John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies

Born: March 9, 1939
Died: August 22, 2011
in London, England, UK
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

John Howard Davies  (born Paddington, London; 9 March 1939) is a British television director and producer and former child actor. Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies. His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) and a few episodes of the television series William Tell (1958). After school at Haileybury, further education at Grenoble and National Service in the Royal Navy, he started working in the City in a finance company. After that, he trained as a carpet salesman but quit after six months to travel the world. Ending up in Australia he returned to acting and met his wife Leonie when they both appeared in The Sound of Music. Back in Britain he tried selling oil to industry in Wembley and then became a production assistant in the BBC at the end of 1968. He is now best known for his adult career as a director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms including All Gas and Gaiters, Fawlty Towers (series 1), The Goodies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Good Life, No Job for a Lady and Mr. Bean. Davies was also the producer and director of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber and the earliest episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also directed several episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. He became the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1977-1982,then head of Light Entertainment and finally Controller Managing Director of EMI Television Productions and the Head of Light Entertainment at ITV broadcaster Thames Television. During the last role he was cited by the popular press as the man who 'sacked' comedian Benny Hill when the station decided not to renew his contract after 20 years service.

Description above from the Wikipedia article John Howard Davies, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Movies for John Howard Davies...

All About The Good Life
Title: All About The Good Life
Released: December 29, 2010
Type: Movie
What was it really like behind the scenes of The Good Life? With contributions from Richard Briers, Penelope Keith, Monty Don, Brian Sewell and John O'Farrell.
bee
Not Again: Not the Nine O'Clock News
Title: Not Again: Not the Nine O'Clock News
Character: Self
Released: December 28, 2009
Type: Movie
A look behind the scenes of satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News.
bee
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Title: Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
Character: Self – Series Director
Released: May 10, 2009
Type: Movie
30 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom.
bee
Title: The Adventures of William Tell
Character: Bruno
Released: September 15, 1958
Type: TV
The Adventures of William Tell is a British swashbuckler adventure series, first broadcast on the ITV network in 1958, and produced by ITC Entertainment.
bee
Title: The Adventures of William Tell
Character: Karl
Released: September 15, 1958
Type: TV
The Adventures of William Tell is a British swashbuckler adventure series, first broadcast on the ITV network in 1958, and produced by ITC Entertainment.
bee
The Magic Box
Title: The Magic Box
Character: Maurice Friese-Greene
Released: January 1, 1952
Type: Movie
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.
bee
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Title: Tom Brown's Schooldays
Character: Tom Brown
Released: April 17, 1951
Type: Movie
When Tom Brown arrives at Rugby boarding school, he’s mercilessly tormented by the school’s evil bully Flashman. With the help of his friend East, plucky Brown devises a plan to get back at Flashman; in the meantime, he’s asked to look out for a timid new student, whose life is accidentally put in peril during a school race.
bee
The Rocking Horse Winner
Title: The Rocking Horse Winner
Character: Paul Grahame
Released: November 30, 1949
Type: Movie
A strange and tragic tale of a young boy who is able to predict race winners at the horse track by riding his own rocking horse to aid his parents out of their endless round of debts.
bee
Oliver Twist
Title: Oliver Twist
Character: Oliver Twist
Released: June 28, 1948
Type: Movie
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.