{"id":478324,"date":"2025-10-06T15:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478324\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T15:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T15:04:24","slug":"british-actor-john-woodvine-who-starred-in-an-american-werewolf-in-london-the-crown-and-z-cars-dies-aged-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478324\/","title":{"rendered":"British actor John Woodvine who starred in An American Werewolf In London, The Crown and Z Cars dies aged 96"},"content":{"rendered":"

British actor John Woodvine who\u00a0starred in An American Werewolf In London, The Crown and Z Cars has died aged 96, his agent has said.<\/p>\n

Woodvine was best known for starring in the 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf In London, as well as for his role as Detective Inspector Witty in the 1960s BBC<\/a>\u00a0police drama Z Cars.<\/p>\n

More recently, he played the\u00a0Archbishop of York in hit Netflix<\/a> series The Crown.<\/p>\n

A statement from his agent Phil Belfield said Woodvine died ‘peacefully’ at his home on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

The statement continued: ‘John was an extraordinary actor and had a fabulous and varied career in all areas of the industry including work on stage in over 70 productions including at the Old Vic, National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company, and on screen in numerous roles including in Young Winston, An American Werewolf In London, Dragonworld, Persuasion, The Crown and most recently in the film Enys Men.<\/p>\n

‘John was greatly admired by all and will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by all those who met, knew and worked with him.<\/p>\n

‘We are all the richer to have known him.’<\/p>\n

Woodvine is survived by his wife, actress Lynn Farleigh, and his children Mary and Emma.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement on X, talent agency Belfield & Ward Ltd, who represented Woodvine, said: ‘We are sad to announce the passing of our client, the actor John Woodvine, who died peacefully at home at the age of 96 this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"British <\/p>\n

British actor John Woodvine who starred in An American Werewolf In London, The Crown and Z Cars has died aged 96<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine <\/p>\n

Woodvine was best known for starring in the 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf In London<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A statement from his agent Phil Belfield said Woodvine died ‘peacefully’ at his home on Monday morning (Pictured: Woodvine in\u00a0An American Werewolf In London)<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine <\/p>\n

Woodvine is survived by his wife, actress Lynn Farleigh (pictured), and his children Mary and Emma<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine, <\/p>\n

Woodvine, centre, pictured with John Hurt and Martin Shaw in\u00a0Who Bombed Birmingham in 1990<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The star, pictured in\u00a0Venice Preserv’d at the Almeida Theatre in 1995, continued acting into his later years<\/p>\n

‘A wonderful and well loved actor, who will be much missed.’<\/p>\n

Born on July 21, 1929 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, Woodvine kicked off his career by training\u00a0at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.<\/p>\n

He made his breakthrough in iconic BBC drama Z-Cars and before the 1960s were through, he starred in spin-off Softly, Softly.<\/p>\n

Woodvine featured alonside legends\u00a0Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave in\u00a0Ken Russell’s film The Devils in 1971, before appearing in\u00a0John Landis cult comedy horror\u00a0An American Werewolf in London.<\/p>\n

He spent many years with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and performed as Banquo in Macbeth in 1976, alongside Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench.<\/p>\n

This version of the classic tragedy went on to be recorded for TV.<\/p>\n

He also appeared in an episode of Dr Who as the Marshal of Atrios in an episode called The Armageddon Factor which was released in 1979.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woodvine produced a star turn in the\u00a0RSC’s landmark showing of Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby in 1980.<\/p>\n

\"Born <\/p>\n

Born in 1929 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, Woodvine kicked off his career by training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (pictured: Woodvine in New Scotland Yard in 1973)<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine, <\/p>\n

Woodvine, pictured in 1989, had a productive 1980s and starred in the RSC’s landmark showing of Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby in 1980<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The star pictured in Anna Christie at the Young Vic in 1990 alongside\u00a0Natasha Richardson<\/p>\n

\"He <\/p>\n

He starred in a string of plays after winning an Olivier Award in 1987 (pictured: Woodvine in Volpone play in 1991)<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine <\/p>\n

Woodvine pictured alongside\u00a0Saskia Wickham in ITV’s\u00a0Peak Practice in 2001<\/p>\n

\"Woodvine, \"He\u00a0returned <\/p>\n

After first playing a lorry driver in Coronation Street in 1965, pictured left, Woodvine returned to the ITV series in 2010 to briefly play Charlotte Hoyle’s father Alan, right<\/p>\n

He won the Olivier Award for Comedy Performance of the Year in 1987 for his role in The Henrys at the Old Vic.<\/p>\n

Woodvine appeared in Oliver’s Travels, Doctor Who, as Marshal of Atrios, and starred alongside Joe Don Baker and Bob Peck in the mystery drama Edge Of Darkness.<\/p>\n

He went on to appear as a supporting character in 2006’s Miss Potter, alongside Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, and as Frank Gallagher’s father Neville in Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.<\/p>\n

After first playing a lorry driver in Coronation Street in 1965, Woodvine returned to the ITV series in 2010 to briefly play Charlotte Hoyle’s father Alan before the role was recast with Michael McStay. He also appeared in Emmerdale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He married\u00a0actress Lynn Farleigh in 1996 and leaves two children,\u00a0including actress Mary Woodvine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British actor John Woodvine who\u00a0starred in An American Werewolf In London, The Crown and Z Cars has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[92,77,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-478324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115327840730481744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}