John Abbott (actor)

John Abbott
John Abbott
	Abbott in The Woman in White (1948)
Born	John Albert Chamberlain Kefford; 5 June 1905; Stepney, London, England
Died	24 May 1996 (aged 90); Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1936–1984

John Albert Chamberlain Kefford^[1] (5 June 1905 – 24 May 1996) was an English actor professionally known as John Abbott. His memorable roles include the invalid Frederick Fairlie in the 1948 film The Woman in White and the pacifist Ayelborne in the Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy". He also played Sesmar on an episode of Lost in Space, "The Dream Monster", in 1966.^[2] Abbott was known as a Shakespearean actor.

Biography[edit]

Abbott was born in the district of Stepney in London on 5 June 1905.^[3] He had two siblings - a sister, Ivy Skeates of Cambridge, and a brother, Harold Kefford.^[2]

In 1934, he began his career in show business when he made his professional stage debut in a revival of Dryden's Aureng-zebe with Sybil Thorndike. He then joined the Old Vic Company and appeared in Shakespearean roles, including Claudius in a production of Hamlet at Elsinore Castle in Denmark with Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Alec Guinness. His first Broadway role was that of Count Mancini in He Who Gets Slapped in 1946. He also appeared on Broadway in Monserrat and The Waltz of the Toreadors. He made his film debut in Mademoiselle Docteur in 1937, and went on to act in scores of films in the next 30 years. Among his film credits are Mission to Moscow, Jane Eyre, A Thousand and One Nights, Humoresque, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. His television appearances in that time were even more numerous, beginning with pioneering broadcasts by the BBC before the Second World War.^[2]

In the early days of the Second World War, Abbott worked at the British Embassy in Stockholm. When the time came to leave, he had to go by way of the United States. While in the U.S., he was offered a part in Hollywood in 1941^[4] and ended up living there for the rest of his life.

On American television between the 1950s and 1970s, Abbott had roles on a wide variety of series such as Kraft Television Theatre, Studio 57, Gunsmoke (lead character Edward Vanderman in S5E20’s The Tragedian” - 1960), Matinee Theatre, Bonanza, Thriller, Star Trek, Mannix, Iron Horse, and Bewitched.^{[citation needed]} Although he was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s, a producer who wanted to hire him eventually succeeded in getting the actor removed from the list.^[5] In his final years, Abbott taught acting to students free of charge.

Abbott died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from natural causes on 24 May 1996 at the age of 90.^[2]

