Career
Salew made the transition from stage to films in 1939, and according to Allmovie, "the manpower shortage during World World War II enabled the stout, balding Salew to play larger and more important roles than would have been his lot in other circumstances. He usually played suspicious-looking characters, often Germanic in origin." His screen roles included William Shakespeare in the comic fantasy Time Flies (1944), Grimstone in the Gothic melodrama Uncle Silas (1947), and the librarian in the supernatural thriller Night of the Demon (1957). John Salew was active into the television era, playing the sort of character parts that John McGiver played in the United States.