Acting

John Boswall

Born — Died

1920-05-02 — 2011-06-06

Place of birth

Oxfordshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

43 titles

John Boswall (2 May 1920 – 6 June 2011) was a British actor known for playing Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984 and Wyvern in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Boswall was born John Stuart on 2 May 1920 in Oxfordshire, England. Prior to his career as an actor, he attended the University of Oxford and served in Burma during World War II. Boswall's television appearances included Paul Temple (1971), Wessex Tales (1973), Lady Killer (1973), Edward the Seventh (1975), The Onedin Line (1976), Love in a Cold Climate (1980), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Sapphire & Steel (1982), No Place Like Home (1986), EastEnders (1990, 2002), Selling Hitler (1991), Agatha Christie's Poirot (1991), …

Known for

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

Agatha Christie's Poirot poster
8.2

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.

Agatha Christie's Poirot

1989

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest poster
7.4

Captain Jack Sparrow’s got a blood debt to pay: he owes his soul to the legendary Davy Jones, ghastly Ruler of the Ocean Depths. To escape eternal servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman, ever-crafty Jack must track down the still-beating heart of Jones. But he won’t do it alone: Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are drawn back into another one of his perilous quests—assuming they can evade execution for aiding a pirate.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2006

Drop the Dead Donkey poster
7.0

A sitcom set in the offices of "GlobeLink News" after its acquisition by media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant. Led by editor George Dent, the staff of GlobeLink battle to maintain the company as a serious news organization against Sir Roysten's right-hand man, Gus Hedges, who wants to make the show more sensationalist and suppress stories that might harm Roysten's business empire.

Drop the Dead Donkey

1990

Lovejoy poster
7.4

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.

Lovejoy

1986

Thriller poster
7.0

Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.

Thriller

1973

Film credits

2000s · 6 titles

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest poster
7.4

Captain Jack Sparrow’s got a blood debt to pay: he owes his soul to the legendary Davy Jones, ghastly Ruler of the Ocean Depths. To escape eternal servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman, ever-crafty Jack must track down the still-beating heart of Jones. But he won’t do it alone: Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are drawn back into another one of his perilous quests—assuming they can evade execution for aiding a pirate.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2006

Ladies in Lavender poster
6.4

Andrea, a gifted young Polish violinist from Krakow, is bound for America when he is swept overboard by a storm. When the Widdington sisters discover the handsome stranger on the beach below their house, they nurse him back to health. However, the presence of the musically talented young man disrupts the peaceful lives of Ursula and Janet and the community in which they live.

Ladies in Lavender

2004

The Statement poster
5.7

An ambitious Judge and an exacting Colonel re-open the sixty-year-old case of Pierre Brossard, an escaped Nazi collaborator accused of murdering seven Jews. Now an old man living a sheltered life within the Catholic Church, Brossard is also being trailed by mysterious hit men, determined to kill him before he's arrested.

The Statement

2003

Hotel Splendide poster
5.7

A chef seeks reconciliation with her brother by helping him run a decaying resort and health spa.

Hotel Splendide

2000

Morris: A Life with Bells On poster
6.5

The film follows the fortunes of an avant garde Morris team in their struggle to evolve Morris Dancing.

Morris: A Life with Bells On

2009

No artwork available
7.0

They're bringing Las Vegas closer than you ever imagined.

Ca$hino

2001

1990s · 6 titles

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc poster
6.4

In 1429, a French teenager stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. As she reclaims God's diminished kingdom, this courageous young woman has various amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

1999

3 Men and a Little Lady poster
5.8

Sylvia's work increasingly takes her away from the three men who help bring up Mary, her daughter. When she decides to move to England and take Mary with her, the three men are heartbroken at losing the two most important women in their lives.

3 Men and a Little Lady

1990

The Wind in the Willows poster
5.8

Jailed for his reckless driving, rambunctious Mr. Toad has to escape from prison when his beloved Toad Hall comes under threat from the wily weasels, who plan to build a dog food factory on the very meadow sold to them by Toad himself.

The Wind in the Willows

1996

Stiff Upper Lips poster
5.6

Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.

Stiff Upper Lips

1998

Poldark poster
6.8

The Cornish military captain, now a member of Parliament, is drawn into the war with France while his son falls in with smugglers. Historical drama, starring John Bowe and Mel Martin, and featuring a young Ioan Gruffudd in one of his earliest roles.

Poldark

1996

No artwork available
3.3

Jessie Fielding is a young MP who is trying to get an anti-hunting bill through the two Houses of Parliament, which is a little surprising as she hunted as a teenager with friend Barb Gale. Matters are complicated when she rekindles her friendship with Barb, who still works for a hunt. The plot thickens further when it becomes aparent that the House of Lords is likely break with convention and block the bill, an event which the Prime Minister hopes to use for his own ends.

