John McEnery

John Murray McEnery (1 November 1943 – 12 April 2019) was an English actor born in Walsall, England, the third son of Charles and Mary McEnery. His father operated a pickle factory before relocating the family to Brighton, where he established a chain of stationery shops. McEnery attended the Dorothy Stringer School and worked briefly at a local department store before pursuing a career in acting. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1962 to 1964, where his roles included Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone and Gaveston in Marlowe's Edward II. Following his training, he spent three seasons with the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where he met actress Stephanie Beacham, whom he later married. The couple had two daughters before divorcing. McEnery also had a daughter, artist Celeste Bollack, from a prior relationship with French artist Sofi Bollack. He had two brothers: actor Peter McEnery and photographer David McEnery. He joined the National Theatre company in 1966.

McEnery's screen career gained significant attention in 1968 when he played Mercutio in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, a performance that earned him a BAFTA Award nomination. Two years later he took the title role in the 1970 film Bartleby, starring opposite Paul Scofield. In 1971 he appeared in a major role alongside Claude Jade and Jean-Pierre Cassel in Gérard Brach's The Boat on the Grass, and that same year portrayed Russian politician Alexander Kerensky in Nicholas and Alexandra. His subsequent film work included The Land That Time Forgot (1974), The Duellists, Black Beauty, The Krays (1990), in which he played gangster Eddie Pellam, Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990), and When Saturday Comes (1996). His television credits encompassed Our Mutual Friend, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Little Dorrit, The Buddha of Suburbia, Jamaica Inn, Tusitala, in which he played Robert Louis Stevenson, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, in which he portrayed Thomas De Quincey, and the title role in Caligula A.D. In 2008 he appeared in a guest role in Sidetracked, the first episode of Wallander.

On stage, McEnery's career spanned decades and encompassed a wide range of classical and contemporary work. At Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in the 1980s he took the title role in Gogol's The Government Inspector, directed by Russian actor and director Oleg Tabakov. His other stage credits included Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, in which he played Wick Blagdon, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in which he played Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, Curse of the Starving Classes for the RSC, Taking Sides, Precious Bane with Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus with Steven Berkoff, and Bingo with Patrick Stewart. In 1981 he appeared on Broadway in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, playing Mr. Mantalini and Mr. Snevellicci. In 2011 he played Rowley in The School for Scandal, directed by Deborah Warner, at the Barbican Centre.

McEnery joined the Globe Theatre in 1997 for its inaugural productions, playing Pistol in Henry V and Jaques in As You Like It. Over the following decade he performed numerous roles there, including the Fool in King Lear, John of Gaunt and the Gardener in Richard II, the Archbishop of Canterbury in Edward II, the title role in Pericles, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, Master Shortrod Harebrain in A Mad World My Masters, roles in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. In 1998 his play Merry Christmas, Mr. Burbage, written to mark the 400th anniversary of the creation of the Globe Theatre, was performed at the site of the original Theatre in Shoreditch. With the support of Globe Artistic Director Sir Mark Rylance, the production concluded with an ox and cart carrying oak beams in procession from Shoreditch to the Globe, where those beams remain with a dedication to the Burbages.

McEnery was a co-founder, alongside Paul Geake, of the Shakespeare in Shoreditch Society. He later performed as Lear at the site of the Rose Theatre in 2015 with the Malachites, and his play Raising Burbage was performed at St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, known as the Actors' Church. He also performed Sonnet 129 outside St Leonard's as part of the Globe Sonnet Walks. His ashes are scattered at St Leonard's Church.