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Michael Goodliffe is a Actor British born on 1 october 1914 at Bebington (United-kingdom)

Michael Goodliffe

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Birth name Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 1 october 1914 at Bebington (United-kingdom)
Death 20 march 1976 (at 61 years) at London (United-kingdom)

Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor best known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working class parts.

Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Cheshire, the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. He started his career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. He joined the British Army at the beginning of the Second World War, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk. Goodliffe was incorrectly listed as killed in action, and even had his obituary published in a newspaper. He was to spend the rest of the war a prisoner in Germany.

Whilst in captivity he produced and acted in (and in some cases wrote) many plays and sketches to entertain fellow prisoners. These included two productions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, one in Tittmoning and the other in Eichstätt, in which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noël Coward's Post Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these productions exists.

After the war he resumed his professional acting career. As well as appearing in the theatre, he worked in film and television. He appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and in other POW films. His best-known film was A Night to Remember (1958), in which he played Thomas Andrews, designer of the RMS Titanic. His best-known television series was Sam (1973–75) in which he played an unemployed Yorkshire miner. He also appeared with John Thaw and James Bolam in the 1967 television series Inheritance.

Suffering from depression, Goodliffe had a breakdown in 1976 during the period that he was rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He committed suicide a few days later by leaping from a hospital fire escape, while a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.

Biography

Dans les années 1930, Michael Goodliffe débute au théâtre à Liverpool, puis rejoint la troupe de la Royal Shakespeare Company à Stratford-upon-Avon, vers la fin de ces mêmes années. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale (prisonnier de guerre en Allemagne dès 1940 et durant tout le conflit, il joue au théâtre dans le camp où il est interné, à Eichstätt), il poursuit sa carrière sur les planches au Royaume-Uni, notamment à Londres, se consacrant entre autres à William Shakespeare. Il se produit également à Broadway (New York) à deux reprises, en 1954 et 1964.

Au cinéma, il débute en 1949 dans La Mort apprivoisée du tandem Powell-Pressburger, puis il participe à cinquante-cinq autres films, majoritairement britanniques, jusqu'en 1976, année de sa mort. Un de ses rôles les mieux connus est celui de Thomas Andrews, architecte du Titanic, dans Atlantique, latitude 41°, sorti en 1958.

À la télévision, Michael Goodliffe contribue à cinquante séries et à six téléfilms, entre 1947 (avec la pièce téléfilmée Roméo et Juliette de Shakespeare) et 1976.

En 1976, il rentre dans une profonde dépression ce qui le pousse à se suicider. Il avait 61 ans.