John Laurie
TV Actor
Remembered best for his role as Private James Frazer in the 1960s and 1970s situation comedy Dad's Army, this Scottish-born actor also had a career in the theatre, performing in numerous Shakespearean plays in London and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Early in his life, he worked as an architect. After serving in World War I, however, he attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama and pursued a second career as an actor.
He performed with his contemporary and friend, the their Laurence Olivier, in several 1940s and 1950s film adaptations of Shakespeare plays.
Following the 1926 death of his first wife, Florence Saunders, he married Oonah Todd-Naylor. He and Todd-Naylor became parents to one daughter.
He acted opposite Peggy Ashcroft in the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps.