Biographie

[George Cowley]

Gibts eigentlich ber Gordon eine Bio als Buch zum Kaufen? Gerne auch in englisch.

[George Cowley]

Scottish Actor
 
Gordon Jackson was one of the stalwarts of British television in the 1970s, though he also had extensive stage and screen experience going back to the 1940s. A Scot, he began his career playing small parts in a series of war films made by the Ealing Studios and others, initially typecast as a weakling but gradually winning recognition as a useful character actor specializing in stern, well-mannered gents of the "stiff upper lip" variety, often lacking in a sense of humour. His rich Scottish accent, however, balanced this with a certain charm and it was this combination of sternness and warmth that characterized most of his roles on stage and screen.

During the 1950s, Jackson continued to develop his film career and was also busy in repertory theatre, making his debut on the London stage in the farce Seagulls Over Sorrento in 1951. Other acclaimed roles on the stage included an award-winning Horatio in Tony Richardson's production of Hamlet in 1969, Tesman in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. In the cinema he gradually moved from young soldiers and juvenile leads in the likes of Millions Like Us, Tunes of Glory, and Whisky Galore to major supporting parts in such films as The Ipcress File, starring Michael Caine, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark. By the 1960s it was apparently automatic for Jackson's name to crop up whenever a genial, but crusty Scotsman was required, whether the production under discussion was a wartime epic or something more homely.

As a television star, Jackson really came into his own in 1971, when he made his first appearances in the role of Hudson, the endearingly pompous butler in the classic period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. Over the next five years, Jackson, as one of the central characters in this hugely popular series about Edwardian life, became a household name--a status formally acknowledged in 1975 when he won the Royal Television Society's Best Actor Award (followed later by his being made an Officer of the British Empire). As Hudson, a character the actor himself professed to dislike, Jackson was in turn supportive and dependable and dour and infuriating, not least through his old-fashioned attitudes to the other servants and any inclination they showed to forget their station.

Not altogether dissimilar in this regard was Jackson's other most famous television role, the outwardly contrasting part of George "The Cow" Cowley in the action adventure series The Professionals, which was first seen in 1977. As Cowley, a former MI5 agent and now head of the specialist anti-terrorist unit CI5, Jackson combined a hard-bitten determination and impatience with his wayward operatives Bodie and Doyle (Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw) with genuine (if grudging) concern for their well-being when their lives were in danger. This too became favourite viewing for peaktime audiences in the 1970s, as much through the chemistry of the three main performers as through the somewhat formulaic car-chases and action sequences that were included. Not that the series did not have its critics--many people protested at the violence of many episodes (leading the producers to limit explosions to two per story) and others refused to accept that Jackson, still firmly associated in their minds with the stuffy Mr Hudson, could ever be convincing as a tough anti-terrorist chief, notwithstanding his early experience in the Ealing war films.

Also worthy of note were Jackson's always reliable appearances in other classic television programmes, which ranged from Doctor Finlay's Casebook to the Australian-made A Town Like Alice and Stars on Sunday (as host).

-David Pickering

[George Cowley]

Fortsetzung:


GORDON CAMERON JACKSON. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, 19 December 1923. Attended Hillhead High School, Glasgow. Married: Rona Anderson; children: Graham and Roddy. Engineering draughtsman and actor for BBC radio in Glasgow, from 1939; film debut, 1942; debut on London stage, 1951; subsequently specialized in Scottish character roles in films, television and on the stage; best known to television audiences for the series Upstairs Downstairs and The Professionals. Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 1979. Recipient: Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actor, 1969; Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor, 1975; Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor, 1976. Died 14 January 1990.

TELEVISION SERIES

1970-75 Upstairs Downstairs
1977-83 The Professionals

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES

1968 The Soldier's Tale
1977 Spectre
1979 The Last Giraffe
1981 A Town Like Alice
1986 My Brother Tom
1987 Noble House

FILMS

The Foreman Went to France, 1942; Nine Men, 1943; Millions Like Us, 1943; San Demetrio--London, 1943; Pink String and Sealing Wax, 1945; The Captive Heart, 1946; Against the Wind, 1948; Eureka Stockade, 1948; Floodtide, 1949; Stop Press Girl, 1949; Whisky Galore, 1949; Bitter Springs, 1950; Happy Go Lovely, 1951; Lady with a Lamp, 1951; Castle in the Air, 1952; Death Goes to School, 1953; Malta Story, 1953; Meet Mr Lucifer, 1953; The Love Lottery, 1954; The Delavine Affair, 1954; Passage Home, 1955; Windfall, 1955; The Quatermass Experiment, 1955; Pacific Destiny, 1956; Women Without Men, 1956; The Baby and the Battleship, 1956; Sailor Beware, 1956; Seven Waves Away, 1957; Let's Be Happy, 1957; Hell Drivers, 1957; The Black Ice, 1957; Man in the Shadow, 1957; Scotland Dances (voice only), 1958; Blind Spot, 1958; Rockets Galore, 1958; Three Crooked Men, 1958; Yesterday's Enemy, 1959; The Bridal Path, 1959; Blind Date, 1959; The Navy Lark, 1959; Devil's Bait, 1959; The Price of Silence, 1960; Cone of Silence, 1960; Snowball, 1960; Tunes of Glory, 1960; Greyfriars Bobby, 1961; Two Wives at One Wedding, 1961; Mutiny on the Bounty, 1962; The Great Escape, 1963; The Long Ships, 1964; Daylight Robbery, 1964; Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, 1965; The Ipcress File, 1965; Operation Crossbow, 1965; Cast a Giant Shadow, 1966; Fighting Prince of Donegal, 1966; Night of the Generals, 1966; Triple Cross, 1967; Danger Route, 1967; Three to a Cell, 1967; Casting the Runes, 1967; Talk in Craig, 1968; The Eliminator, 1968; Negatives, 1968; On the Run, 1969; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969; Run Wild Run Free, 1969; Wind v Polygamy, 1969; Hamlet, 1970; Scrooge, 1970; The Music Lovers, 1970; Singing Sands, 1970; Rain, 1970; Allergy, 1970; Dickens Centenary, 1971; Kidnapped, 1971; The Befrienders, 1971; Budgie, 1971; The Man from Haven, 1972; Madame Sin, 1972; Square of Three, 1973; Places Where They Sing, 1973; Places in History, 1974; J. M. Barrie Lived Here, 1975; Russian Roulette, 1975; The Treasure, 1976; Supernatural, 1977; The Golden Rendezvous, 1977; The Medusa Touch, 1978; Captain Beaky, 1980; Father's Day, 1982; Strange But True, 1983; The Shooting Party, 1984; Shaka Zulu, 1985; The Masks of Death, 1985; The Whistle Blower, 1986; Gunpowder, 1987.

STAGE (selection)

Seagulls Over Sorrento, 1951; Moby Dick, 1955; Hamlet, 1969; Macbeth; Hedda Gabler; What Every Woman Knows; Noah; Twelfth Night; Cards on the Table; Mass Appeal.



 
 
 

[George Cowley]

Gordon Jackson   spielte den Butler Hudson.
Geboren 19. Dezember 1923 im schottischen Glasgow,
verstorben am 15. Januar 1990 in London an den Folgen seiner Knochenkrebserkrankung.
Der Schauspieler wurde als jngstes von fnf Kindern geboren, sein Vater war Kunstlehrer. Schon whrend seiner Schulzeit interessierte sich Gordon Jackson fr die Schauspielerei, erste Erfahrungen sammelte er in Kindersendungen des Rundfunks. Mit fnfzehn Jahren verlie er die Schule, um sich bei "Rolls-Royce" als technischer Zeichner ausbilden zu lassen; doch als fr den Film "The Foreman Went to France" (1942) ein junger Schotte gesucht wurde, erinnerte man sich an Jackson und er nahm die Rolle an. Seinen Durchbruch auf der Leinwand hatte das junge Nachwuchstalent dann in dem Streifen "Millions Like Us" (1943), im Verlaufe der nchsten Jahrzehnte avancierte Jackson zu einem vielbeschftigten Darsteller bei Film und Fernsehen. Oft waren es nur Nebenrollen, die ihm angeboten wurden, nicht immer gehrten die Filme zu den Top-Produktionen. Besonders in den 50er und 60er Jahren spielte er zahllose unterschiedliche Rollen, vereinzelt auch Hauptrollen, oft sah man ihn an der Seite so groer Stars wie Peter Finch, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen oder Michael Caine. Doch erst mit seinem Part des Butler Hudson wurde er mit "Upstairs Downstairs" selbst weltweit zum Star. 1974 wurde er fr seine Darstellung in Grobritannien zum "Schauspieler des Jahres" gekrt, 1975 erhielt er einen "Emmy-Award". Nach Ende der Serie bekam er 1977 eine weitere interessante Aufgabe als CI5-Chef George Cowley in der erfolgreichen Krimi-Serie "The Professionals" (1977  1983, Die Profis) und auch seine Rolle des Noel Strachan in dem australischen Mehrteiler "A Town Called Alice" (1981) brachte ihm positive Kritiken ein. Danach spielte er bis zu seinem Tod noch in verschiedensten Fernsehproduktionen mit.
Neben seiner umfangreichen Arbeit fr Film und Fernsehen arbeitete der Schauspieler auch immer wieder fr den Rundfunk und stand viele Male erfolgreich als Charakterdarsteller auf der Bhne.
Gordon Jackson war seit 1951 mit der Schauspielerin Rona Anderson verheiratet; aus der Verbindung stammen die Kinder Graham und Roddy.

[Gast]

ich kenne gordon jackson nur aus nebenrollen und natrlich aus "...eaton place".ich mag ihn.und ich mag ihn als cowley sogar sehr.ich hab das gefhl,dass ihm die rolle spa gemacht hat.fr  mich ist er ein sweetheart.

[George Cowley]

Lupinchen schrieb am 17.10.2007 22:34 Uhr:
ich kenne gordon jackson nur aus nebenrollen und natrlich aus "...eaton place".ich mag ihn.und ich mag ihn als cowley sogar sehr.ich hab das gefhl,dass ihm die rolle spa gemacht hat.fr  mich ist er ein sweetheart.

An mein Herz, Lupinchen [1] Endlich mal jemand, der ihn auch mag.

[firlefanzine]

George Cowley schrieb am 07.11.2007 02:24 Uhr:

An mein Herz, Lupinchen [1] Endlich mal jemand, der ihn auch mag.

Ne, ne, ne, ne!
So ist das ja nun nicht!
Ich mag ihn auch sehr. Ohne ihn wre die Serie wahrscheinlich lange nicht so gut! Das Zusammenspiel der drei ist einfach stimmig! Das Passt!

Und Eaton Place war ja eigentlich auch "seine" Serie.

Er war halt nur immer schon vom Alter her eine ganz andere Liga.
Bei Drehbeginn Eaton Place immerhin schon fast 50.
 [11]

[Capt. Peter Skellen]

Finde Gordon Jackson war noch ein richtiger Charakterschauspieler,
unverkennbar und nicht so leicht austauschbar! Solche Schauspieler findet man heute nur noch selten, denke da an Mario Adolph unter anderen!