David Jason - Early Life

Early Life

David's father, Arthur R White, was a porter at Billingsgate Fish Market, and his Welsh-born mother, Olwen Jones, worked as a charwoman. She gave birth to twin boys in Edmonton, North London in February 1940, but David's twin brother died during child-birth. It is an urban myth that he chose the name Jason as a tribute to his dead twin: David Jason himself has denied this.

Jason's elder brother is the actor Arthur White, born in 1933. The two have appeared together in the crime drama A Touch of Frost, with Arthur playing police archivist Ernie Trigg; and again in 2008, in the comic fantasy, The Colour of Magic, where Arthur starred as a character called "Rerpf". He also appeared briefly with his brother in an episode of The Darling Buds of May.

At school, David developed a defence against bullies by making them laugh: and took on the lead role in the school play, when the boy playing it developed measles. He then joined the local Amateur Dramatic Society. On leaving school, David wanted to follow in his brother Arthur's footsteps as an actor, but their father insisted that he first get a trade. So, for nine months he trained as an electrician, before giving up his girlfriend at the time, and becoming a jobbing actor.