John Smethurst (9 April 1932 – 16 February 2022) was an English television and film comic actor. He was best known for his role as Eddie Booth in the British television

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

Love Thy Neighbour Love Thy Neighbor or Love Thy Neighbour refers to the Biblical phrase "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" from the Book of Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament about the ethic of reciprocity known as the Golden Rule or the Great Commandment. ...

''.

Early life

Smethurst was born on 9 April 1932 in

Collyhurst Collyhurst is an inner city area of Manchester, England, northeast of the Manchester city centre, city centre on Rochdale Road (A664) and A62 road, Oldham Road (A62), bounded by Smedley, Manchester, Smedley, Harpurhey and Monsall tram stop, Mons ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Career

He made his film debut in 1958's ''

Carry On Sergeant ''Carry On Sergeant'' is a 1958 British comedy film about National Service starring William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse and Eric Barker; it is the first in the series of ''Carry On'' films, with 31 entries released from 1958 to 1992. The film wa ...

''. This was followed by parts in the films ''

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award. It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was ...

'' (1960), '' A Kind of Loving'' (1962), ''Run with the Wind'' (1966), ''Night After Night After Night'' (1970), the big-screen version of ''

Please Sir! ''Please Sir!'' is a British television sitcom created by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and featuring actors John Alderton, Deryck Guyler, Penny Spencer, Joan Sanderson, Noel Howlett, Erik Chitty and Richard Davies. Produced by London Week ...

'' (1971) and 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 ...

sitcom ''

For the Love of Ada ''For the Love of Ada'' is an ITV sitcom that ran between 1970 and 1971. Although not seen on British TV for over 30 years, the complete series began airing again in late 2018 on Talking Pictures TV, albeit edited with certain offensive words ...

'' (1970–71) amongst others, before he landed the role for which he is best known—that of bigoted socialist and union leader, 'brother' Eddie Booth in ''

''. The programme ran for eight series between 1972 and 1976. During this run he also appeared in the 1974 film version of the sitcom ''

Man About the House ''Man About the House'' is a British sitcom created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer that starred Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 A ...

''. He reprised his role as Eddie Booth for the 1979 sequel ''

Love Thy Neighbour in Australia ''Love Thy Neighbour'' is a seven-episode Australian television sitcom which debuted on ATN-7 in Sydney on 9 April 1980. Most of the episodes were broadcast in Melbourne beginning the following month. It was produced as a sequel to the British se ...

''. After ''Love Thy Neighbour'' ended, his film appearances were rare, but included ''

Chariots of Fire ''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a de ...

'' (1981), the

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...

vehicle ''

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'' (1991; which re-united him with his ''Love Thy Neighbour'' co-star

Rudolph Walker Rudolph Malcolm Walker (born 28 September 1939) is a Trinidadian-British actor, known for his sitcom roles as Bill Reynolds in ''Love Thy Neighbour'' (1972–76) and Constable Frank Gladstone in '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1995–96). Since 2001, ...

) and 1996's '' La Passione''. He made a guest appearance as Davenport in Britain's longest-running television sitcom ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes foll ...

'' in 1997. He played four different characters in ''

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'': a brewery drayman in 1961, and in January 1967 Percy Bridge, who tried to con Elsie Tanner. Between 1980 and 1983, he occasionally appeared as Johnny Webb, one of the men on

Eddie Yeats Edward Jeremy Timothy "Eddie" Yeats is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Geoffrey Hughes. He made his first screen appearance on 23 December 1974 and remained a regular until 1983, when Hugh ...

' bin round. In 2001, he returned for several months as Stan Wagstaff, a friend of Jimmy Kelly, who left his allotment to

Jack Duckworth John "Jack" Duckworth is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Bill Tarmey. The character debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on 28 November 1979. Jack was introduced by executive pr ...

. Together with his brother Ernie, Stan let Jack in on Jimmy's big secret—he used his allotment shed to brew poteen. Smethurst also starred in

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’s seven-part

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

slice-of-life sitcom ''A Proper Charlie'' in 1984, as factory worker Charlie Garside.

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played his wife with

Jane Hazlegrove Sarah Jane Hazlegrove (born 17 July 1968) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Kathleen "Dixie" Dixon in the BBC medical drama ''Casualty''. She has also appeared as Rosie in ''Making Out'', Rosemary Mason in ''Silent Witness ...

and Jason Littler as their daughter and son. A second series of eight episodes followed at the end of 1985. He worked on stage in Australia when he appeared in the play '' Run for Your Wife'' during 1987 and 1988, and the production toured the country. Other members of the cast were

David McCallum David Keith McCallum Jr. (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician. He first gained recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E''. In recent years, McCallum ...

Eric Sykes Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...

and

Katy Manning Catherine Ann "Katy" Manning (born 14 October 1946) is an English- Australian actress, television presenter, voice artist and former model. Although she has made many appearances on both screen and stage, Manning is best known for her part as t ...

. Smethurst appeared in a production of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

's ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as ...

'' in 1999. Smethurst played the "Man in Phone Box" in S5/E8 (1995) of the British sitcom ''

Keeping Up Appearances ''Keeping Up Appearances'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke. It originally aired on BBC1 from 1990 to 1995 with two specials airing in 1997 and 2008 on PBS. The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class s ...

''. In the episode, Hyacinth Bucket tries to get Smethurst's character to relinquish a public telephone booth, which leads her husband, Richard, to yell at her forcefully for the only time in the entire series.

Personal life and death

Smethurst married actress Julie Nicholls in 1957. The couple had four children; Perdita, Merry, Jane and

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

. His son Adam, also an actor, is married to the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

actress

Rakie Ayola Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola (born May 1968) is a Welsh actress known for her work in theatre and television. Ayola has appeared in television shows including ''Black Mirror'', ''Noughts + Crosses'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Silent Witness'' and ''EastEnde ...

. Smethurst died at his home in Chorleywood on 16 February 2022, at the age of 89.

Selected filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smethurst, Jack 1932 births 2022 deaths 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art British male comedy actors English male stage actors English male television actors Male actors from Manchester People from Collyhurst