Noel Johnson

Noel Frank Johnson (28 December 1916 – 1 October 1999) was a British actor. He was the voice of special agent Dick Barton on BBC Radio and Dan Dare on Radio Luxembourg.

Life Johnson was born 28 December 1916 in West Bromwich, England and attended Bromsgrove School, where his fictional character Dick Barton was listed on the honours boards. He married Leonora Peacock in 1942: they had one son Gareth Johnson. He died 1 October 1999.

Career After wartime service in the Royal Army Service Corps, including evacuation from Dunkirk, he was invalided out, and joined the BBC Repertory Company in 1945. He was paid £18 per week but felt that he deserved much more for such a popular character. He later played Dan Dare on the Radio Luxembourg serial, but his name was kept secret.

His movie career included roles in Frenzy, The First Great Train Robbery, For Your Eyes Only and his last film Withnail & I in 1987, where he played a militaristic and drunken bar owner. Johnson also appeared in numerous television dramas until the mid-1990s, including A for Andromeda, The Andromeda Breakthrough, Dixon of Dock Green, Coronation Street, Out of the Unknown, Strangers and Brothers, Little Sir Nicholas, Doomwatch, Death of an Expert Witness, Colditz, Rumpole of the Bailey, Doctor Who (in the serials The Underwater Menace and Invasion of the Dinosaurs), Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost, amongst many others.

Filmography