John Le Mesurier

John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley (5 April 1912 – 15 November 1983), better known as John Le Mesurier, was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC situation comedy Dad's Army (1968–77), but appeared in a range of roles across many genres, normally in smaller, supporting parts.

Born in Bedfordshire, England, Le Mesurier became interested in the stage from an early age and enrolled at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art in 1933. From there he took a position in repertory theatre and made his stage debut in September 1934 at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh in the J. B. Priestley play Dangerous Corner. He later accepted an offer to work with Alec Guinness in a John Gielgud production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. He first appeared on television in 1938 as Seigneur de Miolans in the BBC broadcast of The Marvellous History of St Bernard.

During the Second World War Le Mesurier was posted to British India, as a captain with the Royal Tank Regiment. He returned to make his film debut in 1948, where he starred in the second feature comedy short Death in the Hand, opposite Esme Percy and Ernest Jay. He undertook a number of roles on television in 1951 and met Tony Hancock who, along with Le Mesurier's wife, Hattie Jacques, starred in Educating Archie.

Le Mesurier went on to appear in over 100 films, mostly portraying figures of authority such as army officers, policemen and judges, including Private's Progress (1956), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959), I'm All Right Jack (1959), The Pink Panther (1963), and The Italian Job (1969). He also appeared in Tony Hancock's two principal film vehicles The Rebel (1961) and The Punch and Judy Man (1963), and many episodes of Hancock's television series Hancock's Half Hour. A heavy drinker of alcohol for most of his life, Le Mesurier died on 15 November 1983, aged 71 from a stomach haemorrhage, a complication of the cirrhosis of the liver from which he had suffered during his final years.