John Thaw's birth certificate, and a 1954 program for the school play "King Henry The Fifth" in which a 12-year old John is listed at the bottom as "The mistress of a tavern in Eastchamp, formerly Mistress Quickly, now married to Pistol!" (see our Gallery Pt.1 for pictures of the school play).

(Left: John & Tom Courtney, 1962). John Edward Thaw was born into a working class family in West Gorton, Manchester, England on January 3rd, 1942. His formative years were difficult and trying to say the least; his mother having abandoned John when he was seven, he did not see her again for another 12 years. His father, a long-distance lorry driver, did his best to raise both John and his younger brother Raymond, but spent most of the time on the road and away from home, often leaving the brothers to fend for themselves or in the care of relatives. For awhile John stacked potatoes in Manchester's Smithfield Market to help bring in an income for his family. As a teen he held a number of menial jobs, including that of laborer and for a short time, baker.

His only stage experience came as a stand-up comic entertaining old folks and hospital patients. John's school years were unexceptional. At one point he was slightly injured in a automobile accident that permanently damaged a nerve in his leg and left him with a slight limp; he was concious of this fact during his early years as an actor and would refuse to be filmed in such a way that would serve to highlight this disability. While attending Ducie Technical High School a drama teacher encouraged him to take part in a number of school plays and productions as a way of helping the youngster overcome his shyness. He must have spotted something in John even at that young age for with his teacher's encouragement, John decided upon an acting career and was accepted by London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 16, his uncle driving John to the audition in a used van, with John lying about his age to gain admission. But once in, his life's path was set. (To view an exclusive 3-minute film clip of John discussing his childhood years and how he got into acting, CLICK HERE. You must have either Windows Media Player or Real Player for this interview to work).

(Above: John in "Redcap"). While at the Royal Academy John became friends with future British stars such as Tom Courtney, and later graduated with honors. Here was something at which the youngster could excel, even though he consistently felt as though he were an outsider because of his working-class roots. He admitted to having an "inferiority complex" that no amount of success later in his life would ever completely dispel. Thus classically trained, John appeared on stage in many successful productions where he was heralded as a new talent to be watched and befriended by Laurence Olivier. But unlike others of his peers who longed for a motion picture career, the large fees and huge audiences of small-screen television soon lured him in that direction. He made his professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1960 in "A Shred Of Evidence", and his television debut the following year as a member of "The Younger Generation", in which a stock company of raw actors (John being 19), performed in original plays by equally young and raw writers, chief among these was the one-act play "Fire Raisers". He also was cast - for the first but certainly not last time in his career - as a police officer in a guest appearance on the highly popular police show "Z Cars" in 1961, and also landed a guest appearance that year on the hit TV-series "The Avengers".

(Left: John in "Redcap", & with co-star Diana Rigg). His first feature film came in 1962, "The Lonliness Of The Long Distance Runner". Other plays followed, "Women Beware Women" (1962) and "Semi-Detatched" (1962), "Nil Carborundum" (1962), and "Five To One" (1963). However, it was in 1964, at the age of 22, when he first caught the critic's attention as Sgt. John Mann in the television series "Redcap", in which he starred with Diana Rigg. "Redcap" told the story of the Special Investigation Branch of The Royal Military Police. (For a complete episode guide CLICK HERE.) Several more films and short-lived TV series followed which, while mostly forgettable, allowed John to sharpen his ability while also paying the bills. These included "Dead Man's Chest" (1965), "Bat Out Of Hell" (1966 TV-movie), "The Bofors Gun" (1968), "Praise Marx And Pass The Ammunition" (1970), "MacBeth" (TV version, 1970), "The Last Grenade" (1970); "Random Happenings In The Hebrides" (1970), "Lady From The Sea" (1971), the camp horror classic "Dr. Phibes Rises Again" (1972), "The Collaborators" (1973), and a 1974 series "Thick As Thieves", where John played a crook who settles down rather comfortably with the wife of an accomplice still in prison (Bob Hoskins), who is subsequently released on parole. (For a complete episode guide CLICK HERE. To view a video clip of the opening credits to the show, CLICK HERE. ) This show was a critical success, and offered for John a welcome chance to do light comedy, but while the network was considering whether or not to renew it for a second season an offer came along for a TV-movie then in development called Regan, and the rest, as they say, is history. He continued to hone his skills on stage before a live audience and developed a second love for live performances that would continue throught his life. He would admit that stage acting was much more demanding than either film or television, perhaps this is why he enjoyed the challenge of it so much, splitting his career at this point in his life equally between the two.

Extremely rare program for "The Knight Of The Burning Pestle", one of John's first plays with RADA, which also starred his friend Tom Courtney, 1960. (For a full-size view, right-click "save picture as.")

1962 program for "Women Beware Women," also starring Nicol Williamson, during John's second year with the Royal Shakespeare Company. John's part is "Sordido", a servant to a rich young heir.

1969 Program for "So What About Love", which John & Sheila were both appearing in and where they met for the first time.

(From Far Left: John & Sheila in "So What About Love"; John & Diana Rigg). In 1967, at the Liverpool Playhouse, John takes part in a stage production of "Around The World In 80 Days". John also guest stars alongside Michael Caine in "The Other Man" , a two-and-a-half-hour television play by Giles Cooper which imagined that Britain had made peace with Hitler and was now a Nazi satellite. John continued to show his versatility in 1968 when he appeared in a TV serial called "The Inheritance", in which he played an entire series of characters, both fathers and sons, from the mid-1800s up through the days of Churchill. In 1968 John was divorced from his first wife, historian Sally Alexander, and the following year was offered a part in the stage comedy "So What About Love", in which he met actress Sheila Hancock, whom he married in 1973. It was to be a lifelong, happy marriage. He further honed his craft by guest-starring in such series as "Strange Report" (1969) in which he played, oddly enough, a police inspector investigating strange paranormal happenings in 1960s London, "Budgie" (1971), and "The Onedin Line" (1971). It was at this point that ABC television, then the dominant partner in Thames Television, came up with a one-time TV movie "Regan", that cast John as a tough, no-nonsense, break-all-the-rules, streetwise cop. Little did he know that this movie, and the series that followed, would catapult him from obscure supporting actor to national attention, and would make John Thaw a household name for the first but certainly not the last time in his budding career.

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