Jack Warner (actor)
Jack Warner, OBE (born Horace John Waters, 24 October 1895 – 24 May 1981) was a British film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp and later in the television series Dixon of Dock Green from 1955 until 1976, but he was also for some years one of Great Britain's most popular film stars.
Jack Warner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Horace John Waters 24 October 1895 Bromley-by-Bow, London, England |
| Died | 24 May 1981 (aged 85) London, England |
| Resting place | East London Cemetery, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1943–1978 |
| Known for | Dixon of Dock Green |
| Spouse(s) | Muriel Peters (m. 1933) |
Early life
Warner was born Horace John Waters[1] in Bromley, Poplar, London, the third child of Edward William Waters, master fulling maker and undertaker's warehouseman, and Maud Mary Best.[2] His sisters Elsie and Doris Waters were well-known comediennes, who usually performed as "Gert and Daisy".[3]
Warner attended the Coopers' Company's Grammar School for Boys in Mile End,[4] while his sisters both attended the nearby sister school, Coborn School for Girls in Bow. The three children were choristers at St. Leonard's Church, Bromley-by-Bow, and for a time, Warner was the choir's soloist.[4]
On leaving school he studied automobile engineering at the Northampton Institute (now part of the City University, London) but being more practical than academic he left after a year to work at the repair facilities of F.W. Berwick and Company in Balham,[2] where he started by sweeping the floors for 2d per hour.[5] Frederick William Berwick became a partner in the Anglo-French automobile manufacturing company Sizaire-Berwick, and in August 1913 Warner was sent to work as a mechanic in Paris. He drove completed chassis to the coast from where they were shipped to England, road-testing them en route.[6] He acquired a working knowledge of French which stood him in good stead throughout his life, an imitation of Maurice Chevalier became a part of his repertoire.[2]
During the First World War he served in France as a driver in the Royal Flying Corps and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1918. He returned to England and the motor trade in 1919, graduating from hearses to occasional car racing at Brooklands. He was over thirty before he became a professional entertainer.[2]
Career
Warner first made his name in music hall and radio. By the early years of the Second World War, he was nationally known and starred in a BBC radio comedy show Garrison Theatre, invariably opening with, "A Monologue Entitled...".
Film
Warner's first film was The Dummy Talks (1943), in which he had the lead role. He had a support role in The Captive Heart (1946), a successful film. Also popular was Hue and Cry (1947) and Dear Murderer (1947).
Warner first really made his mark as a movie star as the patriarch of the Hugget family in Holiday Camp (1947) which was a big hit. He played a policeman in It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) another popular movie and was another family man in the comedy Easy Money (1948).
He was in a war film Against the Wind (1948) and starred in a thriller My Brother's Keeper (1948). The Huggett family had been so well received in Holiday Camp that Gainsborough decided to give them their own series, so Warner was seen in Here Come the Huggetts (1948), Vote for Huggett (1949) and The Huggetts Abroad (1949). Warner was one of several names in Train of Events (1949) and played the governor of a borstal institution in Boys in Brown (1949).
Warner was already established as one of the most popular British actors in the country. His stock rose further when he played PC George Dixon in The Blue Lamp (1950), the most seen film at the box office that year.[7][8] One observer predicted, "This film will make Jack the most famous policeman in Britain".[8]
Warner performed in a comedy Talk of a Million (1951) and a thriller Valley of Eagles (1951). He had a small part in Scrooge (1951) then played a policeman again in Emergency Call (1952). He was one of several stars in Meet Me Tonight (1952) and returned to comedy for Those People Next Door (1953). He was top billed in The Square Ring (1953) and The Final Test (1953). In the POW film Albert R.N. (1953) he was billed beneath Anthony Steel.
Additional thrillers followed: Bang! You're Dead (1954) and Forbidden Cargo (1954). He co-starred in the 1955 Hammer film version of The Quatermass Xperiment and as a police superintendent in the 1955 Ealing Studios black comedy The Ladykillers.
Even with his success that followed in television, Warner performed in the occasional film such as Now and Forever (1956), Home and Away (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and Jigsaw (1962). His last film appearance was in Dominique (1978).
