User:Amba135/John Barrett (actor) draft

John Barrett born Jack Elvyn Barrett (February 18, 1910 - May 22, 1983), was a British film, stage and TV-actor.

Barrett began as an ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) in repertory theatre, then went on to act. Although having a few small parts in films prior to 1967, including parts in Quatermass and the Pit and some [[Hammer Horrors, Barrett's first major part was as the character "Joseph Poorgrass" in the well received John Schlesinger adaptation of Thomas Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd in 1967. The part where Joseph Poorgrass is asked to "give us a song" by Bathsheba, played by Julie Christie, was later used in a TV commercial.

In the seventies a long association with the Royal Court theatre began with plays by Edward Bond and later David Storey. Barrett was invited to the controversial original production of "Saved". Not put off by the censorship, he was one of the cast for the equally controversial "Early Morning". He appeared at the Royal Court in the 1969 production alongside fellow actors Nigel Hawthorne, Henry Woolf and Jack Shepherd. The play was directed by William Gaskill. The play attracted adverse comment for its portrayal of Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale as lesbian lovers.

In 1971 he was given the part of Harry in David Storey's "The Changing Room" at the Royal Court Theatre. His character Harry was parodied in a cartoon published in Punch alongside a review of the play.

In 1972 Barrett played in Clochemerle, a TV series that was shot in France and screened on English television. In 1973 he appeared in O Lucky Man! directed by Lindsay Anderson, as well as in Malachi's Cove directed by Henry Herbert.

1974 saw him back at the Royal Court in the play "Bingo" alsongside John Gielgud, who played Shakespeare in a dramatisation of Shakespeare's life, subtitled 'Scenes of Money and Death'. Shakespeares interest in the role of money in society led Barrett to comment: "We think we live in an age of science, but it's also an age of alchemy: we try to turn gold into human values"

In 1976 he went to spain to film Robin and Marian. A revisionist version of the story starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn as the legendary couple at the end of their lives. It was Hepburn's comeback after a period of time away from the screen. The same year, Barrett appeared as "Laker Armsby" in war classic The Eagle has Landed.

In 1979, Barrett played a part in Roman Polanskis Tess; which was an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". It starred Nastassja Kinski, who won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Barrett also appeared in the award-winning The French Lieutenant's Woman from 1981.

John Barrett passed away on May 22, 1983.