John Dudley Leyton (born 17 February 1936) is an English actor and singer. As a singer he is best known for his

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

song "

Johnny Remember Me "Johnny Remember Me" is a song which became a 1961 UK Singles Chart #1 hit single for John Leyton, backed by The Outlaws. It was producer Joe Meek's first #1 production. Recounting the haunting – real or imagined – of a young man by his dead ...

" (written by

Geoff Goddard Geoffrey Goddard (19 November 1937 – 15 May 2000) was an English songwriter, singer and instrumentalist. Working for Joe Meek in the early 1960s, he wrote songs for Heinz, Mike Berry, Gerry Temple, The Tornados, Kenny Hollywood, The Outlaws ...

and produced by

Joe Meek Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer, sound engineer and songwriter who pioneered space age and experimental pop music. He also assisted in the development of recording practices like over ...

), which reached number one in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in August 1961 despite being banned by the BBC for its death references. His follow-up single, "Wild Wind", reached number two in the charts. Alongside singing, Leyton's acting career saw him appearing in television and films throughout the 1960s. His films included '' The Great Escape'', ''

Guns at Batasi ''Guns at Batasi'' is a 1964 British drama film starring Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Flora Robson, John Leyton and Mia Farrow. The film is based on the 1962 novel ''The Siege of Battersea'' by Robert Holles and was directed by John Gu ...

'', ''

Von Ryan's Express ''Von Ryan's Express'' is a 1965 World War II adventure film starring Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, and Raffaella Carrà, and directed by Mark Robson. Produced in CinemaScope, the film depicts a group of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) who conduc ...

'' and ''

Krakatoa, East of Java ''Krakatoa, East of Java'' is a 1968 American disaster film starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. During the 1970s, the film was re-released under the title ''Volcano''. The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 eruption ...

''. In 2009 he also had a small role in the film ''

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...

'', a biopic based on Joe Meek's life in which Leyton himself was portrayed by

Callum Dixon Callum Dixon is an English actor. Career Theatre Dixon's work in theatre includes: ''Market Boy'', '' Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads'', ''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'', '' The Wind in the Willows'', '' The Day I Stood Still'', '' Somewh ...

Career

Leyton went to Highgate School and after completing his

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

with the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...

, he studied drama, paying his way through drama school with bit-part roles in films and on television. His first major acting role was his portrayal of Ginger in a 1960

Granada TV ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

adaptation of ''

Biggles James Bigglesworth, nicknamed "Biggles", is a fictional pilot and adventurer, the title character and hero of the ''Biggles'' series of adventure books, written for young readers by W. E. Johns (1893–1968). Biggles made his first appearance ...

'', which earned him a large following of young female fans and led to the formation of a John Leyton fan club.

Singer-actor

Following the success of ''Biggles'', Leyton was persuaded by his manager,

Robert Stigwood Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream (band), Cream, Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions ...

, to audition as a singer for record producer Joe Meek, and subsequently recorded a cover version of "

Tell Laura I Love Her "Tell Laura I Love Her" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jeff Barry and Ben Raleigh. It was a US top ten popular music hit for singer Ray Peterson in 1960 on RCA Victor Records, reaching No. 7 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Later th ...

", which was released on the

Top Rank Top Rank, Inc. is a boxing promotional company founded by Jabir Herbert Muhammad and Bob Arum, which was incorporated in 1973, and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since its founding, Top Rank has promoted many world class fighters, including Muh ...

label. In 1961 though, the Top Rank label was taken over by EMI who then issued Leyton's records on their

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

label. EMI had already released

Ricky Valance David Spencer (10 April 193612 June 2020), known professionally as Ricky Valance, was a Welsh pop singer. He was best known for the UK number one single "Tell Laura I Love Her", which sold over a million copies in 1960. He was the first male Wel ...

's version of the same song. Leyton's recording was withdrawn from sale, whilst Valance's version reached number one in the UK chart. A second single, "The Girl on the Floor Above", was released on the HMV label, but was not a success. His first big hit, "

", coincided with his appearance as an actor in the popular ATV television series ''Harpers West One'', in which he played a singer named Johnny Saint Cyr. Leyton performed "Johnny Remember Me" during the show (backed by the Outlaws), and the single subsequently charted at Number 1. His next single, "Wild Wind", reached number two in the

, and later singles also achieved lower chart positions. On 15 April 1962, Leyton performed at the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' Poll-Winners Concert at London's Wembley Pool. But in 1963, Meek and Goddard's association with Leyton ended; that circumstance, combined with the British

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

boom, cast Leyton adrift immediately, although he found a lot of acting work in television and film to keep him busy. Despite trying to give Leyton's music more of a 'group' sound by giving him a

backing group A backup band or backing band is a musical ensemble that typically accompanies a single artist who is the featured performer. The situation may be a live performance or in a recording session, and the group may or may not have its own name, such ...

