John Moffatt (actor)
Encyclopedia
John Moffatt is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...

 on BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

.

John Moffatt made his first appearance on stage in 1944, and was a member of repertory companies which included Perth, Oxford, Windsor and the Bristol Old Vic. He made his first London appearance in 1950, appeared with John Gielgud in The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...

in 1951 and in Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

in 1952, and with his idol Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...

 in The Apple Cart
The Apple Cart
The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza is a 1928 play by George Bernard Shaw. It is satirical comedy about several political philosophies which are expounded by the characters, often in lengthy monologue...

in 1953. He has played with the Old Vic Company, at the Mermaid Theatre
Mermaid Theatre
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre at Puddle Dock, in Blackfriars, in the City of London and the first built there since the time of Shakespeare...

, and in New York, as well as in the London West End. For the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 his parts included Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...

and Menenius in Coriolanus
Coriolanus
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...

.

He has written pantomimes, and appeared in them as the Dame, one of his favourite roles. In 1972, he acted and sang in Cowardy Custard
Cowardy Custard
Cowardy Custard is a musical revue and was one of the last Noël Coward shows staged during his life. It was devised by Gerard Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. A book, also titled Cowardy Custard, was published in connection with the revue, similarly celebrating the Coward image.The biographical...

, the tribute to Noel Coward that was running at the time of Coward's death.

Selected filmography

  • Prick Up Your Ears
    Prick Up Your Ears
    Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr...

    (1987) as Wigmaker
  • Miss Marple
    Miss Marple (TV series)
    Miss Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. It starred Joan Hickson in the title role, and aired from 1984 to 1992. All twelve original Miss Marple Christie novels have been dramatised. The screenplays were written by T. R...

    The Body in the Library
    The Body in the Library (1984 TV film)
    The Body in the Library is a 1984 television film adaption of Agatha Christie's 1942 detective novel The Body in the Library which was co-produced by the BBC and the A&E Network. The film uses an adapted screenplay by T. R. Bowen and was directed by Silvio Narizzano...

    (1984) as Edwards
  • Private Schulz
    Private Schulz (TV series)
    Private Schulz was a BBC television comedy drama mini-series starring Michael Elphick in the title role and Ian Richardson playing various parts...

    (1981) as Kaltenbrunner
  • S.O.S. Titanic
    S.O.S. Titanic
    S.O.S. Titanic is a 1979 television movie that depicts the doomed 1912 voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in First, Second, and Third Class, and respectively in a historically accurate fashion...

    (1979) as Benjamin Guggenheim
  • Murder on the Orient Express
    Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
    Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...

    (1974) as Chief Attendant
  • Romance with a Double Bass (1974) as Major Domo
  • Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) as Murray
  • Julius Caesar
    Julius Caesar (1970 film)
    Julius Caesar is a 1970 independent film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play, directed by Stuart Burge from a screenplay by Robert Furnival. The film stars Charlton Heston , Jason Robards and John Gielgud . It is the first film version of the play made in color...

    (1970) as Popilius Lena
  • Tom Jones
    Tom Jones (film)
    Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...

    (1963) as Square
  • The Silent Enemy
    The Silent Enemy (film)
    The Silent Enemy is a 1958 action film directed by William Fairchild. It stars Laurence Harvey as Lionel "Buster" Crabb and describes his exploits during World War II...

    (1958) as Driver Volunteer
  • A Night to Remember (1958) as Benjamin Guggenheim
  • Loser Takes All (1956) as Barman


John Moffatt made his television debut in 1953,and has made appeared many times on screen over the decades. He played Joseph Surface in The School For Scandal (with Joan Plowright
Joan Plowright
Joan Ann Plowright, Baroness Olivier, DBE , better known as Dame Joan Plowright, is an English actress, whose career has spanned over sixty years. Throughout her career she has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy, and two BAFTA Awards...

), Casca in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...

, Malvolio and Sir Andrew in two different productions of Twelfth Night - and Ben in R.F. Delderfield's prequel to Stevenson, The Adventures of Ben Gunn.

He first broadcast in 1950 in Mrs Dale's Diary
Mrs Dale's Diary
Mrs Dale's Diary was the first significant BBC radio serial drama. It was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 5 January 1948, and subsequently transferred to the newly formed Radio 2 in 1967, where it ran until 25 April 1969...

, and became a microphone regular - parts including (apart from Poirot) both Holmes and Watson in various versions, Oswald to John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...

's King Lear, Lord Chief Justice to Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...

's Falstaff and Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop
The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel by Charles Dickens. The plot follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London....

. In the nineteen-eighties he was a member of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Radio Drama Company.

External links

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