John McEnery

For the Louisiana Democratic politician, see John McEnery (politician). For the nineteenth century antiquarian and priest, see John MacEnery.

John McEnery
Born	(1943-11-01) 1 November 1943 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1964–present
Spouse(s)	Stephanie Beacham (m. 1973–1979)
Children	2

John McEnery (born 1 November 1943) is an English actor and writer.

Born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, he trained (1962–64) at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, playing, among others, Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone and Gaveston in Marlowe's Edward II. At the age of 20 he found his first stage work, spending three seasons with the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. He joined the National Theatre company in 1966. While working at the Everyman, he met actress Stephanie Beacham, whom he later married. The couple had two daughters, Phoebe and Chloe, but subsequently divorced.

His first notable screen role was in 1968 as Mercutio in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet; he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance. In 1970 he starred in a major role alongside Claude Jade and Jean-Pierre Cassel in Gérard Brach's bittersweet The Boat on the Grass about a girl between two friends. He later played Russian politician Alexander Kerensky in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and took the title role in the 1972 film Bartleby, in which he starred opposite Paul Scofield. His other film credits include The Land That Time Forgot (1975) and The Krays (1990) as gangster Eddie Pellam.

In the 1980s, at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, he took the title role in Gogol's The Government Inspector, directed by the Russian actor and director Oleg Tabakov.

In 1998 he wrote the play Merry Christmas, Mr. Burbage in honour of the 400th anniversary of the creation of the Globe Theatre. In 2011 he appeared as Rowley in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre. In 2008, he appeared in a guest role in Sidetracked, the first episode of Wallander.

One of his brothers is actor Peter McEnery, and another is photographer David McEnery.

Selected filmography

• Romeo and Juliet (1968)
• The Other People (1968)
• The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970)
• The Boat on the Grass (1971)
• Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
• Bartleby (1972)
• One Russian Summer (1973)
• Galileo (1975)
• The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
• Jamaica Inn (1983, TV miniseries)
• Little Dorrit (1987)
• The Krays (1990)
• The Buddha of Suburbia (1993, TV miniseries)
• When Saturday Comes (1996)
• Merlin (1998)
• Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

External links

• John McEnery at the Internet Movie Database