, The LeRoys, his chart career faded out by the beginning of 1964. In that same year, according to the music journalist Bob Stanley, 'Leyton headlined a tour with up and coming support act the Rolling Stones. Very quickly, it became apparent that the Stones were more popular than the headline act and Leyton, with great dignity, abandoned his pop career on the spot to concentrate on acting.'

Heyday as an actor

Leyton was a familiar face in film and television during the 1960s. He played himself in the 1962

Dick Lester Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director based in the United Kingdom. He is best known for directing the Beatles' films '' A Hard Day's Night'' (1964) and ''Help!'' (1965), and the superhero films ''S ...

film ''

It's Trad, Dad! ''It's Trad, Dad!'' (1962), known in the U.S. as ''Ring-A-Ding Rhythm'', is a British musical comedy featuring performances by a variety of Dixieland jazz bands and rock-and-roll singers. The film was one of the first produced by Amicus Produc ...

'', performing his latest single "Lonely City" in a radio studio. In '' The Great Escape'' (1963) he played tunnel designer Willie Dickes, one of the only three characters to successfully make it to freedom. Leyton also cut a single with lyrics to

Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...

's theme to the film. He also appeared in ''

'' in 1964; '' Every Day's a Holiday'' (aka ''Seaside Swingers'' in the United States) and ''

'' starring

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

and

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...

in 1965. In ''

'', in 1969 he played the designer of a diving bell. From 1966 to 1967, Leyton played the lead role as SOE

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Lieutenant Nicholas Gage, an expert in demolitions, in ''

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

'', an American TV series about espionage in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Later career

He returned to Britain in the early 1970s and unsuccessfully attempted to re-launch his singing career, signing to the York record label in 1973. A single, "Dancing in the Graveyard c/w. Riversong (York SYK 551) and an album, ''John Leyton'' (York FYK 416) was released that year. A year later (1974) Leyton's

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the Kevin Johnson hit, "Rock 'n' Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life)", York YR 210) was issued in the UK but without success. In the mid 1970s, Leyton starred in the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

television series, ''

The Nearly Man ''The Nearly Man'' is a UK TV play and series from the mid-1970s, about a middle-class Labour Party (UK), Labour MP. Both play and series were written by Arthur Hopcraft; actors in the cast of both include Tony Britton in the title role, Wilfr ...

''. Acting roles became fewer and farther between during the 1970s, and by the early 1980s, he was no longer active in show business. In the 1990s, however, he began performing in the ''Solid Gold Rock'n'Roll Show'', appearing with artists such as

Marty Wilde Marty Wilde, (born Reginald Leonard Smith; 15 April 1939) is an English singer and songwriter. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, scoring several 1950s hit singles including "Endless Sle ...

and Joe Brown. The autumn 2004 tour featured Leyton,

Showaddywaddy Showaddywaddy are a rock and roll group from Leicester, England. They specialise in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, while also issuing original material. Showaddywaddy spent 209 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and had 10 ...

Freddy Cannon Frederick Anthony Picariello, Jr. (born December 4, 1936), better known by his stage name Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", " Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and " ...

and

Craig Douglas Craig Douglas (born Terence Perkins, 13 August 1941) is an English pop singer, who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His sole UK chart-topper, " Only Sixteen" (1959), sold more copies in the UK than Sam Cooke's original version. C ...

. Leyton has also returned to acting, with a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in the 2005 film, ''

Colour Me Kubrick ''Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story'' (released in the U.S. as ''Color Me Kubrick'') is a 2005 comedy-drama film directed by Brian W. Cook and released in 2005. The film draws its inspiration from actual events. Starring John Malkovich as ...

