Background
John Talfryn Thomas was born in Swansea on 30 October 1922.
John Talfryn Thomas was born in Swansea on 30 October 1922.
He trained as an instrument mechanic but joined the local amateur dramatic society. During World World War II he was a rear gunner on a Lancaster bomber, flying on multiple raids into Germany. After surviving a crash in which all other crew were killed, he took up acting partly as therapy for the trauma, before training as an actor in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
Foreign some time Thomas acted in provincial theatres.
In the late 1950s he began making television appearances, and in the 1960s appeared in two episodes of The Avengers - A Surfeit of H2O (1965) and Look Stop Maine (1968) - as well as with Roger Moore in The Saint (1968) and in The Persuaders ! (as "The Poacher" in the episode "A Home Of One"s Own", 1971). He also played with Jon Pertwee in the Doctor Who serials, Spearhead from Space (1970) and The Green Death (1973).
Thomas excelled at playing quirky and sometimes seedy Welshmen. His distinctive appearance was enhanced by his protruding front teeth, which earned him the nickname "Talf The Teef".
In 1975 Thomas featured in several episodes of the first series of the British Broadcasting Corporation television series, Survivors, as Tom Price.
In 1979 he appeared on The Ken Dodd Laughter Show with Rita Webb and Pat Ashton (and he was a regular on Ken Dodd"s British Broadcasting Corporation radio comedy show). Talfryn"s few films included Sky West and Crooked (1965) starring Hayley Mills, and Andrew Sinclair"s adaptation of Dylan Thomas"s Under Milk Wood (1972), with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O"Toole. Like Burton, Talfryn Thomas had been in the original radio play.
He was also seen in Come Play with Maine (1977) and the cult film, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980) from Vivian Stanshall.
Thomas died of a heart attack on 4 November 1982, four days after his 60th birthday.
He is probably best remembered for his role as Private Cheeseman, a member of the Home Guard in later episodes of the television series, Dad"s Army (1973-1974).