John Hickson Warner was a British film, television and stage actor whose career spanned more than five decades.
Background
Born the son of a clergyman in George in South Africa, Warner was educated at Brighton College after his family returned to Britain in 1929. He decided to become an actor while watching his father in an amateur production of the play Berkeley Square on Worthing Pier.
Career
His most famous rôle was that of Timothy Dawes in Salad Days, which premiered in the United Kingdom at the Royal in 1954, and transferred to the Vaudeville in London in the same year. His first job in 1939 was at the Little in Bristol. After service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War on board HMS Rattlesnake (he rose to the rank of Lieutenant), which included working on the Russian convoys, he resumed his acting career.
He appeared in Peter Brook"s productions of Romeo and Juliet and Love"s Labour"s Lost at the Royal Shakespeare in 1947.
In 1951 he played Osric and Reynaldo to Alec Guinness"s Hamlet at the New in London. Warner created the role of Timothy Dawes in Salad Days which premiered in the United Kingdom at the Royal in Bristol in June 1954, and transferred to the Vaudeville in London on 5 August 1954, running for 2,283 performances to become the longest-running show in musical theatre history until overtaken by My Fair Lady in the United States. (1956) and Oliver! He appeared in A Manitoba of Distinction at the New in 1957.
Other stage appearances included Canon Fulbert in Ronald Millar"s Abelard and Heloise at Wyndham"s (1970), the Royal Society of Chemistry "s Becket and The Taming of the Shrew (both 1961), Shaw"s Widowers" Houses at the Royal Stratford East (1965) and Ring Round the Moon at the Haymarket (1968). He acted in Guys and Dolls at the National in 1982, and in London Assurance (1989).
Achievements
Membership
Past chairman East Texas Hospital Foundation. Trustee Texas Chest Foundation. Former member Texas Governor's Commission on Physical Fitness.
Served with United States Coast Guard Reserve, 1942-1946. Member Tyler Chamber of Commerce (director, past president), Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute (director, past president), American Foundrymen's Society, Texas Association Business (director, past state chairman), Country Club of the Rockies, Willow Brook Country Club (director, past president Tyler), Masons, Shriners, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Connections
Married Patricia Pooley, February 25, 1950. Children: Katherine, Amanda.