Jack Hedley

Acting

Jack Hedley

Born 1930-10-28 · London, England, UK

Jack Hedley (born in London on 28 October 1930 as Jack Hawkins, name changed to avoid confusion with his namesake) was an English actor, best known for his performances on television. His screen career began in 1950 with a 13-minute drama-documentary about polio called A Life to be Lived. In the 1950s he starred in a number of films and TV appearances, such as Left Right and Centre, Fair Game, and the Alun Owen-scripted No Trams to Lime Street with Billie Whitelaw. He became a TV star in the Francis Durbridge-scripted BBC series The World of Tim Frazer (transmitted from November 1960 to March 1961), the 18 instalments of which comprised three separate serials of six episodes each. He also played Corrigan Blake in Alun Owen's 1962 BBC play You Can't Win 'Em All, the role being taken over by John Turner in the series Corrigan Blake that resulted the following year. He was also in Alun Owen's 'A Little Winter Love'. He appeared in a number of British films of the 1960s, notably Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1963), Witchcraft (1964), Of Human Bondage (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1964) and The Anniversary (1968). He also had roles in several 1970s BBC dramas, such as that of Lt Colonel Preston in Colditz (1972-4) and ex-serviceman Alan Haldane in Who Pays the Ferryman? (1977). Reportedly, the series was marked off-screen by personality clashes between Hedley and his co-stars Betty Arvaniti and Maria Sokali. Hedley later appeared in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as Sir Timothy Havelock, also voicing Havelock's parrot. Soon after this, in the autumn of 1981 he played the lead role (cynical investigative cop Fred Williams) in Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper (Lo squartatore di New York), in which his voice was dubbed. He also starred with Stanley Baker and Jean Seberg in the film of Irwin Shaw's 'In The French Style'. Other TV appearances include: The Saint, Gideon's Way (The Alibi Man), Softly, Softly, Dixon of Dock Green, The Buccaneers, Return of the Saint, One by One, Remington Steele, Only Fools and Horses (A Royal Flush), 'Allo 'Allo, Dalziel and Pascoe, and the television film version of Brief Encounter. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Hedley,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Lawrence of Arabia poster
8.0

During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward 'T.E.' Lawrence sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.

Lawrence of Arabia

1962

For Your Eyes Only poster
6.5

A British spy ship has sunk and on board was a hi-tech encryption device. James Bond is sent to find the device that holds British launching instructions before the enemy Soviets get to it first.

For Your Eyes Only

1981

The Longest Day poster
7.6

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

The Longest Day

1962

Saint Paul poster
6.9

A biblical epic from the Book of Acts and Paul's epistles covering his conversion from Saul of Tarsus to his ministry to the Gentiles.

Saint Paul

2000

A Night to Remember poster
7.6

The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.

A Night to Remember

1958

The New York Ripper poster
6.3

A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.

The New York Ripper

1982

Goodbye, Mr. Chips poster
6.8

Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

1969

Character poster
7.3

In pre-WWII Holland, the penniless, illegitimate son of a powerful bailiff sets out to become a lawyer as he spends a lifetime struggling to prove his worth to his relentlessly spiteful father.

Character

1997

Room at the Top poster
6.9

An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.

Room at the Top

1958

The Break poster
NR

Two strangers break into a man's house and subject him to a series of terrifying - and humiliating - mind games.

The Break

1974

Never Back Losers poster
5.0

Two rival gangs are trying to fix horse races and a jockey is attacked and left for dead in a stage-managed car crash. An insurance investigator makes routine enquiries into the "accident" and one of the gang leaders feels threatened by this and takes counter measures.

Never Back Losers

1961

The Anniversary poster
6.6

Mrs Taggart always celebrates her anniversary with her grown sons. It’s a tradition practised since the death of her husband and she is determined for it to continue. None of her three sons have dared to cross their ruthless domineering mother but this anniversary they intend to try. With cruel and brutal twists, the family get-together becomes a social nightmare beyond endurance.

The Anniversary

1968

No artwork available
8.3

Western journalists visit Moscow to interview Adrian Harris, a former controller in British intelligence who was also a double agent for the USSR. Harris believes in both Communism and Englishness, believing himself to have betrayed his class, but not his country. The press find these beliefs incompatible, and want to find out why he became a ‘traitor’. Harris is plagued by anxieties over both his actions and his upper-class childhood, and drinks to a state of collapse

Traitor

1971

The Scarlet Blade poster
5.5

A cruel Roundhead Colonel is on the trail of royalist sympathizers, but unaware of his daughters royalist sympathies. When she falls into a love triangle with Cavalier Edward Beverly and Roundhead officer Captain Sylvester the stage is set for double crossing and derring-do.

The Scarlet Blade

1963

How I Won the War poster
5.6

An inept British WWII commander leads his troops to a series of misadventures in North Africa and Europe.

How I Won the War

1967

Space Precinct: The Fire Within poster
NR

A priest spontaneously combusts during a ceremony at the Pyrist Temple; Brogan investigates, finding that the death was likely a homicide and all evidence points to a fellow priest being the culprit.

Space Precinct: The Fire Within

2025

Of Human Bondage poster
6.1

Medical student Philip Carey becomes involved with flirtatious waitress Mildred Rogers. Their love affair is interrupted when Philip is made aware of her constant infidelity. As Mildred quits her job and becomes a prostitute, Philip is still in love with her.

Of Human Bondage

1964

Brief Encounter poster
5.0

Two strangers, both married to others, meet in a railway station and soon find themselves in a brief but intense affair.

Brief Encounter

1976

Hindle Wakes poster
8.5

In the best play of 1912, the conventional morals and manners of a North England mill town are overthrown by a young woman with ideas far ahead of her time.

Hindle Wakes

1976

The Plot to Kill Hitler poster
6.2

A historical recreation of the 1944 attempt by several German High Command Officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the German government.

The Plot to Kill Hitler

1990

Witchcraft poster
6.6

When her grave is disturbed by modern-day land developers, a 300-year-old witch is accidentally resurrected and terrorizes an English village.

Witchcraft

1964

Cone of Silence poster
6.8

A seasoned pilot is condemned for an error which causes a crash. The pilot later dies in a crash with similar circumstances and an examiner looks for scientific reasons for the crashes.

Cone of Silence

1960

The Secret of Blood Island poster
9.0

Based on the true story of a British secret agent, shot down over Malaya near to a Allied POW forced labour camp. There she is hidden, disguised as a youthful prisoner, until her escape can be effected. The costs of keeping her identity secret fall on all the POW's as the Japanese embark on a policy of ruthless terror to extract her and the focus shifts to the conflicts of the group' s collective concerns against the necessities of personal survival.

The Secret of Blood Island

1964

No artwork available
NR

A henpecked trade union leader tries to bully and then bribe a vulnerable housing manager into letting him jump the queue and have a new council flat.

The Waiting Game

1967