Jack Watling

Life and career

Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936. He made his first film appearances (all uncredited) in Sixty Glorious Years, Housemaster (both 1938) and Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939).

In 1941, he played Bill Hopkins in Once a Crook in his West End debut. He starred as Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham in the original 1942 production of Terence Rattigan's Flare Path.

Watling had a long career in low-key British films, originally in easy-going boyish roles. His early appearances were in Cottage to Let (1941). We Dive at Dawn (1943), The Demi-Paradise (1943) opposite Laurence Olivier, The Way Ahead (1944) with David Niven, The Winslow Boy (1948), Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) and in Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin (aka, Confidential Report, 1955). In the account of the sinking of the Titantic, the film A Night To Remember (1958), he played Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall and in Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as the Signals officer who reports "HMS Hood...has blown up!"

Television

His reputation as an effective and reliable television actor took root in the early 1960s. Between 1964–69 he was Don Henderson, the troubled conscience to tough businessman John Wilder (Patrick Wymark) in The Plane Makers and its sequel The Power Game. Watling also appeared as Doc Saxon in the 1970s series Pathfinders. He played Professor Edward Travers in the BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who in the serials The Abominable Snowmen (1967) and The Web of Fear (1968), both of which also featuring his daughter Deborah Watling as the Second Doctor's companion Victoria Waterfield. He reprised the role decades later in the independent Doctor Who spin-off video Downtime (1995).

His final roles were all on television, in series such as Bergerac and Heartbeat.

Personal life

Watling was married to former actress Patricia Hicks. He was the father of actresses Dilys and Deborah Watling, the actor/politician Giles Watling, and the sculptor Nicky Matthews. The Watlings were long-term residents at Alderton Hall, Loughton.