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John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies

Known For Directing
Birthday Mar 09, 1939
Died Aug 22, 2011 (72)
Birthplace London, England, UK
Popularity 0.3 (history)
Updated Aug 08, 2025
Entry Date Apr 13, 2024
Links TMDb IMDb
Biography

John Howard Davies (born Paddington, London; 9 March 1939 — 22 August 2011) was a British television director, producer and former child actor. Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies. His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Ho ... rse Winner (1949), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) and a few episodes of the television series William Tell (1958). After school at Haileybury, further education at Grenoble and National Service in the Royal Navy, he started working in the City in a finance company. After that, he trained as a carpet salesman but quit after six months to travel the world. Ending up in Australia he returned to acting and met his wife Leonie when they both appeared in The Sound of Music. Back in Britain, he tried selling oil to industry in Wembley and then became a production assistant in the BBC at the end of 1968. Davies is best known for his adult career as director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms, including All Gas and Gaiters, Fawlty Towers (series 1), The Goodies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Good Life, No Job for a Lady and Mr. Bean. Davies was also the producer and director of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber and the earliest episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also directed several episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. He became the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1977-1982, then head of Light Entertainment and finally Controller Managing Director of EMI Television Productions and the Head of Light Entertainment at ITV broadcaster Thames Television. During the last role, he was cited by the popular press as the man who 'sacked' comedian Benny Hill when the station decided not to renew his contract after 20 years' service. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Howard Davies, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Known For

Filmography

The Magic Box

The Magic Box

1952

as Maurice Friese-Greene

Tom Brown's Schooldays

Tom Brown's Schooldays

1951

as Tom Brown

The Rocking Horse Winner

The Rocking Horse Winner

1949

as Paul Grahame

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

1948

as Oliver Twist

Bloody New Year

Bloody New Year

1987

Assistant Director

Kim

Kim

1984

Director

No data available

Organization Category Movie
Television Credits

The Adventures of William Tell

as Karl

Episodes: 1

First Aired: Sep 15, 1958

The Adventures of William Tell

as Bruno

Episodes: 1

First Aired: Sep 15, 1958

No data available

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