Neville Jason (29 May 1934 – 16 October 2015) was an English actor.

Background and career

Jason was born Neville Jacobson in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1934. His grandfather, Carl, was one of the six original shareholders of

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

. In 1943, at age 9, Jason was evacuated from his London home to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

as part of the British government's attempts to protect civilians. Here, he discovered a love of acting. When he returned to the United Kingdom, he adopted his stage name of Neville Jason as a tribute to a surname his mother used for her career as a professional singer. Jason trained in acting at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

. Early in his career, he was a member of the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

and

the Old Vic The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit organization, not-for-profit producing house, producing theatre in Waterloo, London, Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Th ...

Theatre Company. In the latter company, he appeared alongside

Vivien Leigh Vivien Leigh ( ; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967; born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gon ...

and Sir

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

's influential production of ''

Titus Andronicus ''Titus Andronicus'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy and is often seen ...

''. Alongside his theatre career, Jason had small roles in notable films including '' From Russia with Love'' and ''

The Duellists ''The Duellists'' is a 1977 British historical drama film and the feature film directorial debut of Ridley Scott. It won the Best Debut Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. The basis of the screenplay is the Joseph Conrad short story "T ...

''. On television, he notably appeared as Prince Reynart in the 1978 ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' serial ''

The Androids of Tara ''The Androids of Tara'' is the fourth serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 November to 16 December 1978. The serial is set on ...

'' and played the regular role of Lapointe on the 1960s television adaptation of ''

Maigret Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a '' commissaire'' ("commissioner") of the Paris ''Brigade Criminelle'' ('' Direction Régionale de la Police Judiciaire de Paris:36, Quai des Orfèvres''), created b ...

''.

Audiobooks

Jason became most notable for his career as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

narrator and director. He began working with Naxos Audiobooks in 1987 and would go on to record over 60 books for their label. His recordings included the collected works of

T. H. White Terence Hanbury "Tim" White (29 May 1906 – 17 January 1964) was an English writer best known for his Arthurian novels, published together in 1958 as ''The Once and Future King''. One of his most memorable is the first of the series, '' The Sw ...

, novels by

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

, and an unabridged recording of ''

War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...

''. For his work in audio, Jason won four AudioFile Earphone Awards as a reader, and two Talkie Awards as a director. His final recording for Naxos was

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...

's '' The Periodic Table'', which he had selected himself. Jason received international media coverage for his recordings of

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

's ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'' (regarded by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the longest novel ever written). In the 1990s, he recorded a 36-hour

abridgement An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone, capturing the ...

of the novel, under its traditional title of ''Remembrance of Things Past''. In 2002, he wrote a biography ''The Life and Work of Marcel Proust'', which he recorded over 3 CDs for Naxos. In 2010, Jason recorded a 10-hour "essential" abridgement of the novel to introduce new readers. In 2011, he was asked by Naxos producer Nicolas Soames to record a complete and unabridged reading of the novel. Jason recorded the 1,260,000 words of the novel over 45 days. Jason would record approximately 9 hours' worth of material over 3 days, followed by 3 days rest, and then resuming. Between each volume of the novel he took a week off. The recordings received enthusiastic reviews, with

Michael Mott Michael Charles Alston Mott (8 December 1930 – 11 October 2019) was a British-born American author. He produced eleven poetry collections, four novels and a renowned biography of Thomas Merton. Life and career Mott was born in London in Decem ...

writing in

The Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History ''T ...

that "Jason creates his own masterpiece for which his training as a singer must be in part responsible".

Personal life

Jason met his wife, Gillian Bosworth, in a production of ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'' at

Theatre in the 1960s. The couple founded the Gillian Jason Gallery in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

with a focus on contemporary British painters. The couple had two children. They lived in London with a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

holiday home in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Filmography

References

External links

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Neville Jason
at Theatricalia 1934 births 2015 deaths English male film actors English male television actors 20th-century English male actors Jewish English male actors English Jews Alumni of RADA Royal Shakespeare Company members {{UK-film-actor-stub