Background
He was born in South East London.
He was born in South East London.
He took a number of film roles during the late 1940s and early 1950s which included a sinister role, Stringer, in High Treason. During the 1960s, he appeared in a number of high profile British Broadcasting Corporation television roles such as in Doctor Who. Most famously, he played the artist Aubrey Green in The Forsyte Saga in (1967).
He also took the lead in a highly acclaimed Wednesday Night Play.
One of his notable early films was High Treason by Roy Boulting (1951). Secretariat in a tense and austere London during the early Cold War, the tense plot follows the secret services MI5 pursuing a terrorist cell group.
John Bailey"s cold and ruthless assassin, Stringer, speaks with a convincing Russian accent. As an actor, he had considerable vocal range, notably employing a clipped, upper class English accent as Inspector Grant in Josephine Tey"s The Franchise Affair (1951).
His dark looks and convincing accents led to roles as Italians or Eastern Europeans.
The British Broadcasting Corporation television Wednesday Night Play about Sacco and Vanzetti (1967) addressed the topical issue of the death penalty. Written by Jean Benedetti the play was entitled The Good Shoe Maker and the Poor Fish Pedlar. John Bailey played Bartolomeo Venzetti, an Italian immigrant in America whose execution was widely regarded as having been a miscarriage of justice.
He also made various appearances in Doctor Who, including "The Sensorites" (1964), playing Edward Waterfield in "The Evil of the Daleks" (1967) and "The Horns of Nimon" (1979), as well as appearing in several episodes of The Avengers and as Hans Frank in the 1978 American television miniseries Holocaust.
Select filmography:
lieutenant Happened in Soho (1948)
Manitoba on the Run (1949)
Cairo Road (1950)
Circle of Danger (1951) as Pape Llewellyn
The Franchise Affair (1951) as Inspector Grant
High Treason (1951) as Stringer
Venetian Bird (1952) as Lieutenant Longo
The Night Won"t Talk (1952) as Clayton Hawkes
So Little Time (1952)
Operation Amsterdam (1959) as an officer
Moment of Danger (1960)
Never Let Go (1960) as MacKinnon
Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966) as the royal physician
Running Scared (1972) as Inspector
Personal Services (1987) as Mr.