Michael Goodliffe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor best known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working class parts.
Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Cheshire (now Merseyside), the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. He started his career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. He joined the British Army at the beginning of World War II, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk. Goodliffe was incorrectly listed as killed in action, and even had his obituary published in a newspaper. He was to spend the rest of the war a prisoner in Germany.
Whilst in captivity he produced and acted in (and in some cases wrote) many plays and sketches to entertain fellow prisoners. These included two productions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, one in Tittmoning and the other in Eichstätt, in which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noel Coward's Post Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these productions exists.
After the war he resumed his professional acting career. As well as appearing in the theatre he worked in film and television. He appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and in other POW films. His best known film was A Night to Remember (1958) in which he played Thomas Andrews, builder of the RMS Titanic. His best known television series was Sam (1973–75) in which he played an unemployed Yorkshire miner. He also appeared with John Thaw and James Bolam in the 1967 television series Inheritance.
Suffering from depression, Goodliffe had a breakdown in 1976 during the period that he was rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He committed suicide a few days later by leaping from a hospital fire escape, whilst a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
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Known for
Thirty-Minute Theatre
The Minister
The Avengers
Dixon of Dock Green
Garfield Fenton
The Saint
Dr. Quintus
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Arthur de Crecy
Interpol Calling
Wolf Barstrom
Maigret
Man in a Suitcase
Callan
The Protectors
De Santos
Zero One
Sam
Jack Barraclough
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Mr. Teevee (uncredited)
The Gorgon
Professor Jules Heitz
Peeping Tom
Don Jarvis
A Night to Remember
Thomas Andrews
Von Ryan's Express
Captain Stein
Inheritance
Mr. Oldroyd
Cromwell
Solicitor General
The Night of the Generals
Hauser
To the Devil a Daughter
George de Grass
633 Squadron
Squadron Leader Frank Adams
The Battle of the River Plate
Captain McCall, R.N., British Naval Attache, Buenos Aires
Hine
Sink the Bismarck!
Captain Banister
Testament of Orpheus
English Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
The Fixer
Ostrovsky
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
Col. Caillard - POW Escort
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Jacko Jackson the Night Editor
Carve Her Name with Pride
Coding Expert
Woman of Straw
Solicitor
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
General Weidling
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
Thomas More
The One That Got Away
R.A.F. Interrogator
The Small Back Room
Till
Sea Devils
Ragan
Man in the Middle
Colonel Shaw
The End of the Affair
Smythe
Jigsaw
Clyde Burchard
The 7th Dawn
Trumphey
The 39 Steps
Brown
Quentin Durward
Count De Dunois
Cry, the Beloved Country
Martens
Dial 999
John Moffat
The Trials of Oscar Wilde
Charles Gill
Fortune Is a Woman
Detective Insp. Barnes
The Jokers
Lt. Col. Paling
The Battle of the Sexes
Detective
The Wooden Horse
Robbie
The Camp on Blood Island
Father Paul Anjou
Conspiracy of Hearts
Father Desmaines
Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue
Robert Walpole
No Love for Johnnie
Dr. West
80,000 Suspects
Clifford Preston
Number Six
The 5th Day of Peace
Snow
Macbeth
Duncan
Three Crooked Men
Shop Customer
Wicked as They Come
Larry Buckham
The Connoisseur
Rev. Adrian Tenterden
The Hour of 13
Anderson
The Man with Two Faces
Jeff Driscoll
Further Up the Creek
Lt. Commander Blakeney
Front Page Story
Kennedy
Up the Creek
Nelson
Still Life
David
The White Trap
Inspector Walters
Stop Press Girl
McPherson
In Sickness and in Health
Dr David Muray
Don't Be Like Brenda
Narrator (uncredited)
Ocean Terminal
Narrator (voice)
The Company Man
Mr. Lansing
The Making of 'A Night to Remember'
Self (archive footage)
Family Portrait
Narrator (voice)
Link Span
Narrator (voice)
Chaucer's England
The Theif
Cities At War
Self - Narrator
The £20,000 Kiss
Sir Harold Trevitt