John Le Mesurier

He was the son of Charles Elton (1881-1964) and Amy Michelle Halliley (née Le Mesurier) (1878-1968).

In 1940 he was called up to the army and prior to his posting to India he married June Melville but she was an alcoholic and the marriage eventually collapsed.

The son of a solicitor, British character actor John Le Mesurier attended public school in Dorset, England, before embarking on a career in law. However, acting was his true calling, and at age 20, with his parents' approval, he began his acting career by studying drama at the Fay Compton School of Acting, where one of his classmates was Alec Guinness. After acting school he performed in repertory until World War II, when he served as a captain in the Northwest Indian Frontier. After the war he returned to the stage and made his film debut in Death in the Hand (1948).

By the late 1950s Le Mesurier had made appearances in numerous films, especially those made by the Boulting Brothers, and also on television, particularly on Hancock's Half Hour (1956).

He had two sons with actress Hattie Jacques: Robin Le Mesurier (born 22 March 1953) and Kim Le Mesurier (born 12 October 1956). Kim died of an accidental drugs overdose on 6 October 1991, exactly 11 years after his mother's death.

He separated from his wife Joan Le Mesurier in the mid-1960s when she had an affair with their mutual friend Tony Hancock. John was understanding, and they began living together again after Hancock's death in 1968.

He met Joan Malin, who would become his third wife, in 1964. His then wife, Hattie Jacques, was having an affair with her driver, John Schofield, and John agreed to take the blame in the divorce case so as not to damage her reputation or career. He and Joan remained good friends with Hattie until her death in 1980.

The film Monsieur Lecoq (1967) was unfinished and abandoned.

In 1968 he landed arguably his most popular role, that of Sgt.

Wilson in the long-running television series Dad's Army (1968).

Although preferring comedy, Le Mesurier also excelled in drama, winning a BAFTA award for Best Actor of the Year in 1971 for his performance in Dennis Potter's "Traitor (1971) (TV)".

In 1977 he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver but recovered and lived for another six years before dying in Ramsgate Hospital.

In her book, "Dear John", Joan Le Mesurier gives her husband's date of death as 16th November 1983.

His autobiography "A Jobbing Actor" was released posthumously in 1984.

He asked his wife Joan to place in The Times the following announcement of his death: "John Le Mesurier wishes it to be known that he conked out on November 15th. He sadly misses his family and friends.".

Not to be confused with one of disgraced MP Jeremy Thorpe's co-defendants on a charge of attempted murder, carpet dealer John Le Measurier (although le Measurier's name is sometimes spelled identically). The New Yorker advised potential US viewers of A Very English Scandal (2018), about the Thorpe case, "Imagine that one of the Watergate burglars had been named Alan Alda".