'' starring

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

. In May 2006, Leyton released "Hi Ho, Come On England", a re-working of

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

's "

Hi Ho Silver Lining "Hi Ho Silver Lining" is a rock song, written by American songwriters Scott English and Larry Weiss and first released as a single in March 1967 by English band The Attack, then a few days later by Jeff Beck. The Attack's version failed to cha ...

", to coincide with the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in Germany. During the summer of 2007 he filmed a cameo appearance for the

Nick Moran Nick Moran (born 23 December 1968 or 1969, sources differ) is an English actor and filmmaker, best known for his role as Eddie the card sharp in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. He appeared as Scabior in ''Harry Potter and the Deathly H ...

film, ''

''. Leyton also topped the bill at the Theatre Royal,

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, along with 1960s stars

Jess Conrad Jess Conrad (born Gerald Arthur James; 24 February 1936) is an English stage and screen actor and singer. As a boy he was nicknamed "Jesse" after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named "Gerald James" in Actors' Equity, a ...

and

at a concert named ''"'60s Icons"''. Leyton continues to tour the UK and

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

performing his hits (sometimes backed by the Rapiers) and can boast an internet following with his official website. In 2014, he continued to tour with his band, the Flames, featuring John Burleigh on guitar, Ray Royal on drums and Charlie Gardner on bass guitar and Jeff Jeffereys on rhythm guitar. He married his wife Diana in 1967 and they had a son, Dominic, and daughter, Lara.

Discography

Albums

* 1961 – ''The Two Sides of John Leyton'' (His Master's Voice CLP497) * 1963 – ''Always Yours'' (His Master's Voice CLP1664) * 1973 – ''John Leyton'' (York Records FYK416) * 1997 – ''John Leyton Is Back''

Extended plays

* 1962 – ''John Leyton'' (Top Rank JKP3016) – "Wild Wind" / "You Took My Love for Granted" / "Johnny Remember Me" / "There Must Be" * 1962 – ''The John Leyton Hit Parade'' (His Master's Voice 7EG8747) – "Lone Rider" / "Son This Is She" / "Lonely City" / "It Would Be Easy" * 1964 – ''Beautiful Dreamer '' (His Master's Voice 7EG8843) – "

Beautiful Dreamer "Beautiful Dreamer" is a parlor song by American songwriter Stephen Foster. It was published posthumously in March 1864, by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of New York. The first edition states on its title page that it is "the last song ever written by Steph ...

" / "On Lovers Hill" / "I'll Cut Your Tail Off" / "Lovers Lane" * 1964 – ''Tell Laura I Love Her'' (His Master's Voice 7EG8854) – "Tell Laura I Love Her" / "The Girl on the Floor Above" / "Johnny Remember Me" / "Wild Wind" * 1977 – ''John Leyton'' (EMI 2699) – "Johnny Remember Me" / "Son This Is She" / "Wild Wind" / "Cupboard Love"

Singles

Selected filmography

*''

Danger Within ''Danger Within'' (American title: ''Breakout'') is a 1959 British war film set in a prisoner of war camp in Northern Italy during the summer of 1943. A combination of POW escape drama and whodunit, the movie is based upon the 1952 novel '' Deat ...

'' (1959) – Prisoner (uncredited) *''

I'm All Right Jack ''I'm All Right Jack'' is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel ''Private Life'' by Alan Hackney. The film is a sequel t ...

'' (1959) – Recruit to Detto (uncredited) *''The Johnny Leyton Touch'' (1961) (short) - Himself *''

'' (1962) – Himself *'' The Great Escape'' (1963) – Flt. Lt. William Dickes "The Tunnel King" *''

'' (1964) – Private Wilkes *'' Every Day's a Holiday'' (1964) – Gerry Pullman *''

'' (1965) – Lieutenant Orde *'' The Idol'' (1966) – Timothy *'' The Legend of Silent Night'' (TVM, 1968) - Pastor Josef Mohr *''

'' (1969) – Rigby *''Fern the Red Deer'' (1976) – Mr. Gordon *'' Schizo'' (1976) – Alan Falconer *'' Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective'' (TVM, 1981) – Dave Boot *''

'' (2005) – Lord Charles Benson *'' Telstar: The Joe Meek Story'' (2008) – Sir Edward

References

External links

*
Biography and discography at 45-rpm.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leyton, John 1936 births Living people English pop singers English male singers English male film actors People from Frinton-on-Sea Singers from London People educated at Highgate School 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Army Service Corps soldiers Military personnel from Essex