1. John Edward Thaw was an English actor in television, stage and cinema, best known for his television roles starring as Detective Inspector Jack Regan in The Sweeney and as Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse in Inspector Morse.
22 Facts About John Thaw
1. 2.
For four consecutive years Thaw was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for playing Morse, winning in 1990 and 1993.
3.
John Thaw grew up in Gorton and Burnage, attending the Ducie Technical High School for Boys, gaining just one O level.
4.
John Thaw entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16, and won the Academy's Vanburgh Award.
5.
In 1960, John Thaw made his stage debut in A Shred of Evidence at the Liverpool Playhouse and was awarded a contract with the theatre.
6.
John Thaw's first film role was a bit part in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner starring Tom Courtenay and he acted on stage opposite Laurence Olivier in Semi-Detached.
7.
John Thaw was a guest star in an early episode of The Avengers.
8.
John Thaw was cast in the police drama series The Sweeney alongside Dennis Waterman and Garfield Morgan, playing the hard-bitten, tough-talking Flying Squad detective Jack Regan.
9.
John Thaw followed this with the sitcom Home to Roost, which co-starred Reece Dinsdale, about a divorced father whose teenage son moves back in with him after choosing as a child to live with his mother.
10.
John Thaw won "Most Popular Actor" at the 1999 National Television Awards and won two BAFTA awards for his role as Morse.
11.
John Thaw subsequently played liberal working-class Lancastrian barrister James Kavanagh in Kavanagh QC.
12.
John Thaw is mainly known in America for the Morse series, as well as the BBC series A Year in Provence with Lindsay Duncan.
13.
John Thaw appeared in a number of films for director Richard Attenborough, including Cry Freedom, where he portrayed the conservative South African justice minister Jimmy Kruger, and Chaplin where he played the English music hall impresario Fred Karno alongside Robert Downey Jr.
14.
John Thaw appeared in the TV adaptation of the Michelle Magorian book Goodnight Mister Tom.
15.
John Thaw was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1981 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of the National Theatre in London.
16.
In 1964, John Thaw married Sally Alexander, a feminist activist and stage manager, now professor of history at Goldsmiths, University of London.
17.
John Thaw had three daughters : Abigail from his first marriage to Sally Alexander, Joanna from his second marriage to Sheila Hancock, and he adopted Sheila Hancock's daughter Melanie Jane, from Hancock's first marriage to Alec Ross.
18.
John Thaw was a committed socialist and a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party.
19.
John Thaw was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in March 1993 by Queen Elizabeth II.
20.
In September 2006, John Thaw was voted by the general public as number 3, after David Jason and Morecambe and Wise, in a poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars for the past 50 years.
21.
John Thaw underwent chemotherapy in hope of overcoming the illness, and at first had appeared to respond well to the treatment.
22.
John Thaw died on 21 February 2002, seven weeks after his 60th birthday, the day after he signed a new contract with ITV, and the day before his wife's birthday.