John Grillo (born 29 November 1942, Watford, Hertfordshire) is a British actor and playwright who has appeared in many film, television, radio and stage productions.

Biography

Grillo was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and while there was actively involved in student theatre. He performed with Footlights in their annual revue. After Cambridge, he was awarded an Arts Council Playwrighting Bursary and his plays were performed at Nottingham, Glasgow, Oxford and Dublin as well as at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.

He played Mr. Samgrass in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited, and Phillip Marriott QC in Crown Court. He had minor parts in other shows, including Blackadder II ("Bells"), Bergerac, Prince Regent, Taggart and Rumpole of the Bailey. He also had a more regular role in Three Up, Two Down, playing the gloomy and pessimistic zoo-keeper Wilf Perkins.

In 1997 he appeared as Mr Carkdale, the English teacher who spoke only in Anglo-Saxon, in two series of Steven Moffat's school-sitcom Chalk. In 2008, he contributed to the audio commentary for the DVD release.

His film credits include appearances in Scum, Firefox, Brazil, Blame It on the Bellboy, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, Orlando, Jack and Sarah, FairyTale: A True Story, Jinnah, The Affair of the Necklace, and Max.

He is represented by Michelle Braidman Associates.