Mervyn Johns
David Mervyn Johns was born on 18 February 1899 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He was educated at Llandovery College and served as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force during the First World War. He initially trained as a medical student before turning to drama, graduating from RADA with honours, including a gold medal, in 1924.
Johns became one of the most recognisable character actors in British wartime cinema, with starring roles in Saloon Bar (1940), The Next of Kin (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Halfway House (1944) and the classic portmanteau horror film Dead of Night (1945). In the postwar years he became a mainstay of Ealing Studios, appearing in They Knew Mr. Knight, The Captive Heart, Captain Boycott, and, memorably, as Bob Cratchit opposite Alastair Sim's title character in the 1951 film of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge.
Johns was the father of actress Glynis Johns, born while he and his first wife, concert pianist Alyce Steele-Wareham, were touring South Africa in 1923. Father and daughter appeared together on screen in The Halfway House (1944) and The Sundowners (1960). Over a career spanning 1923 to 1979, Johns amassed more than one hundred film and television credits.
After Alyce's death in 1971, Johns married actress Diana Churchill in 1976. He died on 6 September 1992 in Northwood, London, at the age of 93.