Filmography[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1936	Conquest of the Air	Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier
1937	Mademoiselle Docteur	Armand	Uncredited
	Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel	Flower Seller	Uncredited
	The Importance of Being Earnest	John Worthing	BBC Television (live)
	Under Secret Orders	Armand
1938	This Man Is News	Hood with Foreign Accent	Uncredited
1938	Richard of Bordeaux	Simon Burley	BBC Television (live)
1939	The Tempest	Prospero	BBC Television (live)
	The Saint in London	Count Stephen Duni
	The Great Commandment	Starving Beggar	Uncredited
1940	Ten Days in Paris	André
1941	The Shanghai Gesture	Poppy's Escort	Uncredited
1942	Joan of Paris	English Spy
	This Above All	Joe	Uncredited
	Mrs. Miniver	Fred
	Rubber Racketeers	Dumbo
	Get Hep to Love	Professor Radowsky
	Nightmare	Karl / Charles
1943	The Gorilla Man	Dr. Ferris
	London Blackout Murders	Jack Rawlings
	They Got Me Covered	Gregory Vanescu
	Hangmen Also Die!	Hostage	(scenes deleted)
	Mission to Moscow	Grinko	Uncredited
	Dangerous Blondes	Roland X. Smith	Uncredited
	The Cross of Lorraine	Baked	Uncredited
	Jane Eyre	Mason	Uncredited
1944	Once Upon a Time	Reporter	Uncredited
	The Mask of Dimitrios	Mr. Pappas
	Summer Storm	Lunin – Public Prosecutor
	Abroad with Two Yanks	Salesman
	U-Boat Prisoner	Alfonse Lamont
	Secrets of Scotland Yard	Mortimer Cope
	Cry of the Werewolf	Peter Althius
	End of the Road	Chris Martin
	The Falcon in Hollywood	Martin S. Dwyer
1945	The Power of the Whistler	Kaspar Andropolous
	Honeymoon Ahead	Welles
	The Vampire's Ghost	Webb Fallon
	A Thousand and One Nights	Ali
	Crime Doctor's Warning	Jimmy Gordon
	Pursuit to Algiers	Jodri
	Saratoga Trunk	Roscoe Bean
1946	The Notorious Lone Wolf	Lal Bara
	The Bandit of Sherwood Forest	Will Scarlet
	One More Tomorrow	Joseph Baronova
	Anna and the King of Siam	Phya Phrom	Uncredited
	Deception	Bertram Gribble
	Humoresque	Rozner
1947	Time Out of Mind	Max Leiberman
	The Web	Charles Murdock
	Adventure Island	Huish
	If Winter Comes	Mr. Twyning
1948	The Woman in White	Frederick Fairlie
1948	Dream Girl		(scenes deleted)
1949	Addio Mimí!	Orchestra Conductor
1949	Madame Bovary	Mayor Tuvache
1950	Sideshow	Pierre
1951	Navy Bound	Pappa Cerrano
	Thunder on the Hill	Abel Harmer
	Crosswinds	Algernon 'Mousey' Sykes
1952	The Merry Widow	Marshovian Ambassador
1952	Thunder in the East	Nitra Puta
1953	Rogue's March	Herbert Bielensen
	Sombrero	Don Daniel
	Cavalcade of America	Col. Barton	Season 2, Episode 2
	The Steel Lady	Mustafa el Melik
1955	Front Row Center	Dr. Franz Gregorovious	Season 1, Episode 10
1955–1956	Crusader	Gustave / Igor Borovin	2 Episodes
1955–1956	Science Fiction Theatre	John Bowers	2 Episodes
1956	Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre	Barrett	Season 1, Episode 35
	Telephone Time	Schliemann's Russian assistant	Season 1, Episode 9
	Studio 57		Season 2, Episode 36
	The Adventures of Hiram Holliday	Thief	Season 1, Episode 2
1957	Public Pigeon No. One	Dipso Dave Rutherford
1957	Omar Khayyam	Yusuf	Uncredited
1955–1958	Matinee Theatre	Jasper Purdy	5 Episodes
1958	Gigi	Manuel
	Studio One	Travers	Season 10, Episode 44
	The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen		Season 1, Episode 6
1959	The Ann Sothern Show	Carter	Season 1, Episode 14
	Peter Gunn	Blankenship	Season 1, Episode 28
	Goodyear Theatre	Stefan	Season 3, Episode 1
	Have Gun - Will Travel	Winston Ainslee	Season 3, Episode 5
1956–1959	General Electric Theater	Nathan / Professor Meyerdal	2 Episodes
1956–1960	Gunsmoke	Eddie / Professor Lute Bone	2 Episodes
1960	Tightrope	Gideon	Season 1, Episode 19
	The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis	Professor Dobkin	Season 1, Episode 20
	The Rifleman	Dr. Henniken	Season 2, Episode 26
	Shangri-La	Chang	TV movie
	Shirley Temple's Storybook	Uncle Venner	1 episode
1961	The Islanders	Harwood Gones	1 episode
	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Professor Brent	1 episode
	Hong Kong	Alec Borg	1 episode
	Thriller	Kriss Milo	1 episode
	Adventures in Paradise	Murdock	1 episode
	Great Ghost Tales	Mr. Arcularis	1 episode
	Ichabod and Me	Jeremy Lockhart	Season 1, Episode 6 ("The Purple Cow")
	Bonanza	Zachariah Wickham	1 episode
1962	Perry Mason	Professor Carlos Muntz	Season 6, Episode 1
1962	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mr. Abner Munro	Season 7 Episode 36: "First Class Honeymoon"
1963	Who's Minding the Store?	Mr. Orlandos
1964	Flipper	"Professor" Marvello	Season 1, Episode 9
1964	The Beverly Hillbillies	Sir Trevor Gielgud Burton-Guinness	Season 3, Episode 1
1965	The Greatest Story Ever Told	Aben
1965	Perry Mason	Professor Durwood Tobey	Season 9, Episode 1: "The Case of the Laughing Lady"
1966	The Munsters	Dr. Victor Frankenstein IV	Season 2, Episode 26
	Lost in Space	Sesmar	Season 2, Episode 14
	Gambit	Emile
1967	Star Trek	Ayelborne	Season 1, Episode 26: "Errand of Mercy"
	Bewitched	Leonardo da Vinci	Season 4, Episode 17
	The Jungle Book	Akela, the Wolf	Voice
1968	Three Guns for Texas	Banker Irwing
1968	Land of the Giants	Professor Gorak	Season 1, Episode 4
1969	2000 Years Later	Gregorius
1972	Cool Million	Sir Godwyn Phipps-Cheston
1975	The Black Bird	DuQuai
1976	Sherlock Holmes in New York	Heller	TV movie
1976	Holmes & Yo-Yo	Montecito	1 episode
1978	Outside Chance	Coroner	TV movie
1982	Slapstick of Another Kind	Dr. Frankenstein
1983	Cracking Up	Surgeon

References[edit]

^ A Chronicle of Two Villages: Bassingbourn & Kneesworth 1894–1994 (PDF). Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth Local History Group. June 1994. p. 16. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "John Abbott, 90. Was English Actor". The New York Times. 2 June 1996. Retrieved 2 December 2014. John Abbott, an actor in films, theatre and television, died on 24 May at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 90. Mr. Abbott, who was born in Britain, began his long career in show business in 1934, when he made his professional stage debut in a revival of Dryden's "Aureng-Zebe" with Sybil Thorndike. ...
^ "John Abbott". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
^ Palmer, Scott (1981). A Who's Who of British Film Actors. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-81081-388-5.
^ Abbott had no idea why he was blacklisted until around 1990, when he was watching a documentary on Dalton Trumbo, discovered that the author had used Abbott's name as an alias.^{[citation needed]}

External links[edit]

John Abbott at IMDb
John Abbott at the Internet Broadway Database

[1] A Chronicle of Two Villages: Bassingbourn & Kneesworth 1894–1994 (PDF). Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth Local History Group. June 1994. p. 16. Retrieved 26 December 2016.

[obit-2] "John Abbott, 90. Was English Actor". The New York Times. 2 June 1996. Retrieved 2 December 2014. John Abbott, an actor in films, theatre and television, died on 24 May at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 90. Mr. Abbott, who was born in Britain, began his long career in show business in 1934, when he made his professional stage debut in a revival of Dryden's "Aureng-Zebe" with Sybil Thorndike. ...

[3] "John Abbott". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2017.

[4] Palmer, Scott (1981). A Who's Who of British Film Actors. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-81081-388-5.

[5] Abbott had no idea why he was blacklisted until around 1990, when he was watching a documentary on Dalton Trumbo, discovered that the author had used Abbott's name as an alias.^{[citation needed]}

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