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Michael Goodliffe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Goodliffe (born 1 October 1914 in Bebington, Cheshire (now Merseyside) - died 20 March 1976) was an English actor who often played suave middle class roles of doctors, lawyers, army officers, etc. although he was also sometimes cast in working class parts. 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. He was wounded and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk. Whilst a prisoner of war in Germany between 1940 and 1945 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 Tittmonning and the other in Eichstätt, in which he played the title role (see illustration on the right). He also produced, at Eichstätt, the first staging of Noel Coward's Post Mortem. A full photographic record of these productions exists (see links below).
After the war he resumed his career in acting, branching out from the theatre to work in film and television. His best known film was A Night to Remember (1958) in which he played Thomas Andrews the builder of the RMS Titanic. His best known television series was Sam (1973-75) in which he played an unemployed Yorkshire miner.
Goodliffe committed suicide in 1976 while suffering from depression.