JOHN BENFIELD

16 Jun

(9 November 1951 - 16 June 2020)

The British actor John Benfield, who has died from cancer at the age of 68, was exceptional at playing heavy character roles on both sides of the law. Born Jonathan Turner in Wanstead, East London, he worked as an ambulance driver before studying acting at Webber Douglas. He did some stage work but was mainly on television. His TV debut was as the Gaoler in The Winter’s Tale in 1981. From there he did It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, The Day of the Triffids, Minder, The Sign of Four, The Beggar’s Opera (another Gaoler), P.D. James’ The Black Tower, and many others including more Shakespeare and, most notably, Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren. Benfield’s first film was Breakout (1984), then came Whoops Apocalypse, Buster, Ken Loach’s Hidden Agenda, Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day-Lewis, Hattie Macdonald’s Beautiful Thing, Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, Cousin Bette with Jessica Lange, You’re Dead with John Hurt, 24 Hours in London with Gary Olsen, Lover’s Prayer with Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gray with Cate Blanchett, the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer, Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, Giuseppe Tornatore’s Deception and The Coldest Game (2019) with Bill Pullman. John Benfield was married to Lilian Lees and they have a son, Freddie.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

JOHN BENFIELD

LEWIS JOHN CARLINO

LENNIE NIEHAUS