Jack Warner

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Jack Warner OBE 24 October 1895 24 May 1981 was an English film and television actor He was born in London his real name being Horace John Waters His sisters Elsie and Doris Waters were wellknown comediennes under the names Gert and Daisy Like them Jack Warner made his name in music hall and radio but he became known to cinema audiences as the patriarch in a trio of popular postWorld War II family films beginning with Here Come the Huggetts He also costarred in the 1955 Hammer film version of The Quatermass Xperiment and as a police superintendent in the 1955 Ealing Studios black comedy The Ladykillers Warner attended the Coopers Companys Grammar School for Boys in Mile End while his sisters both attended the nearby sister school Coborn School for Girls in Bow The three children were choristers at St Leonards Church BromleybyBow and for a time Warner was the choirs soloist By the early war years Warner was nationally known and starred in a BBC radio comedy show Garrison Theatre invariably opening with A Monologue Entitled It was in 1949 that Warner first played the role for which he would be remembered PC George Dixon in the film The Blue Lamp One observer predicted This film will make Jack the most famous policeman in Britain Although the police constable was shot dead in the film the character was revived in 1955 for the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green which ran until 1976 In later years though Warner and his longpastretirementage character were confined to a less prominent desk sergeant role The series had a primetime slot on Saturday evenings and always opened with Dixon giving a little soliloquy to the camera beginning with the words Good evening all According to Warners autobiography Jack of All Trades Elizabeth II once visited the television studio where the series was made and told Warner that she thought Dixon of Dock Green had become part of the British way of life He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire OBE in 1965 In 1973 he was made a Freeman of the City of London Warner commented in his autobiography that the honour entitles me to a set of 18th century rules for the conduct of life urging me to be sober and temperate Warner added Not too difficult with Dixon to keep an eye on me The characterisation by Warner of Dixon was held in such high regard that officers from Paddington Green Police Station bore the coffin at his funeral in 1981 Warner is buried in East London Cemetery Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Warner actor licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia