1. In 1948, Stratford Johns bought a one-way ticket to Britain and learned his craft working in repertory theatre at Southend-on-Sea for almost five years.
16 Facts About Stratford Johns
1. 2.
Stratford Johns began to appear in British films from the mid-1950s, including a bit part in the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers.
3.
Stratford Johns ran a small hotel in London during the 1950s, and was a member of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre during the Angry Young Men period when new playwrights, including John Osborne, introduced new themes to British theatre.
4.
Stratford Johns played the voice of the mysterious "Guvnor" in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery.
5.
Stratford Johns was the subject of This Is Your Life in October 1963 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at BBC Television Centre.
6.
In 1973 Stratford Johns was named BBC TV Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain.
7.
Stratford Johns portrayed the apartheid-supporting Namib mine superintendent Mr Zimmerman in two episodes of the 1985 mini-series Master of the Game.
8.
Stratford Johns later appeared in the Ken Russell films Salome's Last Dance and The Lair of the White Worm, followed by the mid-1980s Channel 4 series Brond, in which he played the title character.
9.
Stratford Johns had a prominent role as Calpurnius Piso in the BBC's acclaimed adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius ; he played Magwitch in the BBC's 1981 adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, and the jailer in The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs.
10.
Stratford Johns appeared in the 1984 pop video for Young at Heart recorded by The Bluebells.
11.
In 1993, Stratford Johns appeared in the BBC period drama Scarlet and Black alongside a young Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz.
12.
Stratford Johns played the role of Cyril Isaiah Greengrass, the conniving brother of Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the nostalgic Yorkshire Television series, Heartbeat.
13.
Stratford Johns was the author of the children's book Gumphlumph; in the mid-1960s, at the height of his fame as Barlow, he read it on the children's television series Jackanory.
14.
Gumphlumph would be revived, again with Stratford Johns narrating, for the TV-am children's programme Rub-a-Dub-Tub in the 1980s.
15.
Stratford Johns married Nanette Ryder in 1955; they had four children.
16.
Stratford Johns ran the small hotel in St Martins Lane called the St Martins Hotel; it was managed by Elizabeth Kissick-Jones, formerly Hartnell, who was the aunt of his wife Nanette.