Actor Spotlight - John Golightly (Coker in Murrain)

 

Slim in stature and stern faced character actor John Golighty was born in Resolven, a small village in Glamorgan, Wales on 18^th May 1936. After a grammar school education he enrolled at RADA to study acting before graduating in 1964. Whilst at RADA he was involved in semi-professional theatre productions such as a staging of Love for Love, which also featured fellow RADA students Angela Pleasance and David Ryall, and a version of The Restless Heart which also featured Jaqueline Pearce in the cast. 

Also among his peers at RADA was Ian Ogilvy who recalls in his memoir, Once A Saint, that “John Golightly had a strange talent. John had a double-jointed back and could bend himself backwards disconcertingly further than seemed possible. With that in mind, (we) devised a horribly violent scuffle in the jail where John Golightly and I were both prisoners. This entire superfluous-to-the-plot fight ending with me bending John slowly and sadistically over me knee. With him screaming in agony – and when it looked like his back could take no more stress without breaking – John would suddenly let everything go, flopping into an impossibly tight upside-down U shape – and at the same moment a stage manager in the wings snapped a piece of wood with a horrible cracking sound. There were screams from the audience and there was a rumour that somebody had even fainted.”[1]

After graduating Golightly spent time with the Birmingham repertory theatre, working on such productions as Bill Naughton’s All in Good Time staged August 1964, and provincial material such as Sir Thomas More staged at the Nottingham Playhouse during June 1964. He broke into television work with the 1964 BBC tea-time adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel Martin Chuzzlewhit transmitted in thirteen episodes between 19^th January and 12^th April. Golightly played the sick patient character, Mr Lewsome, in five episodes. This was followed with an appearance in the fourth season of the hugely popular BBC police drama Z Cars. Golightly played the character Nob in the episode ‘The Hunch’ (28^th October 1964).

Golightly’s most prestigious role to date was as the character Freddy in the British war film The Heroes of Telemark (1965) starring Kirk Douglas and the last movie directed by the legendary Anthony Mann. The production was based on the true story of Norwegian resistance fighters’ sabotage of a hydro plant which was being used by the Nazis to produce material to manufacture a potential atom bomb. Golightly then undertook the role of Doctor McKeller in the popular medical soap opera Emergency Ward Ten. The character first appeared in the episode transmitted 8^th February 1966 and would appear intermittently throughout the next two years. Golightly then popped up playing Harry Point in the first two episodes of the BBC drama series Lord Raingo – ‘The Offer’ (26^th April 1966) and ‘Power’ (3^rd May 1966). Theatre work for the year included a run of The Rainmaker at the Leicester Phoenix Theatre during June 1966.

Dennis Potter was the writer of ‘Message for Posterity’ (3^rd May 1967), an instalment of the BBC’s prestigious The Wednesday Play. Golightly appears briefly as Karl alongside quality actors as Patrick Magee, Joseph O’Connor and Geoffrey Chater in the lead roles. Six days later Golightly made his final appearance as Doctor McKeller in Emergency Ward Ten when he appeared in the episode ‘Heaven Is A Little Farther’ (9^th May 1967). John also continued with a variety of theatre work during this period with the comedy The Wind in the Sassafras Trees staged at the Belgrade theatre in Coventry during February 1968. With a script by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson the cast also included Frankie Howerd and future Beasts cohort Simon Oates.

John had a key guest role as the French businessman Meitran in ‘A Knife in Your Back’ (25^th April 1968), an episode of the BBC boardroom and business drama Champion House which The Stage described as a “very chilly performance”[2]. ‘Home Sweet Honeycombe’ (13^th May 1968) was an edition of the single drama strand Theatre 625 adapted from the play by Bernard Kops. Golightly had a small supporting role as Bob in a cast that included two young up and coming actors called Michael Crawford and Francesca Annis. Cinema appearance wise Golightly had a small and uncredited role as a ship’s helmsman in the Anglo American co-produced World War Two action picture Attack on the Iron Coast (1968). The film was released in the UK as in a bizarre double bill pairing with The Beatles animated film The Yellow Submarine.

Golightly’s next TV role was in a BBC Two production of Cold Comfort Farm (22^nd June 1968 to 6^th July 1968) based on the novel by Stella Gibson. He featured as the character Charles Fairford in a cast headlined by Fay Compton and Alastair Sim. The production, still preserved in the BBC archives, was produced in colour as part of the launch of colour television transmission on BBC Two. It was considered of enough merit to launch the broadcast of BBC period dramas and literary adaptations on PBS in America. Cold Comfort Farm was therefore transmitted in the USA under the banner title of Masterpiece Theatre on 26^th December 1971. His final role for the year was as Detective Sergeant Milhouse in ‘Obstruction’ (12^th December 1968), an episode of the police series Softly Softly. Stage wise Golightly spent some time in America appearing in the Broadway production of the play Rockefeller and the Red Indians during October 1968.

