Michael Goodliffe

Michael Goodliffe
Michael Goodliffe
	Goodliffe ; Painted by Aubrey Davidson-Houston in the role of Hamlet, performed while a POW in Germany.
Born	Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe; 1 October 1914; Bebington, Cheshire, England
Died	20 March 1976 (aged 61); Wimbledon, London, England
Years active	1936–1976
Spouse	Dorothy Margaret Tyndale 1945–1976 (3 children)

Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working-class parts.

Biography

Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Wirral, the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. He began his career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before joining the company of the Stratford Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon. He joined the British Army at the beginning of the Second World War, 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.^[1] 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 Noël Coward's Post-Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record^[2] 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 (1950) and in other POW films. His best-known film was A Night to Remember (1958), in which he played Thomas Andrews, designer 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.

In the 1972 BBC TV series Henry VIII and his Six Wives Goodliffe played Sir Thomas More.

Suffering from depression, Goodliffe had a breakdown in 1976 during the period that he was rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He died by suicide a few days later by leaping from a hospital fire escape while a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, which has since been converted to residential use and is now called 'Wimbledon Hill Park'.^[1]

Filmography

The Small Back Room (1949) as Till
Stop Press Girl (1949) as McPherson
The Wooden Horse (1950) as Robbie
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) as Col. Caillard - POW Escort
Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) as Martens
The Hour of 13 (1952) as Anderson
Sea Devils (1953) as Ragan
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1953) as Robert Walpole
Front Page Story (1954) as Kennedy
John Wesley (1954)
The Crowded Day (1954) as Eve's Husband
The End of the Affair (1955) as Smythe
The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) as Count De Dunois
The Way Out (1955) as John Moffat
Wicked as They Come (1956) as Larry Buckham
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) as Captain McCall - R.N., British Naval Attache for Buenos Aires
Fortune Is a Woman (1957) as Detective Insp. Barnes
The One That Got Away (1957) as R.A.F. Interrogator
Carve Her Name With Pride (1958) as Coding Expert
The Camp on Blood Island (1958) as Father Paul Anjou
Up the Creek (1958) as Nelson
A Night to Remember (1958) as shipbuilder Thomas Andrews
Three Crooked Men (1958) as Shop customer
Further Up the Creek (1958) as Le. Commander Blakeney
The 39 Steps (1959) as Brown
The White Trap (1959) as Inspector Walters
Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as Captain Banister
Testament of Orpheus (1960) as English narrator (voice, uncredited)
The Battle of the Sexes (1960) as Detective
Conspiracy of Hearts (1960) as Father Desmaines
Peeping Tom (1960) as Don jarvis
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) as Charles Gill
No Love for Johnnie (1961) as Dr. West
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) as 'Jacko' Jackson - Night Editor
Jigsaw (1962) as Clyde Burchard
80,000 Suspects (1963) as Clifford Preston
A Stitch in Time (1963) as Doctor on Children's Ward (uncredited)
Man in the Middle (1963) as Col. Shaw
Woman of Straw (1964) as Solicitor (uncredited)
633 Squadron (1964) as Squadron Leader Frank Adams
The 7th Dawn (1964) as Trumphey
The Gorgon (1964) as Professor Jules Heitz
Troubled Waters (1964) as Jeff Driscoll
Von Ryan's Express (1965) as Captain Stein
The Night of the Generals (1967) as Hauser
The Jokers (1967) as Lt. Col. Paling
The Fixer (1968) as Ostrovsky
Cromwell (1970) as Solicitor General
The Fifth Day of Peace (1970) as Gen. Snow
The Johnstown Monster (1971) as McNeil
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) as Thomas More
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) as Gen. Helmuth Weidling
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) as Bill Tanner, Chief of Staff (uncredited)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976) as George de Grass

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	The Lark play by Jean Anouilh	The inquisitor	BBC Sunday Night Theatre
1957	The Adventures of Peter Simple	Peter's Uncle	4 episodes
1963	Maigret	Dr Javet	Episode: Maigret's Little Joke
1962	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre	Sir Harold Trevitt	Episode: "The £20,000 Kiss"
1962	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre	Detective Superintendent Hallett	Episode: "Number Six"
1963	The Saint	Dr. Quintus	Episode 2: "The Invisible Millionaire"
1965	The Avengers	Professor Keller	Episode 23 "The House That Jack Built"
1967	Inheritance	William Oldroyd	10 Episodes
1969	Callan	Hunter	5 Episodes (Series 2)
1969	Judge Dee	Judge Dee	6 Episodes
1969	Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)	Arthur de Crecy	Episode 13 "But What a Sweet Little Room"
1970	The Woodlanders (BBC Series - lost)	George Melbury	? Episodes
1973	Sam	Jack Barraclough	39 episodes