John Boswall
British actor (1920–2011)
title: "John Boswall" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920-births", "2011-deaths", "alumni-of-the-university-of-oxford", "british-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "english-male-television-actors", "english-male-film-actors", "english-male-stage-actors", "deaths-from-pancreatic-cancer-in-england", "british-expatriates-in-british-burma"] description: "British actor (1920–2011)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boswall" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British actor (1920–2011) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | John Boswall |
| caption | Boswall as Emmanuel Goldstein in Michael Radford's 1984 film adaptation. |
| birth_name | John Stuart |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Oxfordshire, England |
| death_date | |
| death_place | South Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England |
| nationality | British |
| occupation | Actor |
| yearsactive | 1970–2009 |
| :: |
| name = John Boswall | image = | alt = | caption = Boswall as Emmanuel Goldstein in Michael Radford's 1984 film adaptation. | birth_name = John Stuart | birth_date = | birth_place = Oxfordshire, England | death_date = | death_place = South Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England | nationality = British | other_names = | occupation = Actor | yearsactive = 1970–2009
John Boswall (2 May 1920 – 6 June 2011) was a British actor known for playing Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984 and Wyvern in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Early life and education
Boswall was born John Stuart on 2 May 1920 in Oxfordshire, England. Prior to his career as an actor, he attended the University of Oxford and served in Burma during World War II.
Career
Boswall's television appearances included Paul Temple (1971), Wessex Tales (1973), Lady Killer (1973), Edward the Seventh (1975), The Onedin Line (1976), Love in a Cold Climate (1980), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Sapphire & Steel (1982), No Place Like Home (1986), EastEnders (1990, 2002), Selling Hitler (1991), Agatha Christie's Poirot (1991), Drop the Dead Donkey (1993), Lovejoy (1993), Poldark (1996), Doctors (2000), Rome (2005) and Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (2006).
Stage appearances included Edward Bond's The Fool at the Royal Court Theatre (1975), Sweeney Todd at the Little Theatre, Bristol (1978–79); Oh, What A Lovely War!, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1979–80), and Kiss Me, Kate (1980–81) at the Bristol Old Vic; Henry IV, Part I (1984–85) at the Theatre Royal, Bath; Doctor Faustus (1974), Cymbeline (1974) and Camille (1985–86) with the Royal Shakespeare Company; and Moliere's Bourgeois gentilhomme (1992) at the Royal National Theatre.
His films included Nineteen Eighty-Four as Emmanuel Goldstein (1984), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), The Wind in the Willows (1996), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), Hotel Splendide (2000), Ladies in Lavender (2004), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Morris: A Life with Bells On (2009).
Death
Boswall died of pancreatic cancer on 6 June 2011 at the age of 91, in South Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England. He was never married.
Filmography
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | The Life Story of Baal | Woodcutter | |
| 1984 | Nineteen Eighty-Four | Emmanuel Goldstein | |
| 1990 | Three Men and a Little Lady | Barrow | |
| 1996 | The Wind in the Willows | The Elderly Gentleman | |
| 1998 | Stiff Upper Lips | Don 2 | |
| 1999 | The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc | Old Priest | |
| 2003 | The Statement | Father Léo | |
| 2004 | Ladies in Lavender | Very Old Man 2 | |
| 2006 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Wyvern | |
| 2006 | Terry Pratchett's Hogfather | Chair of Indefinite Studies | TV miniseries |
| 2009 | Morris: A Life with Bells On | Mr. Staveley | (final film role) |
| :: |
References
References
- [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0098324/ Boswall] on the [[Internet Movie Database]]
- Bond, Edward. (18 November 1975). "The Fool". Peter Gill, playwright and theatre director.
- "John Boswall". Theatricalia.com.
- O'Sullivan, Charlotte. "Hotel Spendide". [[British Film Institute]].
- Wakefield, Nick. (22 June 2011). "Acting elite bid farewell to John at Woodchester funeral". [[Stroud News & Journal]].
- (17 August 2011). "Obituary: John Boswall, actor". [[JPIMedia Ltd.]].
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::