Giving Tongue

1996

1980s · 6 titles

Series credits

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

Agatha Christie's Poirot poster
8.2

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.

Agatha Christie's Poirot

1989

Drop the Dead Donkey poster
7.0

A sitcom set in the offices of "GlobeLink News" after its acquisition by media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant. Led by editor George Dent, the staff of GlobeLink battle to maintain the company as a serious news organization against Sir Roysten's right-hand man, Gus Hedges, who wants to make the show more sensationalist and suppress stories that might harm Roysten's business empire.

Drop the Dead Donkey

1990

Lovejoy poster
7.4

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.

Lovejoy

1986

Thriller poster
7.0

Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.

Thriller

1973

Murder Most Horrid poster
6.9

Comedienne Dawn French tackles dark, tongue-in-cheek thrillers as her various characters embark on a different mystery every episode. In one way or another, she is involved with murder — either committing the crime or even getting bumped off herself!

Murder Most Horrid

1991

Rose and Maloney poster
6.4

Investigators Rose Linden and Marion Maloney, of the Criminal Justice Review Agency, take on claims of miscarriages of justice, assessing whether there are grounds to reopen old cases.

Rose and Maloney

2002

Sapphire & Steel poster
7.0

Sapphire & Steel is a British television science-fiction fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The Time Menders, after a stay in an allegedly haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read. None of the stories had onscreen titles, or any official titles assigned by the writers. The Region 1 Complete Series DVD release gives the titles "Escape Through a Crack in Time", "The Railway Station", "The Creature's Revenge", "The Man Without a Face", "Dr. McDee Must Die" and "The Trap", respectively. These titles have often been cited as having been created by science fiction magazine Time Screen.

Sapphire & Steel

1979

Wish Me Luck poster
7.1

A secret organisation called The Outfit recruits and trains civilians, sending them undercover to aid in the war effort, or placing them in administrative tasks to aid the group. Each person arrives at The Outfit by a different route: Mathilde ('Matty') escaped to London from France and wants desperately to contribute to the war effort; Liz, whose husband is serving overseas and whose brother has just died in the war, stumbles into the group almost by accident. Former actor Colin Beale also trains for undercover work. Vivien's husband was executed when his work with The Outfit was uncovered. But they all come together against the common enemy.

Wish Me Luck

1988

Mitch poster
5.0

Mitch is a newspaper reporter with a difference, he cares about the people he reports.

Mitch

1984

No artwork available
7.0

Second Verdict is a six-part 1976 BBC television series, a dramatised documentaries of classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history re-appraised by fictional police officers. Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor reprised for a final time their double-act as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, hugely popular with TV audiences from the long-running series Z-Cars; Softly, Softly; and Barlow at Large.

Second Verdict

1976

Virtual Murder poster
7.0

Eccentric psychology professor Dr John Cornelius solves technologically-charged crimes with his partner Samantha Valentine, police contact Inspector Cadogan, and his HOD Professor Owen Griffiths.

Virtual Murder

1992

The Ten Commandments poster
5.7

One biblical figure is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. His name is Moses, the man who rose in power to defend a people, to free them, and to live in history like no other... The Ten Commandments dramatizes the biblical story of Moses.

The Ten Commandments

2006

Selling Hitler poster
7.0

In 1981, Gerd Heidemann, a bloodhound reporter for the German magazine Stern, believes he's stumbled onto the greatest literary find of the century: the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler. Shrouded in secrecy, Heidemann and the men of Stern attempt to pull off the greatest scoop in publishing history, blinded by their greed to the fact that the diaries are, in fact, crude forgeries.

Selling Hitler

1991

The Hound of the Baskervilles poster
6.3

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate. A British television serial based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1982

Wessex Tales poster
7.0

An anthology series based on the Wessex Tales, a collection of short stories by novelist Thomas Hardy.

Wessex Tales

1973

Anglo Saxon Attitudes poster
5.0

Aging historian Gerald Middleton is taciturn and methodical, a creature of habit who prefers his daily routine undisturbed. Separated from his wife and disapproving of his youngest son’s job, Middleton's life and career are beginning to lose meaning. Keenly aware of his faults and the void he's created around himself, Middleton is forced back into society once more as his past catches up with him.

Anglo Saxon Attitudes

1992

No artwork available
6.0

Englishwoman Christabel Burton marries German lawyer Peter Bielenberg and resides in WWII-era Nazi Germany. When Peter is arrested for plotting against Hitler, Christabel is forced to confront her loyalties and consider using her connection to Winston Churchill to help him.

Christabel

1988

The Secret World of Michael Fry poster
7.0

Council Planner Michael Fry uncovers a sinister plot in his Welsh seaside home town, and finds himself caught in a growing tide of corruption and sleazy internet sex.

The Secret World of Michael Fry

2000

Brensham People poster
NR

3 Part Mini-series based on novels by John Moore on life in a Gloucestershire town.

Brensham People

1976