Gareth Forwood

Gareth Langton John Forwood (14 October 1945 – 16 October 2007) was a British stage, film and television actor.^[1] Forwood was the only child of actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood.^[2] He made his screen debut in 1965 and went on to prosper as a character actor with over 40 credits in film, television and theatre. His career was marked with recurring roles in several large productions, particularly with the British public broadcast network ITV. In his later career, Forwood was typecast in several British television adaptations of classic novels.

Early life and education

Gareth Forwood was born on 14 October 1945 in

Forwood made his professional television debut with the series of one-off plays The Wednesday Play in 1965, in which he appeared three separate times: as Balcar in 1965, Colin in 1966, and Cantfield in 1970. Forwood made a guest appearance in the sitcom The Golden Age in 1967[9] and made his cinematic debut in Jack Gold's The Bofors Gun the following year. He appeared in the anthology television series Detective (1968), the silent television comedy For Amusement Only (1968) and the anthology period piece The Jazz Age (1968), as John, Second Youth, and Tom Kent-Cumberland respectively. Forwood was given the minor role of Alistair in Guy Hamilton's 1969 war film Battle of Britain.

The same year, he was cast in two separate ITV athology series:

By the mid-1970s, Forwood was already an established character actor, with parts in such films as Where Adam Stood (1976) as Mr. Brackley, Birth of the Beatles (1979) as Alden, and Blade on the Feather (1980) as the Doctor. His television credits of this era include playing Everett Wharton on the 1974 BBC television adaptation of Anthony Trollope's eponymous novels The Pallisers, Jonathan Bridges on the nonlinear narrative series The ITV Play, and Doctor Crampton on the final season of ITV's drama series Armchair Thriller in 1980.

The following two decades saw Forwood take on more film roles. He was cast as the Photographer on Aquitania in

In 1989, Forwood played Derek Preston in the episode Life and Death of Geoff McQueen's police procedural television series The Bill on ITV. Nine years later in 1998, he was recast in the same series, this time as Maurice Petrow in the episode Indiscretion. His final screen role was as Hilary Quentin in Rob Heyland's 2000 series Bomber.^[11] In later life, Forwood worked as a guest commentator for the BBC.

Personal life

Forwood's mother, Glynis Johns, married a further three times after divorcing his father. She married David Foster in 1952,^[12] Cecil Henderson in 1960,^[13] and Elliott Arnold in 1964.^{[14][15][16][17]}

In 1973, Forwood married French set designer Véronique Lecoq,^[18] with whom he had one son, Thomas Forwood, an animator, writer and director based in Paris.

He died on 16 October 2007 at his home in London.^[19] He was survived by his mother, son and ex wife.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Ancestors

References