John Stratton

John Wilson Stratton (7 November 1925 – 25 October 1991) was a British actor, born in Clitheroe, Lancashire, where he kept his permanent home. He is perhaps best known for his early film roles during the fifties, where he played the young apprentice parts of Ferraby and Ward opposite Jack Hawkins in both The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Long Arm (1956) respectively. He played a similar role on television in the third Quatermass serial Quatermass and the Pit, essaying the role of Captain Potter opposite André Morell's Professor Bernard Quatermass. Older and less boyish by the sixties, he emerged as character actor of some range, playing numerous roles in many television programmes of the decade including the part of alcoholic journalist Fred Blane in It's Dark Outside. Other TV appearances include Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers, Armchair Theatre, The Man in Room 17, Public Eye, Mr. Rose, Z-Cars, Sherlock Holmes (playing Inspector Athelney Jones), Coronation Street, UFO ("E.S.P." episode), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Hadleigh, The Forgotten Story, Softly, Softly, The Pallisers, Alan Plater's 1980 Yorkshire Television adaptation of J.B. Priestley's The Good Companions (in the central role of Jess Oakroyd), Fall of Eagles, Backs to the Land, The Professionals, Doctor Who (in the serial The Two Doctors), Juliet Bravo, The Trinity Tales and Lovejoy.