His TV roles for the start of the 1970s would see Golightly appearing in more fantastical material. He was Mr Hardy in two episodes of the ITV children’s fantasy drama the Ace of Wands adventure ‘The Mind Robbers’ (26^th August 1970 and 9^th September 1970) and he followed this by playing Holden in ‘Sub Smash’ (11^th November 1970), a fan favourite episode of the Gerry Anderson live action series UFO. He made another uncredited film appearance in 1972 with a blink and you’ll miss him spot as a CID police photographer in the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror film Frenzy. Golightly also appeared in the debut episode of the BBC wartime drama Colditz, ‘The Undefeated’ (19^th October 1972), as Captain Ian Masters. Away from the screen he continued to be in demand for theatre productions such as Gymnasium presented at the Greenwich Theatre during August 1972.

1975 would be a busy year for Golightly on television starting with an appearance in an episode of the BBC period drama Churchill’s People entitled ‘The Coming of the Cross’ (13^th January 1975). Next was a small role in an episode of the sublime Public Eye – ‘How About It Frank’ (20^th January 1975). A few months later he could be seen in the BBC crime thriller You’re On Your Own as a character called Rivers in the episode ‘Value For Money’ (5^th March 1975).  His role as Coker in ‘Murrain’ would round off his television appearances for 1975.

Also worth noting is his appearance in the BBC drama anthology, Jubilee. The theme of this anthology strand was that the thirteen episodes would be different plays that reflected the British way of life between 1952 and 1977 to mark twenty-five years of the Queen’s reign. ‘Nanny’s Boy’ (17^th April 1977) saw Golightly featured as Fildes in a cast that also boasted fellow Beasts actor Anthony Bate. His credits for 1978 began with ‘Look after Annie’ (17^th March 1978) an episode of The Professionals which he had a small role as a police officer. He was next seen as Doctor Kenneth in the BBC adaptation of Wuthering Heights transmitted between 24^th September and 22^nd October 1978. His final appearance for the year was as a guest star in the fourth episode of the ITV series Fallen Hero (5^th December 1978). His next acting assignment was as the father who is kidnapped by the forces of time in the very first Sapphire and Steel adventure, unofficially titled ‘Escape through a Crack in Time’. Golightly appeared in episodes one, five and six (10^th July, 24^th July and 26^th July 1979).

John was credited simply as husband in ‘Plumstones’ (10^th September 1984), the very first episode of the cult Channel Four sitcom Chance in a Million, which starred Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn. Mitch was a vehicle for John Thaw which featured the actor as a newspaper reporter with a conscious and the programme utilised Golightly’s talents three times during its run. In the first episode, ‘Something Private’ (31^st August 1984) he played a small supporting role as Jack. Episode three, ‘Business As Usual’ (14^th September 1984), Golightly supplied the voice of a policeman. Episode six, ‘Squealer’, featured Golightly as Detective Inspector Howlett. Cinema wise Golightly had a very small role as a patrolman in the film 1984 (1984) which adapted George Orwell’s dystopian classic with John Hurt in the role of Winston Smith. He had a guest role in an episode of the Channel Four soap opera Brookside transmitted 9^th April 1985 and followed this with a guest role in an episode of Shine on Harvey Moon called ‘Love Is Blind’ (26^th July 1985) portraying Sergeant Hutchinson.

Golightly can be seen as a colonel in the Tobe Hooper directed box office bomb (it basically bankrupted Cannon Films) Lifeforce (1985) which is highly influenced by the works of Nigel Kneale, especially his Quatermass productions. For the remainder of the decade Golightly became a popular and busy actor in a series of small and supporting roles in a variety of popular series including C.A.T.S. Eyes (‘Hit List’ – 19^th April 1986), The Bretts (‘Revenge Is Sweet’ – 20^th November 1987), The Fear (episode one – 17^th February 1988), Inspector Morse (‘The Sins of the Fathers’ – 10^th January 1990) and London’s Burning (season three, episode four – 21^st October 1990). A particular role of note during this period was when Golightly appeared in the anthology drama series Unnatural Causes episode written by Nigel Kneale. ‘Ladies Night’ (6^th December 1986) told the story of a traditional gentlemen’s club which is thrown into chaos when woman are allowed into the premises for one night. It provokes one member so much that he resorts to murder. The play starred Alfred Burke, Nigel Stock and Ronald Pickup with Golightly supporting the headline actors as the character Greenhow.

As Golightly entered the 1990s his screen roles became sparse after a career that had spanned nearly forty years. His later TV roles included an episode of the rebooted Van Der Valk (‘The Little Rascals’ – 6^th February 1991) as a porter, appearing as Eberhard Jaekal in the fifth episode of the mini-series Selling Hitler (9^th July 1991) and Lovejoy (‘The Highland Fling: Part Two’ – 5^th April 1992) as a hotel manager. He remained active in theatre with one of his more recent credits being in The Remarkable Piety of the Infamous, a play written by Peter Dunne and performed at Barons Court Theatre during May and June 2000. Golightly portrayed the Reaper, a figure that retrieves the souls of poets and playwrights. In 2007 he appeared in the Academy Award nominated short film The Tonto Woman (2007) as a priest.

---

[1] Once A Saint: An Actor’s Memoir by Ian Ogilvy, Hachette UK, 2016

[2] 'Things Happen But Nothing Moves on in This Soap Opera' by Ann Purser, The Stage, Thursday 2^nd May 1968, page 12