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John Fortune (born John C. Wood; 30 June 1939 – 31 December 2013) was an English satirist, comedian, writer, and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and
Rory Bremner Roderick Keith Ogilvy "Rory" Bremner,"Rory Bremner". '' Who Do You Think You Are?''. Wall to Wall for BBC One. 2 February 2009. No. 1, series 6. (born 6 April 1961) is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political sati ...
on the TV series ''
Bremner, Bird and Fortune ''Bremner, Bird and Fortune'' is a satirical British television programme produced by Vera Productions for Channel Four, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and John Fortune ("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist Ro ...
''.


Early life

Fortune was born John Wood in
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
in 1939. He was educated at
Bristol Cathedral School Bristol Cathedral Choir School is a mixed gender non-selective musical Secondary Academy, located in the Cabot area of Bristol, England. Until 2008 it was known as Bristol Cathedral School. It is situated next to Bristol Cathedral, in the cent ...
and
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John Bird. He was a member of the semi-secretive
Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...
society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students.


Career

Fortune's early work included contributions to
Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...
's
Establishment Club The Establishment was a London nightclub that opened in October 1961, at 18 Greek Street, Soho, and which became known in retrospect for satire although at the time was a venue more commonly booking jazz acts and used for other events. It was fo ...
team in 1962, and as a regular member of the cast of the BBC-TV satire show ''
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'' (commonly abbreviated to ''NSMAPMAWOL'', pronounced ens-map-may-wall and stylised as Not so much a programme, more a way of Life) is a BBC-TV satire programme produced by Ned Sherrin, which aired d ...
'', both alongside
Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in '' Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), a ...
and John Bird. Fortune and Bird also worked together on the TV show ''A Series of Birds'' in 1967, and Fortune and Bron wrote and performed a series of sketches for TV in '' Where Was Spring?'' in 1969. In 1971, with John Wells, he published the comic novel '' A Melon for Ecstasy'', about a man who consummates his love affair with a tree. He appeared with
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
in a
Barclays Bank Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...
television commercial in 1980, shortly before Sellers' death. Along with writing several series for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, in 1982 Fortune appeared in an episode of the BBC sitcom ''
Yes Minister ''Yes Minister'' is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes fro ...
'', as an army officer who brings the minister's attention to British-made weapons getting into the hands of terrorists. In 1999, he starred with
Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner. In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes ''Educatin ...
and
Ken Campbell Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre". Campbell achieved notoriety in the 1 ...
in ''
Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
'' at
Wyndham's Theatre Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...
in
London's West End The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...
. He also appeared in the films ''
Take A Girl Like You ''Take a Girl Like You'' is a comic novel by Kingsley Amis. The narrative follows the progress of twenty-year-old Jenny Bunn, who has moved from her family home in the North of England to a small town not far from London to teach primary school ...
'' (1970), in which he shared a TV debate with John Bird,
Kenny Everett Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English comedian, radio disc jockey and television presenter. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the fi ...
's horror spoof ''
Bloodbath at the House of Death ''Bloodbath at the House of Death'' is a 1984 British comedy horror film directed by Ray Cameron and starring the comedian Kenny Everett and featuring Vincent Price. It is an over-the-top spoof loosely inspired by ''The Amityville Horror (1979 film ...
'' (1984), ''
England, My England ''England, My England'' is a 1995 British historical film directed by Tony Palmer and starring Michael Ball, Simon Callow, Lucy Speed and Robert Stephens. It depicts the life of the composer Henry Purcell, seen through the eyes of a playwrigh ...
'' (1995), ''
Maybe Baby Viktoriya Vladimirovna Lysyuk (; born 27 September 1995), known professionally as MAYBE BABY (), is a Belarusian pop singer and rap artist based in Russia. Early life Victoria Lysyuk was born in the city of Zhabinka in the Brest Region of Belar ...
'' (2000), and '' Saving Grace'' (2000), and had a guest part in the sitcom ''
Joking Apart ''Joking Apart'' is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark (Robert Bathurst) and Becky (Fiona Gillies), who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and f ...
.'' Fortune's other work with John Bird included their series of satirical sketches ''The Long Johns'', in which one interviewed the other in the guise of a senior figure such as a politician, businessman or government consultant. The sketches earned several
BAFTA award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...
nominations, winning the Television Light Entertainment Performance award in 1997. In one episode, they were two of the very first to predict the
financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
during an episode of ''
The South Bank Show ''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, ...
'' broadcast on 14 October 2007. In Fortune's latter years, he featured in the Radio 4 sitcom ''
Ed Reardon's Week ''Ed Reardon's Week'' is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4 recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly middle-aged writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consu ...
'', playing the head of a literary agency and as theatrical agent Mel Simons in a 2008 episode of ''
New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the ...
''. Fortune died on 31 December 2013, aged 74. His agent Vivienne Clore said he died peacefully, with his wife Emma and dog Grizelle at his bedside.


Filmography


References


Further reading

* *


External links

*
John Fortune
at Vivienne Clore

– Political Studies Association Awards 2003

BAFTA filmed event, March 2009
Obituary
in ''The Independent'' by
Marcus Williamson Marcus Williamson is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. As an obituarist for ''The Independent'' he has written obituaries of more than 300 subjects, including artists, poets, actors and inventors. Campaigns Phorm In 2009 the AIM-l ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortune, John 1939 births 2013 deaths 20th-century English novelists Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Best Entertainment Performance BAFTA Award (television) winners English male comedians English male film actors English male radio actors English male stage actors English male television actors English male writers English satirists People educated at Bristol Cathedral Choir School