(1 November 1943 - 12 April 2019)
The British actor John McEnery, younger brother of fellow actor Peter McEnery, has died at the age of 75. Born in Birmingham, he began acting at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, after training at the Bristol Old Vic. Much of his career was in theatre, where he did his best work. In his time he was a member of the National Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Young Vic. He entered films in 1965 playing extras in Olivier’s Othello, then did a TV movie of the National Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing, followed by the role of Mercutio in Zeffirelli’s film of Romeo and Juliet. He appeared with his brother in David Hart’s The Other People and then with Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar in The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun. Bartleby (1970) gave McEnery the title role opposite Paul Scofield in a film of the Herman Melville story. In France – and in French – he was in Gḗrard Brach’s The Boat on the Grass (scripted by Roman Polanski), followed by Nicholas and Alexandra, as Kerensky, The Ragman’s Daughter, written by Alan Sillitoe, Fury, by Edward Bond, David Halliwell’s Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, with John Hurt, The Land That Time Forgot, Losey’s Galileo with Topol, and an uncredited part with his then-wife Stephanie Beacham in David McGillivray’s screenplay for Pete Walker’s Schizo. After that and between stage roles, John McEnery mainly worked on television in Our Mutual Friend, Will Shakespeare, The Word, Nicholas Nickleby, Jamaica Inn, Sins, Poirot, The Buddha of Suburbia, The Broker’s Man, The Bill, and Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren, etc. Other films he made include The Duellists, Little Dorrit, The Krays, The Fool, Zeffirelli’s Hamlet (as Osric), Black Beauty, When Saturday Comes and Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003), his last film. His final TV appearances were in episodes of Silent Witness, Wallander and New Tricks. John McEnery was married to the actress Stephanie Beacham from 1973 to 1978, by whom he has two daughters, Phoebe and Chloe.
MICHAEL DARVELL
