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John Bentley is a Actor British born on 2 december 1916 at Birmingham (United-kingdom)

John Bentley

John Bentley
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Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 2 december 1916 at Birmingham (United-kingdom)
Death 13 august 2009 (at 92 years) at Sussex (United-kingdom)

John Bentley (2 December 1916 – 13 August 2009) was a British film actor who emerged in the 1970s as Hugh Mortimer, Meg Richardson's ill-fated new husband in the soap opera Crossroads. He also starred in the jungle adventure series African Patrol (1957) as Chief Inspector Paul Derek and made various other guest appearances. Bentley died 13 August 2009, according to ATV News article online.

John Bentley was well known to cinema-goers in the '50s, generally in the role of a detective/policeman/official. Mainly confined to 'B' films which were low budget productions used to support a main feature, he also had his own TV series for a while and starred in 'Crossroads' in the 1970s. He was also an accomplished singer and stage actor.

Born in Sparkhill, Birmingham in 1916 Bentley was brought up by his mother after his father, a furniture retailer, died when he was a toddler. He arrived in acting quite by chance, in his own words:

"Apart from the odd school play, I had very little interest in the
theatrical world until I was sixteen and that was quite by accident. I got
into the business through radio producer Martyn C. Webster. On one of his
radio broadcasts he offered listeners to come to his studio and audition.
Those who were good enough would be offered work at the station.
I actually decided that I would be quite a good singer, so armed with a 78
record to accompany my performance, I sang for Martyn. He liked what he
heard and offered me a part in a radio musical. And that is where the
singing evolved into acting. Other radio dramas soon followed thankfully."
As a result of singing for Webster, he was given the joint leading role in a radio musical, backed by the BBC Midland Orchestra and Chorus.

He worked for Radio Luxembourg in the late 1930s as an announcer, and in 1940 made his West End stage debut in the variety show New Faces at the Comedy Theatre with Judy Campbell and Charles Hawtrey (of Carry On fame).
After the war he started his film career playing Terry O'Keefe in the low budget musical romance The Hills of Donegal in 1947. The film was produced at Nettlefold Studios in Walton-on-Thames and financed by Butcher's Film Service. Bentley went on to do several other films in the same vein with Butcher's at Nettlefold, most of them being completed in less than a week. Three based on Francis Durbridge's “Paul Temple” the amateur detective (Calling Paul Temple in 1948, Paul Temple's Triumph in 1950 and Paul Temple Returns in 1952) were released at the same time as a popular radio series. Similarly, Salute the Toff and Hammer the Toff were produced in 1952 in which Bentley played amateur sleuth Richard Rollison.

In 1950 he had a supporting role in the main feature comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life playing schoolteacher Richard Tassell alongside Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell.

Following many other 'B' films in the '50s there were briefly appearances in Hollywood films – as a police detective in Istanbul (1957), Errol Flynn's last film, and Submarine Seahawk (1958) as a naval officer. However he hated Hollywood, saying people were judged on how much they earned rather than their ability and subsequently returned to Britain, where he was offered the lead role of “Inspector Paul Derek” in the TV series African Patrol filmed entirely on location in Kenya. This ran for thirty nine episodes which were shown on ITV in 1958-59.

In 1961 he starred alongside Dirk Bogarde and John Mills in The Singer Not the Song, and in his last film in 1962 he starred as Mike Andrews in the thriller The Fur Collar.

In the later 1960s and '70s Bentley featured in soap opera Crossroads as Hugh Mortimer, third husband of the motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. There was a previous connection with Gordon, who had presented the daytime TV magazine programme Lunch Box, popular in the '50s in which Bentley regularly appeared as a guest singer. Lunch Box was produced by Reg Watson who was part of the Crossroads team. This connection gave him the offer of the part of Mortimer.

In the soap Hugh Mortimer was a millionaire businessman who arrived in 1965 and started romancing the widowed Meg. They were engaged twice, but he eventually married Jane Templeton while she became the wife of Malcolm Ryder, who later tried to murder her.
When Hugh's wife died, he renewed his interest in Meg and gave Crossroads one of its biggest audiences, for 1975's television wedding of the year. Eighteen million viewed the episode and there were thousands lining the streets of Birmingham when the blessing was filmed at Birmingham Cathedral. The couple were chauffeured by the comedian Larry Grayson. Two years after the wedding he was written out of the series via a terrorist attack, he said that the script writers didn't know what to do with his part following the marriage.

After leaving Crossroads, Bentley reverted to the stage including a starring role as the English literature professor in a tour of Educating Rita., but, by the early 1990s he had retired as a result of breaking an ankle on stage which subsequently caused arthritis.

Regarding his private life, John was married twice. He had a son Roger by his first wife, Joyce Barrett, in 1946 and following divorce in 1955 was married to his second wife Patricia in 2003 after a longstanding relationship. They resided in Petworth, West Sussex (where she ran a hairdressing salon he helped establish) until his death in 2009 at the age of 92.

