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Jack (centre) and Muriel Warner photographed at the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, with proprietors and friends William and Florence Hamilton, East Kent Times, 8 April 1953
Jack Warner, OBE (born Horace John Waters; 24 October 1895 – 24 May 1981) was a British actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp and later in the television series Dixon of Dock Green from 1955 until 1976, but he was also for some years one of Britain's most popular film stars.
Early life
Warner was born Horace John Waters[1] in Bromley-by-Bow, Poplar, London, the third child of Edward William Waters, master fulling maker and undertaker's warehouseman, and Maud Mary Best.[2] His sisters, Elsie and Doris Waters, were comediennes who usually performed as "Gert and Daisy".[3]
After leaving school, he studied automobile engineering at the Northampton Institute (now part of the City University, London) but being more practical than academic he left after a year to work at the repair facilities of F.W. Berwick and Company in Balham,[2] where he started by sweeping the floors for 2d per hour.[5] Frederick William Berwick became a partner in the Anglo-French automobile manufacturing company Sizaire-Berwick and, in August 1913, Warner was sent to work as a mechanic in Paris. He drove completed chassis to the coast from where they were shipped to England, road-testing them en route.[6] He acquired a working knowledge of French which stood him in good stead throughout his life; an imitation of Maurice Chevalier became a part of his repertoire.[2]
During the First World War, he served in France as a driver in the Royal Flying Corps and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1918. He returned to England and the motor trade in 1919, graduating from hearses to occasional car racing at Brooklands, where he maintained and sometimes raced Henrietta Lister's Aston Martin.[7] He was over thirty before he became a professional entertainer.[2]
Career
Warner first became known to the general public in music hall and radio. By the early years of the Second World War, he was nationally known and starred in a BBC radio comedy show, Garrison Theatre, invariably opening with "A Monologue Entitled...".
Warner was by now established as one of the most popular British actors in the country. His stock rose further when he played PC George Dixon pursuing young hoodlum Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp (1950), the most successful film at the box office that year.[8][9] One observer predicted, "This film will make Jack the most famous policeman in Britain."[9]
Although the police constable he played in The Blue Lamp was shot dead in the film, the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, which ran until 1976. However in the series' later years, Warner's character became ridiculed and the series no longer supported by the police since Warner at 80 was so obviously well past compulsory retirement age, even though supposedly confined to a less active desk sergeant role. The series had a prime-time slot on Saturday evenings, and always opened with Dixon giving a little soliloquy to the camera, beginning with the words, "Good evening, all". According to Warner's autobiography, Jack of All Trades, Queen Elizabeth II once visited the television studio where the series was made, and told Warner "that she thought Dixon of Dock Green had become part of the British way of life".[10]
Personal life
In 1933, Warner married company secretary Muriel Winifred ("Mollie"), daughter of independently wealthy Roberts Peters.[11] The couple had no children.[12]
Warner was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965.[13] In 1973, he was made a Freeman of the City of London. Warner commented in his autobiography that the honour "entitles me to a set of 18th century rules for the conduct of life urging me to be sober and temperate". Warner added, "Not too difficult with Dixon to keep an eye on me!"[14]
For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.
^Tell Me Another, personal anecdotes as told to Dick Hills. Southern Television, first broadcast 10 August 1977.
^"F. W. Berwick and Co". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 19 October 2015. Chassis were driven to the coast in groups of three and road-tested en-route by Jack Waters, prior to shipping to England.