Michael Goodliffe

Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe was born on 1 October 1914 in Bebington, Wirral, England, the son of a vicar. He was educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. His professional acting career began in repertory theatre in Liverpool before he joined the company of the Stratford Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Goodliffe enlisted in the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner at the Battle of Dunkirk. Following his capture, he was incorrectly reported as killed in action, and an obituary was published in a newspaper. He spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner in Germany.

During his captivity, Goodliffe organized theatrical productions for fellow prisoners, serving as producer, actor, and in some cases writer. Among these were two productions of Shakespeare's Hamlet — one staged at Tittmoning and another at Eichstätt — in both of which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noël Coward's Post-Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these wartime productions survives.

After the war, Goodliffe resumed his career across theatre, film, and television. He became known for playing suave professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and army officers, though he was also cast in working-class roles. His Broadway appearances spanned from 1954 to 1964 and included The Living Room and Sponono. On screen, he appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and other films dealing with prisoner-of-war experiences. His most prominent film role came in A Night to Remember (1958), in which he portrayed Thomas Andrews, the designer of the RMS Titanic. On television, he played Sir Thomas More in the 1972 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII and appeared alongside John Thaw and James Bolam in the 1967 series Inheritance. His television series Sam, which ran from 1973 to 1975, cast him as an unemployed Yorkshire miner.

Goodliffe suffered from depression and experienced a breakdown in 1976 while rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He died on 20 March 1976, having leaped from a fire escape at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, where he had been a patient. He was 61 years old.