Usually with

Monty Berman
Monty Berman
(3 films)
Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
(3 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of John Bentley (32 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

The Front
The Front (1976)
, 1h35
Directed by Martin Ritt
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Action
Themes Films about films, Mise en scène d'un scénariste, Political films
Actors Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy, Andrea Marcovicci, Remak Ramsay
Roles Bartender
Rating72% 3.646013.646013.646013.646013.64601
In the early 1950s, in New York City, restaurant cashier and small-time bookie Howard Prince (Woody Allen) has a friend who writes for television. Because the friend, Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) has been blacklisted, he asks Howard to sign his name to the TV scripts.
The Fur Collar
Directed by Lawrence Huntington
Actors John Bentley, Martin Benson, Philip Friend, Hector Ross, Guy Middleton, Brian Nissen
Roles Mike Andrews

A man wearing a fur-collared coat is shot on his arrival in Paris. A British journalist is convinced that he was intended victim, as he also wears a fur-collar, and his made dangerous enemies by an Exposé.
The Singer Not the Song, 2h12
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Western
Themes Films about religion, Films about sexuality, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film
Actors Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, Mylène Demongeot, Laurence Naismith, John Bentley, Leslie French
Roles Police Captain
Rating62% 3.1020553.1020553.1020553.1020553.102055
A priest, Father Michael Keogh (John Mills), is sent by Rome to Quantana, a remote Mexican town which is under the control of a ruthless bandito, Anacleto Komachi (Dirk Bogarde). Anacleto is educated and intelligent, and has a "down" on the Church, but he finds in Keogh a man he strangely admires and with whom he can have intelligent conversation. However, he does not allow this to distract him from his goal: to expunge the priest from his fiefdom at any cost.
The Sinister Man, 1h1
Directed by Clive Donner
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Crime
Actors Patrick Allen, John Bentley, Edward Atienza, Wilfrid Brambell, Michael Deacon, William Gaunt
Roles Superintendent Wills
Rating58% 2.912942.912942.912942.912942.91294
The body of an Oxford professor is found floating in the river Thames. He had previously been studying an archeological artefact known as the Kytang Wafers, and this is now missing. Scotland Yard investigates.
Sacred Waters
Directed by Alfred Weidenmann
Origin Suisse
Genres Drama
Themes Sports films
Actors Hansjörg Felmy, Cordula Trantow, Hanns Lothar, Karl John, Gustav Knuth, Gisela von Collande
Roles Lemmy, ein Engländer
Rating65% 3.2716153.2716153.2716153.2716153.271615
Dans un petit village Suisse, l'eau est amenée par une conduite de bois régulièrement détruite par les avalanches. Un volontaire doit à chaque fois réparer et nombreux sont ceux qui sont morts en effectuant cette tâche. Aussi les volontaires sont-ils de moins en moins nombreux.
Submarine Seahawk, 1h23
Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Origin USA
Genres War
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Submarine films, Political films, United States Armed Forces in films
Actors John Bentley, Brett Halsey, Paul Maxwell, Nicky Blair, Edmund F. Cobb
Roles Lt. Cmdr. Paul Turner
Rating49% 2.4706352.4706352.4706352.4706352.470635
Captain Turner (John Bentley) and his crew patrol the Pacific for enemy ships. An expert on Japanese naval ships, Turner is assigned to gather reconnaissance information. As his crew grows restless for battle, the captain must convince the men their mission will ultimately lead to defeating the enemy.
Istanbul
Istanbul (1957)
, 1h24
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Adventure, Crime, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Transport films, Aviation films, Films about psychiatry, Films about disabilities
Actors Errol Flynn, Cornell Borchers, John Bentley, Torin Thatcher, Leif Erickson, Peggy Knudsen
Roles Insp. R.P. Nural
Rating60% 3.0494253.0494253.0494253.0494253.049425
An American becomes mixed up with various criminal activities in Istanbul.
The Flaw
The Flaw (1955)
, 1h1
Directed by Terence Fisher
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors John Bentley, Donald Houston, Rona Anderson, Patrick Jordan
Roles Paul Oliveri
Rating56% 2.817462.817462.817462.817462.81746
Un coureur automobile tente d'assassiner sa femme.
Stolen Assignment, 1h2
Directed by Terence Fisher
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Crime
Actors John Bentley, Eddie Byrne, Patrick Holt, Hy Hazell, Joyce Carey, Kay Callard
Roles Mike Billings
Rating58% 2.9115452.9115452.9115452.9115452.911545
Lorsque Ida Garnett signale la disparition de sa nièce Margaret Crossley à la police, il semble y avoir un coupable idéal : son mari Henry Crossley. Mais il ne semble pas être celui qui en tirerait profit. Mike Billings et Jenny Drew, deux journalistes du Sunday Star, vont entrer en compétition pour résoudre cette enquête, au détriment de l'inspecteur Corcoran.
Double Exposure, 1h1
Directed by John Gilling
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors John Bentley, Rona Anderson, Garry Marsh, Ingeborg von Kusserow, John Horsley, Doris Hare
Roles Pete Fleming
Rating58% 2.919542.919542.919542.919542.91954
Un détective privé est chargé de retrouver une employée disparue avec un important lot de bijoux. Son employeur vient de perdre son épouse qui s'est suicidée, mais l'enquête met en doute les circonstances du décès.