John Moffatt

Albert John Moffatt (24 September 1922 – 10 September 2012) was an English character actor and playwright, known for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot on BBC Radio in twenty-five productions and for a wide range of stage roles in the West End from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Moffatt's parents wished him to follow a career in a bank, but Moffatt secretly studied acting and made his stage debut in 1944. After five years in provincial repertory theatre he made his first London appearance in 1959. In the early 1950s he was cast in small parts in productions headed by John Gielgud and Noël Coward, and achieved increasingly prominent roles over the next decade. He was a member of the English Stage Company, the Old Vic, and the National Theatre companies. His range was considerable, embracing the classics, new plays, revue and pantomime.

Moffatt began broadcasting on radio in 1950 and on television in 1953. His most enduring role was that of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, in a long sequence of radio adaptations of her novels, beginning in 1987 and continuing at intervals until 2007. In 1992/3, Moffat played M. Comeliau, the Examining Magistrate, in ITV's Maigret starring Michael Gambon. He was, perhaps, less well known as a film actor but took parts in twelve films between 1956 and 1987.

Life and career

Early years

Moffatt was born in Badby, Daventry, Northamptonshire, the son of Ernest Moffatt and his wife Letitia, née Hickman, servants to Queen Alexandra at Marlborough House and Sandringham. He was educated at East Sheen County School in west London, after which he spent three years as a bank clerk in the City of London. In the evenings he attended drama classes given by John Burrell at Toynbee Hall. Moffatt kept the lessons secret from his parents, who considered the theatre too insecure a career.

He made his first stage appearance in 1944 at the Liverpool Playhouse, playing the Raven, in a touring production for children of The Snow Queen. Over the next five years he learnt his craft playing more than 200 parts in repertory companies at Oxford and Windsor, and the Bristol Old Vic. At Oxford he and the young Tony Hancock played Ugly Sisters together. Moffatt retained a fondness for pantomime; he became a celebrated Dame, and was the author of five pantomimes.

London Moffatt made his first London appearance in 1950, as Loyale in Tartuffe at the Lyric, Hammersmith. making his West End debut when the production transferred to the Duke of York's.

William Gaskill's production of The Way of the World (Chichester and the Haymarket, 1983–84), was overwhelmingly a triumph for Maggie Smith as Millamant (described by The Guardian as "one of the great high comedy achievements of the past three decades"), but according to The Times, "the other great collector's performance is John Moffatt's Witwoud, a harmless old bitch got up like a coffee meringue, whose lines have never enjoyed more flawless touch and timing".

In Ronald Harwood's Interpreters (1985) Moffatt played a Foreign Office official striving to keep the peace between Maggie Smith's Nadia and Edward Fox's Viktor. His last West End play was Married Love (1988), Peter Luke's play about Marie Stopes; Moffatt received good notices for his performance as Bernard Shaw, but the play, and Joan Plowright's direction received harsh criticism, and the piece ran for less than a month.

Radio and television

Moffatt first broadcast on BBC radio in 1950 in Mrs Dale's Diary. His later radio roles included Oswald to Gielgud's King Lear, Lord Chief Justice to Timothy West's Falstaff and Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop. He played both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in BBC radio adaptations.

In 1980 he appeared in Love in a Cold Climate and for much of the 1980s was a member of the BBC's Radio Drama Company. and appeared many times on BBC and commercial television over the decades. He played Joseph Surface in The School For Scandal, Brush in The Clandestine Marriage, the Prince of Aragon in The Merchant of Venice, Casca in Julius Caesar, Malvolio and Sir Andrew in two different productions of Twelfth Night, and Ben in R.F. Delderfield's The Adventures of Ben Gunn. Other television appearances during the 1970s saw Moffat appear in Granada Television's daytime legal drama series Crown Court, in which he played barrister Adam Honeycombe QC.

In 1982 Moffat appeared as West London gangster Freddie Baker, in the Minder episode "Looking for Micky."

He appeared in one episode of the televised adaptations of Agatha Christie's other celebrated detective series, Miss Marple as Edwards in The Body in the Library. In Thames Television's adaptation of Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate he played the eccentric Lord Merlin.

After a long illness, Moffatt died at his home two weeks short of his 90th birthday. He was unmarried, and was survived by a sister, Marjorie. Radio Four Extra planned to mark Moffatt's 90th birthday with a series of radio plays he had recorded throughout his career, upon his death the plays were broadcast earlier than scheduled beginning with Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie in which Moffatt played Hercule Poirot and Julia McKenzie played Ariadne Oliver.

Filmography