Jack watling biography

English actor (1923–2001)

Jack Stanley Watling (13 January 1923 – 22 May 2001) was an English actor.^[1][2]

Life and career

Watling was born 13 January 1923 in Chingford, Essex, England.^[3] The son of a travelling scrap metal dealer, Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child; and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936.^[4] He made his first film appearances (all uncredited) in Sixty Glorious Years, Housemaster (both 1938) and Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939).^[5]

In 1941, Watling played Bill Hopkins in Once a Crook in his West End debut.^[6] He starred as Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham in the original 1942 production of Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.^[5]

Watling had a long career in low-key British films, originally in easy-going boyish roles.^[7] His early appearances were in Cottage to Let (1941).

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