38 Facts About Michael Denison

John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison was an English actor.

Michael Denison often appeared with his wife, Dulcie Gray, with whom he featured in several films and more than 100 West End theatre productions.

Michael Denison's career was interrupted by military service during the Second World War but by the end of the 1940s he re-established himself among leading actors of his generation, and remained so until his death in 1998.

Michael Denison was primarily a stage actor, and appeared in a wide range of roles from Shakespeare to farce, modern drama, musicals, drawing-room comedy, and thrillers.

Michael Denison made some cinema films, particularly in the late 1940s and the 1950s, including My Brother Jonathan, The Glass Mountain, Angels One Five and the 1952 adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest.

Michael Denison became known for his appearance in the title role of the long-running courtroom series Boyd QC which ran on British television from 1956 to 1964.

Michael Denison's mother died when Denison was three weeks old; he was brought up by his mother's sister and her husband, who had no children of their own.

Michael Denison was educated at Wellesley House School, a preparatory school in the coastal town of Broadstairs in Kent, followed by Harrow School and then Magdalen College, Oxford, studying modern languages.

Michael Denison acted with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, making his first radio appearance when the BBC broadcast a studio adaptation of John Gielgud's OUDS production of Richard II in April 1936.

Michael Denison appeared in As You Like It; in a history of the OUDS, Humphrey Carpenter writes:.

Michael Denison later played Macduff in Macbeth, but according to Punch, he was "resolute but hampered by an unfortunate wig".

Michael Denison remained with the company until March 1939, playing a range of roles, including Gordon Whitehouse in a revival of Priestley's Dangerous Corner, Redpenny in The Doctor's Dilemma and the Rev Alexander Mill in Candida.

Michael Denison made his television debut in January 1939, when the BBC relayed the company's production of Eugene O'Neill's Marco Millions.

The Stage, in an obituary of Michael Denison, observed that the couple appeared in more than 100 West End shows "and their marriage, which lasted very nearly 60 years, was regarded as one of the happiest in showbusiness".

In June 1940 Michael Denison was called up for military service.

Michael Denison joined the Royal Signals and then transferred to the Intelligence Corps.

Michael Denison toured with Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans in Priestley's latest play, Ever Since Paradise, and had supporting roles in two films: Hungry Hill and The Blind Goddess.

Michael Denison's career gained momentum after Gray helped to secure for him the leading role of the doctor starring opposite her in the film My Brother Jonathan.

Michael Denison appeared in a war film, Landfall, and a romantic drama film with Gray, The Glass Mountain.

At the St James's Theatre in December 1952 Michael Denison played Clive Jevons in Sweet Peril, with Gray as Robina Jevons; his next stage role was Brian in The Bad Samaritan at the Criterion Theatre in June, 1953.

At the Prince's Theatre in February 1954 Michael Denison appeared as the White Knight, Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty in Alice Through the Looking Glass; Gray played the White Queen.

At the Westminster in June 1954 Michael Denison played Francis Oberon in We Must Kill Toni.

Michael Denison toured South Africa with Gray from December 1954 to February 1955, in The Fourposter and Private Lives.

Michael Denison joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, Stratford-on-Avon in April 1955.

Michael Denison appeared in a supporting role in the 1957 film The Truth About Women.

At the Aldwych Theatre in August 1957 Michael Denison played Charles Cuttinghame in Meet Me By Moonlight, an only moderately successful mock-Victorian musical.

In June 1960 Michael Denison played the Rev James Morell in Shaw's 1898 play Candida at the Piccadilly and then Wyndham's; the run of 160 performances was the play's longest on record.

In London Michael Denison appeared in Hostile Witness at the Haymarket Theatre and in An Ideal Husband at the Strand, as Sir Robert Chiltern to Gray's Lady Chiltern.

In London, Michael Denison played a wide range of roles during the 1970s.

Michael Denison appeared in The Tempest, and as Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

Gray and Michael Denison appeared in a comedy, The Sack Race, in 1974, and later that year he played Mr Darling and Captain Hook in the 70th-anniversary production of Peter Pan, as he had long wanted to but other commitments had not until then allowed.

In 1975 Michael Denison was the only white member of the cast of The Black Mikado; he played Pooh-Bah in an adaptation of the original transplanted from Japan to the Caribbean.

Michael Denison appeared without Gray in a revival of Shaw's The Apple Cart ; a French farce, Court in the Act ; and Shaw's You Never Can Tell,.

Together with Gray, Michael Denison wrote The Actor and His World.

Michael Denison published two volumes of memoirs, covering both his own and his wife's life and career: Overture and Beginners and Double Act.

For many years Michael Denison was a leading figure in the actors' trade union, Equity.

Michael Denison was decorated by Queen Elizabeth II with the Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 and both he and his wife were appointed Commanders of the Order of the British Empire in 1983.

Michael Denison was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.