[15][37][38]
1975	The Caretaker	Harold Pinter	Warwick Arts Centre	Aston	Oxford Playhouse Company [14][39]
1976	Macbeth	Shakespeare	The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon	Lennox	Royal Shakespeare Company[40][41]
1977	Half an Hour, Please	John Bown	Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle upon Tyne	Dresser	Royal Shakespeare Company (Bown wrote and performed in this play as part of the Newcastle 'Fringe') [18]
1977	Macbeth	Shakespeare	Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon	Lennox	Royal Shakespeare Company [42]
1977	The Alchemist	Ben Jonson	The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon		Royal Shakespeare Company [43]
1977	Macbeth	Shakespeare	RSC Warehouse, London; Young Vic, London	Lennox	Royal Shakespeare Company [41][44]
1979	Every Good Boy Deserves Favour	Tom Stoppard	Oxford Playhouse	Alexander	Oxford Music Theatre [45]
1987	This Savage Parade	Anthony Shaffer	King's Head Theatre, London	Ophir	[46]

Close

Actor

• Asmodée (1959) as Harry Fanning^[47][19]
• Tunes of Glory (1960) as One of the Other Officers
• Out of the Fog (1962) as Herb Bailey
• Master Spy (1963) as John Baxter
• Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) as Antodus^[19]
• The Big Spender by Margot Bennett (1965) as Detective Inspector Tom Masefield^[19][20][21]
• Quatermass and the Pit (1967) as TV Interviewer (uncredited)
• The Devil Rides Out (1968) as Receptionist (uncredited)^[1]
• Doomwatch (1972) as Commander Neil Stafford^[19]
• Vampire Circus (1972) as Schilt^[1]
• Fear in the Night (1972) as 1st Policeman^[1]
• Macbeth (1979) as Lennox
• Dark Corners (2006) as Old Man

Director and screenwriter

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