IMDB

Actor

1915-11-01 · Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK · Male

9 series in the catalog

John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison (1 November 1915 – 22 July 1998) was an English actor. He often appeared with his wife, Dulcie Gray, with whom he featured in several films and more than 100 West End theatre productions.

After a conventional public school and university education he studied at a drama school and made his professional début in 1938. His 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.

He 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. He 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. He 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.

Early years

Denison was born in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, 1 November 1915, the only child of Gilbert Dixon Denison (1888–1959) − a paint manufacturer − and his wife, Marie Louise, née Bain (1888–1915). His 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. He 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. He acted with the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), making his first radio appearance when the BBC broadcast a studio adaptation of John Gielgud's OUDS production of Richard II in April 1936. He also appeared in As You Like It; in a history of the OUDS, Humphrey Carpenter writes:

He later played Macduff in Macbeth, but according to Punch, he was "resolute but hampered by an unfortunate wig". After graduating with a second-class degree in French and German in 1937 Denison went to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where he met Dulcie Gray, a fellow student, who became his wife and his frequent acting partner.

Denison made his professional stage début in 1938 as Lord Fancourt Babberly in a Frinton-on-Sea production of Charley's Aunt and in the same year, he made his first West End appearance with the London Mask company co-directed by J. B. Priestley, at the Westminster Theatre, playing Paris in Troilus and Cressida. He 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. He made his television début in January 1939, when the BBC relayed the company's production of Eugene O'Neill's Marco Millions.

Denison and Gray married in London in April 1939; they had no children. The Stage, in an obituary of 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". The couple, in the words of The Times, "honeymooned in rep in Aberdeen". They joined A. R. Whatmore's repertory company at His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, alongside colleagues including Elspeth March and Stewart Granger. The couple appeared there together in plays including Coward's Hay Fever and The Young Idea, Shaw's Arms and the Man, Priestley's Dangerous Corner and Gerald Savory's George and Margaret. Denison and Gray returned to London in October 1939; he appeared again at the Westminster as Peter Horlett in Priestley's Music at Night and Stephen Undershaft in Shaw's Major Barbara. In March 1940 Denison and Gray joined the H. M. Tennent Players, appearing in repertory in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Denison made his film debut in the 1940 British comedy Tilly of Bloomsbury, in which he played the juvenile lead, Dick Mainwaring.

In June 1940 Denison was called up for military service. He joined the Royal Signals and then transferred to the Intelligence Corps. Gray later commented, "He left as a 24-year-old repertory actor and came home six years later as a captain in Intelligence." Denison said that being away from the theatre was a trial for him: "Not to be able to act was terrible. It meant, too, that I missed my opportunity to get a grounding in Shakespeare. I was too old to start after the war".

Post-war

While Denison was serving in the armed forces his wife's acting career flourished, and by the time he returned she was an established star. At first he was seen by some as "Mr Dulcie Gray" and he struggled to re-establish himself in his own right. He toured with Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans in Priestley's latest play, Ever Since Paradise, and had supporting roles in two films: Hungry Hill (1947) and The Blind Goddess (1948). His 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 (1948). This was a considerable success and saw Denison voted the sixth most popular British star of the year.

Denison returned to the West End in August 1948, playing Sir Nicholas Corbel in Rain on the Just at the Aldwych Theatre, and then, from November 1949, Michael Fuller in Queen Elizabeth Slept Here at the Strand Theatre, alongside Gray in both productions. Denison appeared in a war film, Landfall (1949), and a romantic drama film with Gray, The Glass Mountain (1949).

1950s

After a seven-week pre-London tour, beginning in August 1950, Denison and Gray opened at the Ambassadors Theatre as Michael and Agnes in The Fourposter, a two-hander, charting the married life of a couple. For the cinema they starred in The Franchise Affair (1951), and after a cameo as a reporter in The Magic Box (1951), Denison had a major role in a war film, Angels One Five. In December 1951 he and Gray starred in a BBC television adaptation of Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's play Milestones.

In 1950 Associated British Productions (ABP) had acquired the film rights to The Importance of Being Earnest, and chose Denison and Gray to play Algernon Moncrieff and Gwendolen Fairfax. The head of production wanted Gielgud to direct, and asked Denison to approach him with the suggestion. Gielgud declined: "Oh, no, I don't think so. I've been doing the play for years and years. I don't see it as a film, do you?" ABP released the filming rights to the Rank Organisation in 1951; the director, Anthony Asquith, retained Denison but cast Joan Greenwood instead of Gray as Gwendolen. In a survey of productions of Wilde Robert Tanitch describes Denison's performance in Asquith's 1952 film as "a conceited and debonair Algernon, tossing off the epigrams in a bumptious manner".

At the St James's Theatre in December 1952 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. On film he appeared with Gray in There Was a Young Lady (1954), and supported Richard Greene in Contraband Spain (1955). Denison began appearing regularly on television. He was a panellist in the 1953 series of the BBC's What's My Line? and from 1956 to 1964 he starred in the title role of the ITV series Boyd QC, which ran for 78 episodes. He played what one critic called a "suave and elegant barrister... Britain's answer to Perry Mason" (although the Boyd series came first). The first 40 episodes were transmitted live.

At the Prince's Theatre in February 1954 Denison appeared as the White Knight, Tweedledee and Humpty Dumpty in Alice Through the Looking Glass; Gray played the White Queen. They reprised these roles the following year. At the Westminster in June 1954 Denison played Francis Oberon in We Must Kill Toni. He toured South Africa with Gray from…