Television
Although the police constable he played in The Blue Lamp was shot dead in the film, the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran until 1976. In later years though, Warner and his long-past-retirement-age character were confined to a less prominent desk sergeant role. The series had a prime-time slot on Saturday evenings, and always opened with Dixon giving a little soliloquy to the camera, beginning with the words, "Good evening, all". According to Warner's autobiography, Jack of All Trades, Elizabeth II once visited the television studio where the series was made and told Warner "that she thought Dixon of Dock Green had become part of the British way of life".[9]
Personal life and death
Warner married Muriel Winifred (Mollie) Peters, a company secretary, in 1933. They had no children.[10]
Warner was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965.[11] In 1973, he was made a Freeman of the City of London. Warner commented in his autobiography that the honour "entitles me to a set of 18th century rules for the conduct of life urging me to be sober and temperate". Warner added, "Not too difficult with Dixon to keep an eye on me!"[12]
He died of pneumonia in the Royal Masonic Hospital, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, London, in 1981 at age 85.[10] The characterisation by Warner of Dixon was held in such high regard that officers from Paddington Green Police Station bore the coffin at his funeral.[13]
Warner is buried in East London Cemetery.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | The Dummy Talks | Jack | |
| 1946 | The Captive Heart | Cpl. Horsfall | |
| 1947 | Hue and Cry | Nightingale | |
| Dear Murderer | Insp. Penbury | ||
| Holiday Camp | Joe Huggett | ||
| It Always Rains on Sunday | Detective Sergeant Fothergill | ||
| 1948 | Easy Money | Philip Stafford | |
| Against the Wind | Max Cronk | ||
| My Brother's Keeper | George Martin | ||
| Here Come the Huggetts | Joe Huggett | ||
| 1949 | Vote for Huggett | ||
| The Huggetts Abroad | |||
| Train of Events | Jim Hardcastle | (segment: "The Engine Driver") | |
| Boys in Brown | Governor | ||
| 1950 | The Services Show | TV Series | |
| The Blue Lamp | PC George Dixon | ||
| 1951 | Talk of a Million | Bartley Murnahan | |
| Valley of Eagles | Inspector Peterson | ||
| Scrooge | Mr. Jorkin | ||
| 1952 | The Monster of Killoon | Bill Anderson | TV movie |
| Emergency Call | Inspector Lane | ||
| Meet Me Tonight | Murdoch: Ways and Means | ||
| 1953 | Those People Next Door | Sam Twigg | |
| The Square Ring | Danny Felton | ||
| The Final Test | Sam Palmer | ||
| Albert R.N. | Capt. Maddox | ||
| 1954 | Bang! You're Dead | Bonsell | |
| Forbidden Cargo | Maj. Alec White | ||
| 1955 | The Quatermass Xperiment | Insp. Lomax | |
| The Ladykillers | The Superintendent | ||
| Dixon of Dock Green | P.C. (later Sgt) George Dixon | TV series (432 episodes: 1955–1976) | |
| 1956 | Now and Forever | Mr. J. Pritchard | |
| Home and Away | George Knowles | ||
| 1958 | Carve Her Name with Pride | Mr. Bushell | |
| 1960 | Upgreen – And at 'Em | ||
| 1962 | Jigsaw | Det. Insp. Fred Fellows | |
| 1978 | Dominique | George | (final film role) |
Box office ranking
For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.
Notes
- Warner (1975), p. 2.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. OUP Oxford.
- Warner (1975), pp. 74–75.
- Warner (1975), p. 10.
- Tell Me Another, personal anecdotes as told to Dick Hills. Southern Television, first broadcast 10 August 1977.
- "F. W. Berwick and Co". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 19 October 2015 – via gracesguide.co.uk.
Chassis were driven to the coast in groups of three and road-tested en-route by Jack Waters, prior to shipping to England.
- "Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits". The Sydney Morning Herald (35, 264). New South Wales, Australia. 29 December 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 2 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- Warner (1975), p. 108.
- Warner (1975), p. 84.
- Phil S (22 January 2013). "Careful. It might bring a lump in you throat!". newhamstory.co.uk. Archived from the original (message board) on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
- Warner (1975), p. 201.
- Warner (1975), p. 207.
- Sydney-Smith (2002), pp. 105–106.
- 'BRITTEN'S "RAPE OF LUCRETIA": NEW YORK DIVIDED', The Manchester Guardian (1901–1959) [Manchester (UK)] 31 Dec 1948: 8.
- "Bob Hope Takes Lead from Bing In Popularity". The Canberra Times. 31 December 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 24 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- "Success Of British Films." Times [London, England] 29 Dec. 1950: 4. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012
- "COMEDIAN TOPS FILM POLL". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 28 December 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 27 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
