Gareth Forwood

Gareth L. John Forwood (14 October 1945 – 16 October 2007) was a British stage, film and television actor.

Forwood was born to actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood. He made his screen debut in 1965 and went on to prosper as a character actor with over 40 credits in film, television and theatre. His career was marked with recurring roles in several large productions, particularly with the British public broadcast network ITV. In his later career, Forwood was typecast in several British television adaptations of classic novels.

Early life and education

Gareth Forwood was born on 14 October 1945 in Marylebone, London to British socialite actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood, who became stars in the postwar era and divorced in 1948 when Forwood was three years old. The Forwood family were landed gentry; Forwood's patrilineal great-great-grandfather, Thomas Friend Brittain Peploe Forwood, resided in Thornton Manor in Cheshire and was the forefather of the Forwood Baronetcy. His matrilineal great-grandmother had inherited a production company from her father; on her side, Forwood became the fifth generation to act on stage.

When his father moved in with actor Sir Dirk Bogarde, Forwood went with him, living at the centuries-old Beel House in Amersham parish and also with his mother, who lived primarily in Britain for the next two decades. Forwood attended Ludgrove Preparatory School in Wokingham, where he was in the same year as Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington. He was later enrolled at Stowe School in 1959, followed by Chilton Cantelo School, and Millfield School in Street.

Career

Early career

Though his mother attempted to dissuade him from the stage, Forwood would later make his stage debut on 22 December 1964 with her blessing, playing The Prince in Nicholas Stuart Gray's ''Beauty and the Beast'' at the Castle Theatre in Farnham; this production lasted little more than a month, closing on 23 January 1965. He followed this with later appearances at the Apollo Theatre in London as Charles Wykeham in Brandon Thomas' ''Charley's Aunt'' from 30 August 1971 to 13 February 1972, Bath's Theatre Royal and London's Cambridge Theatre in Marcelle Maurette's ''Anastasia'' in October 1976, and the Ashcroft Theatre in London as Jackie Jackson in a Cambridge Theatre Company production of Terence Rattigan's ''The Deep Blue Sea'' from 5 July 1977 to 30 July 1977.Gareth Forwood
on Theatricalia

Forwood made his professional television debut with the series of one-off plays ''The Wednesday Play'' in 1965, in which he appeared three separate times: as Balcar in 1965, Colin in 1966, and Cantfield in 1970. Forwood made a guest appearance in the sitcom ''The Golden Age'' in 1967 and made his cinematic debut in Jack Gold's ''The Bofors Gun'' the following year. He appeared in the anthology television series ''Detective'' (1968), the silent television comedy ''For Amusement Only'' (1968) and the anthology period piece ''The Jazz Age'' (1968), as John, Second Youth, and Tom Kent-Cumberland respectively. Forwood was given the minor role of Alistair in Guy Hamilton's 1969 war film ''Battle of Britain''.

The same year, he was cast in two separate ITV athology series: ''ITV Playhouse'' and ''ITV Sunday Night Theatre''. In ''Playhouse'', Forwood played Martin Wyld in the episode ''Public Face'' (1969) and Carr in the episode ''Refuge for a Hero'' (1972); in ''Sunday Night Theatre'', he played Steven Hindle in the episode ''The Innocent Ceremony'' (1969), Basil Anthony in the episode ''Man and Boy'' (1971), and Desmond in the episode ''The Piano Player'' (1972). In the intervening years, Forwood played Rex Gascoigne in ''Daniel Deronda'' (1970), Julian Webb in ''The Main Chance'' (1970), P.C. Mansell in '' Doctor at Large'' (1971), Brian Foxe in ''Eyeless in Gaza'' (1971), and Graham in '' Late Night Theatre'' (1972). In 1973, Forwood was cast as Doctor Park in ITV Granada's courtroom drama series ''Crown Court'' along with his grandfather, actor Mervyn Johns, who played Arthur Charles Parfitt and Edward Lumsden.

Later career

By the mid-1970s, Forwood was already an established character actor, with parts in such films as ''Where Adam Stood'' (1976) as Mr. Brackley, ''Birth of the Beatles'' (1979) as Alden, and ''Blade on the Feather'' (1980) as the Doctor. His television credits of this era include playing Everett Wharton on the 1974 BBC television adaptation of Anthony Trollope's eponymous novels ''The Pallisers'', Jonathan Bridges on the nonlinear narrative series ''The ITV Play'', and Doctor Crampton on the final season of ITV's drama series ''Armchair Thriller'' in 1980.

The following two decades saw Forwood take on more film roles. He was cast as the Photographer on Aquitania in Christopher Miles' 1981 biographical film ''Priest of Love'', the Secretary in Richard Attenborough's 1982 period biographical film ''Gandhi'', Duke in David S. Ward's 1991 comedy film ''King Ralph'', Ian in Pradip Krishen's 1992 Indian film ''Electric Moon'', and Denis Carradine in Sarah Pia Anderson's 1995 crime drama ''Prime Suspect: Inner Circles''. Forwood's television roles, too, grew more numerous. He played Max in three episodes of ITV's '' Funny Man'' alongside Jimmy Jewel and David Schofield in 1981, Wyndham in one episode of the 1982 adaptation of Thomas Flanagan's eponymous novel ''The Year of the French'', Professional Man in one episode of Roy Ward Baker's sitcom ''Fairly Secret Army'' starring Geoffrey Palmer in 1984, the Doctor in three episodes of Johnny Speight's BBC
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