Gareth Jones (6 June 1925 – 30 November 1958) was a British actor, chiefly remembered for the circumstances of his death, during the transmission of a live television play, ''

Underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

'', part of the ''

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canadi ...

'' series.

Biography

Jones was born in

Lampeter Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Career

Jones appeared in

Dundee Repertory Theatre Dundee Repertory Theatre, better known simply as the Dundee Rep, is a theatre and arts company in the city of Dundee, Scotland. It operates as both a producing house - staging at least six of its own productions each year, and a receiving house ...

plays including "Petticoat Influence" (1952), ''

The Beaver Coat ''The Beaver Coat'' (german: Der Biberpelz) is a satirical play by Gerhart Hauptmann premiered in Berlin in 1893. The work is an example of a German naturalistic ''Diebskomödie'', or 'thief's comedy'. The drama takes place "somewhere in Berlin ...

'' (1952), "The Hollow Crown" (1952), "The Queen's Husband" (1952), "Young Madame Conti" (1952), and '' The Lark'' (1955). He also appeared in three other ''Armchair Theatre'' plays in 1958 - "Noon on Doomsday" (6 July 1958), "Trial By Candlelight" (22 June 1958), and "Miss Olive" (6 April 1958). Other TV appearances included the ITV Television Playhouse production of "Thunder on Sycamore Street" (11 October 1957), the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

adaptation of ''

Under Milk Wood ''Under Milk Wood'' is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, commissioned by the BBC and later adapted for the stage. A film version, ''Under Milk Wood'' directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released in 1972, and another adaptation of ...

'' (9 May 1957), the BBC series "Onion Boys" (1957), and "A Tale of Two Cities" (1957).

Death

During a

live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television over the Internet when content or programming is played continuously (not on demand) ...

broadcast of the anthology series ''

'' in the play ''

'' on 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 ...

network in the UK on 30 November 1958, Jones suffered a massive heart attack and died while off-camera between two of his scenes. Some contemporary news reports stated that he had suffered the heart attack while on camera, although most references claim that he was stricken while in a make-up chair, between scenes. However, actor

Peter Bowles Peter Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an English television and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as '' Callan: A Magnum for Schneider'' and ''I, Claudius''. He is however, best remembered for his roles ...

, also in the cast, recalled that "During transmission, a little group of us was talking on camera while awaiting the arrival of Gareth Jones's character, who had some information for us. We could see him coming up towards us, but we saw him fall. We had no idea what had happened, but he certainly wasn't coming our way". Director

Ted Kotcheff William Theodore Kotcheff (born April 7, 1931) is a Bulgarian-Canadian film and television director, writer and producer, known primarily for his work on British and American television productions such as ''Armchair Theatre'' and '' Law & Order ...

and the remaining cast were forced to improvise to carry the play to its conclusion, with producer

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman w ...

ordering Kotcheff to "shoot it like a football match". Coincidentally, Jones's character was to have suffered a fatal heart attack during the play.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Gareth 1925 births 1958 deaths Welsh male television actors 20th-century Welsh male actors Deaths onstage People from Lampeter

Biography

Career

Death

References

Further reading

External links