1914-10-01 ( 110 years old ) in Bebington, Cheshire, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor best known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working class parts.
Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Cheshire (now Merseyside), the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. He started his career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. He joined the British Army at the beginning of World War II, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk. Goodliffe was incorrectly listed as killed in action, and even had his obituary published in a newspaper. He was to spend the rest of the war a prisoner in Germany.
Whilst in captivity he produced and acted in (and in some cases wrote) many plays and sketches to entertain fellow prisoners. These included two productions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, one in Tittmoning and the other in Eichstätt, in which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noel Coward's Post Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these productions exists.
After the war he resumed his professional acting career. As well as appearing in the theatre he worked in film and television. He appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and in other POW films. His best known film was A Night to Remember (1958) in which he played Thomas Andrews, builder of the RMS Titanic. His best known television series was Sam (1973–75) in which he played an unemployed Yorkshire miner. He also appeared with John Thaw and James Bolam in the 1967 television series Inheritance.
Suffering from depression, Goodliffe had a breakdown in 1976 during the period that he was rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He committed suicide a few days later by leaping from a hospital fire escape, whilst a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Goodliffe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
To the Devil a Daughter
1976-03-04
In Sickness and in Health
1975-05-21
Don't Be Like Brenda
1973-05-27
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
1973-04-19
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
1972-07-13
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
1971-06-29
Still Life
1970-11-17
The Company Man
1970-11-06
Macbeth
1970-09-20
Cromwell
1970-07-16
The 5th Day of Peace
1970-04-17
The Fixer
1968-12-08
The Jokers
1967-05-15
The Night of the Generals
1967-01-29
The Connoisseur
1966-05-24
Von Ryan's Express
1965-06-23
Troubled Waters
1964-12-01
The Gorgon
1964-10-18
The 7th Dawn
1964-09-02
Woman of Straw
1964-04-28
633 Squadron
1964-04-06
Man in the Middle
1964-01-27
80,000 Suspects
1963-08-15
The £20,000 Kiss
1962-12-31
Jigsaw
1962-08-21
Number Six
1962-04-01
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
1961-11-01
No Love for Johnnie
1961-02-14
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
1960-05-28
Peeping Tom
1960-05-16
Conspiracy of Hearts
1960-04-07
The Battle of the Sexes
1960-02-25
Testament of Orpheus
1960-02-18
Sink the Bismarck!
1960-02-11
The White Trap
1959-08-01
The 39 Steps
1959-03-13
Further Up the Creek
1958-10-28
Three Crooked Men
1958-10-01
A Night to Remember
1958-07-03
Up the Creek
1958-05-13
The Camp on Blood Island
1958-04-15
Carve Her Name with Pride
1958-02-18
Chaucer's England
1958-01-01
The One That Got Away
1957-11-22
Fortune Is a Woman
1957-03-13
The Battle of the River Plate
1956-10-30
Wicked as They Come
1956-05-22
Link Span
1956-01-02
Dial 999
1955-12-01
Quentin Durward
1955-09-09
The End of the Affair
1955-02-24
Front Page Story
1954-03-15
Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue
1953-10-26
Sea Devils
1953-04-12
The Hour of 13
1952-11-21
Plan for Coal
1952-01-02
Ocean Terminal
1952-01-02
Cry, the Beloved Country
1951-11-16
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
1951-04-10
Family Portrait
1950-12-01
The Wooden Horse
1950-10-16
Stop Press Girl
1949-06-02
The Small Back Room
1949-02-21
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