Jack Watling | |
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Jack Watling as Professor Travers in the Doctor Who serial The Web of Fear.
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Born |
Jack Stanley Watling 13 January 1923 Chingford, Essex, England |
Died | 22 May 2001 Chelmsford, Essex, England |
(aged 78)
Occupation | Actor |
Spouse(s) | Patricia Hicks |
Children |
Dilys Watling Deborah Watling Giles Watling Nicky Matthews |
Jack Watling (13 January 1923 – 22 May 2001) was an English actor.
Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936. He made his first film appearances (all uncredited) in Sixty Glorious Years, Housemaster (both 1938) and Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939).
In 1941, he played Bill Hopkins in Once a Crook in his West End debut. Later that same year, he played George Perrey in Cottage to Let. He starred as Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham in the original 1942 production of Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.
He had a long career in low-key British films, originally in easy-going boyish roles. Early appearances were in We Dive at Dawn (1943), The Demi-Paradise (1943) opposite Laurence Olivier, The Way Ahead (1944) with David Niven, The Winslow Boy (1948) and Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953). In 1955 he appeared in Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin.
In 1958 he played Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall in the critically acclaimed docudrama A Night To Remember. In 1960 he appeared in the film Sink the Bismarck! as the Signals officer who reports "HMS Hood...has blown up!"