JW
Photo of Jack Warner

Jack Warner

Actor
Died May 24, 1981 (85 years)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jack Warner OBE (24 October 1895 – 24 May 1981) was an English film and television actor.

He was born in London, his real name being Horace John Waters. His sisters Elsie and Doris Waters were well-known comediennes under the names Gert and Daisy. Like them, Jack Warner made his name in music hall and radio, but he became known to cinema audiences as the patriarch in a trio of popular post-World War II family films beginning with Here Come the Huggetts. He also co-starred in the 1955 Hammer film version of The Quatermass Xperiment and as a police superintendent in the 1955 Ealing Studios black comedy The Ladykillers.

Warner attended the Coopers' Company's Grammar School for Boys in Mile End, while his sisters both attended the nearby sister school, Coborn School for Girls in Bow. The three children were choristers at St. Leonard's Church, Bromley-by-Bow, and for a time, Warner was the choir's soloist.

By the early war years Warner was nationally known and starred in a BBC radio comedy show Garrison Theatre, invariably opening with, "A Monologue Entitled...".

It was in 1949 that Warner first played the role for which he would be remembered, PC George Dixon, in the film The Blue Lamp. One observer predicted, "This film will make Jack the most famous policeman in Britain". Although the police constable was shot dead in the film, the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran until 1976. In later years though, Warner and his long-past-retirement-age character were confined to a less prominent desk sergeant role. The series had a prime-time slot on Saturday evenings, and always opened with Dixon giving a little soliloquy to the camera, beginning with the words, "Good evening, all". According to Warner's autobiography, Jack of All Trades, Elizabeth II once visited the television studio where the series was made and told Warner "that she thought Dixon of Dock Green had become part of the British way of life".

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965. In 1973, he was made a Freeman of the City of London. Warner commented in his autobiography that the honour "entitles me to a set of 18th century rules for the conduct of life urging me to be sober and temperate". Warner added, "Not too difficult with Dixon to keep an eye on me!"

The characterisation by Warner of Dixon was held in such high regard that officers from Paddington Green Police Station bore the coffin at his funeral in 1981.

Warner is buried in East London Cemetery. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Warner (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • A Christmas Carol
  • It Always Rains on Sunday
  • Dominique
Known For
  • The Ladykillers
  • The Quatermass Xperiment
  • A Christmas Carol
  • The Blue Lamp
  • Jigsaw
  • Hue and Cry
  • Carve Her Name with Pride
  • Dixon of Dock Green
  • The Square Ring
  • Forbidden Cargo
  • Dear Murderer
  • Against the Wind
  • Vote for Huggett
  • The Huggetts Abroad
  • The Final Test
  • Valley of the Eagles
  • Break to Freedom
  • Easy Money
  • The Hundred Hour Hunt
  • Home and Away
  • The Captive Heart
  • Those People Next Door
  • It Always Rains on Sunday
  • Dominique

Filmography

1989
1979
1962
Jigsaw · as Det. Insp. Fred Fellows
1958
Carve Her Name with Pride · as Mr. Bushell
1956
Now and Forever · as Mr. J. Pritchard
1956
Home and Away · as George Knowles
1955
The Ladykillers · as The Superintendent
1955
The Quatermass Xperiment · as Inspector Lomax
1955
Dixon of Dock Green (TV Series) · as Pc George Dixon
1954
Forbidden Cargo · as Maj. Alec White
1954
Game of Danger · as Bonsell
1953
Break to Freedom · as Capt Maddox
1953
The Square Ring · as Danny Felton
1953
The Final Test · as Sam Palmer
1953
Those People Next Door · as Sam Twigg
1952
Tonight at 8:30 · as Murdoch
1952
The Hundred Hour Hunt · as Inspector Lane
1951
1951
Valley of the Eagles · as Inspector Peterson
1951
Talk of a Million · as Bartley Murnahan
1950
Man in the Dinghy · as Joe Huggett
1950
The Blue Lamp · as Pc George Dixon
1949
Train of Events · as Jim Hardcastle
1949
Boys in Brown · as Governor
1949
The Huggetts Abroad · as Joe Huggett
1949
Vote for Huggett · as Joe Huggett
1948
Here Come the Huggetts · as Joe Huggett
1948
My Brother's Keeper · as George Martin
1948
Against the Wind · as Max Cronk
1948
Easy Money · as Philip Stafford
1947
It Always Rains on Sunday · as Detective Sergeant Fothergill
1947
Hue and Cry · as Nightingale
1947
Holiday Camp · as Joe Huggett
1947
Dear Murderer · as Inspector Penbury
1946
The Captive Heart · as Cpl. Ted Horsfall
1943
The Dummy Talks · as Jack

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