John Laurie

Laurie was born on 25 March 1897 in Dumfries, Dumfriesshire,^[4] to William Laurie (1856–1903), a clerk in a tweed mill and later a hatter and hosier, and Jessie Ann Laurie (née Brown; 1858–1935). He attended grammar school at Dumfries Academy, then abandoned a career in architecture to serve in the First World War as a member of the Honourable Artillery Company. Upon demobilisation he trained to become an actor under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He made his debut on stage in 1921.^[5][6]

A prolific Shakespearean actor, Laurie made his first appearance on the London stage in 1922 at the Old Vic where he played many leading roles.^[7] Soon after joining the Old Vic Laurie became involved with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon where he played such roles as Richard III, Othello and Macbeth. In only his second season at Stratford, Laurie got the chance to play Hamlet, which was almost unheard of for someone with such little experience. Laurie later said that he believed that his performance of the role was the definitive version, saying "That's the way to play Hamlet, don't wait too long, like some of the boys are doing today."^[8]

On radio, he created the role of John the Baptist in Dorothy L Sayers' cycle of plays The Man Born to Be King, and reprised the role in two further versions of the cycle. Laurie also played the part of MacDuff in a radio adaptation of Macbeth, with Ralph Richardson in the title role.^[9]

Laurie's first film was the 1930 film Juno and the Paycock, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock next cast him as John the Crofter in 1935's The 39 Steps, a breakthrough role for Laurie in just his third film. In 1936 Laurie and fellow Old Vic alumnus Laurence Olivier made their first film appearance together in As You Like It. Laurie went on to appear in Olivier's three Shakespearean films, Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955).^[11] During the Second World War Laurie served in the Home Guard, experience that would be useful for later projects.^[12] Other roles included Peter Manson in Michael Powell's The Edge of the World (1937), Clive Candy's batman in Powell and Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), a gardener in Medal for the General (1944), the farmer recruit in The Way Ahead (1944), and the brothel proprietor in Fanny by Gaslight (1944). In the 1945 Powell and Pressburger film I Know Where I'm Going! he had a small speaking part in a céilidh sequence for which he was also credited as an adviser. In the next decade, he played the psychiatrist Dr. James Garsten in Mine Own Executioner (1947), the repugnant Pew in Disney's Treasure Island (1950), Angus in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951), and Dr. MacFarlane in Hobson's Choice (1954).^[13]

In 1954, Laurie joined the Edinburgh Gateway Company to play the leading role in Robert Kemp's The Laird o' Grippy, a translation into Scots of Molière's L'avare.^[14]

Laurie's role as Private Frazer, the gaunt-faced, intense, pessimistic undertaker, and British Home Guard soldier in the sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977) remains his best known TV role.^[15] Dad's Army co-star Frank Williams noted in his autobiography that Laurie had ‘a sort of love-hate relationship with the show’, as despite earning him a lot a money he felt that a sitcom was beneath him.^[16] Said Graham McCann in his book Dad's Army: The Story of a Very British Comedy: "John Laurie was cantankerous, he was rather mischievous, he was someone who enjoyed playing a kind of a professional pessimist."^[17] He featured in many British series of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s including Tales of Mystery, Doctor Finlay's Casebook, and The Avengers.^[18]

Laurie starred as Mad Peter in the Hammer film The Reptile (1966), and later appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), the Disney film One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1979).^[4] One of his last appearances was in Return to the Edge of the World (1978), in which Michael Powell revisited his film of forty years earlier.^[19] Laurie's final work was in the BBC Radio 2 comedy series Tony's (1979) along with Victor Spinetti and Deborah Watling.^[20]

Laurie was married twice, first to Florence May Saunders, whom he met while at the Old Vic; she died from meningitis in 1926. His second wife was Oonah Veronica Todd-Naylor, who survived him. Together they had a daughter, Veronica (1939–2022).

Laurie died in 1980, aged 83, from emphysema in the Chalfont and Gerrards Cross Hospital, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire.^[21] His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. His widow Oonah (1901–1990) died ten years later.

• John Laurie at IMDb
• John Laurie at the BFI's Screenonline
• John Laurie BFI
• Letter from John Laurie at BBC archive