From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor best known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working class parts. Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Cheshire (now Merseyside), the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, and Keble College, Oxford. He started his career in repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. He joined the British Army at the beginning of World War II, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk. Goodliffe was incorrectly listed as killed in action, and even had his obituary published in a newspaper. He was to spend the rest of the war a prisoner in Germany. Whilst in captivity he produced and acted in (and in some cases wrote) many plays and sketches to entertain fellow prisoners. These included two productions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, one in Tittmoning and the other in Eichstätt, in which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noel Coward's Post Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these productions exists. After the war he resumed his professional acting career. As well as appearing in the theatre he worked in film and television. He appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and in other POW films. His best known film was A Night to Remember (1958) in which he played Thomas Andrews, builder of the RMS Titanic. His best known television series was Sam (1973–75) in which he played an unemployed Yorkshire miner. He also appeared with John Thaw and James Bolam in the 1967 television series Inheritance. Suffering from depression, Goodliffe had a breakdown in 1976 during the period that he was rehearsing for a revival of Equus. He committed suicide a few days later by leaping from a hospital fire escape, whilst a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Goodliffe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Series | Inheritance | Unknown | 2025 |
Movie | To the Devil a Daughter | George de Grass | 1976-03-04 |
Movie | Hitler: The Last Ten Days | General Weidling | 1973-04-19 |
Series | Sam | Jack Barraclough | 1973-06-12 |
Movie | Don't Be Like Brenda | Narrator (uncredited) | 1973-05-27 |
Movie | Henry VIII and His Six Wives | Thomas More | 1972-07-13 |
Movie | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Mr. Teevee (uncredited) | 1971-06-29 |
Series | Hine | 1971-04-07 | |
Movie | The 5th Day of Peace | Snow | 1970-04-17 |
Movie | Cromwell | Solicitor General | 1970-09-16 |
Movie | The Fixer | Ostrovsky | 1968-12-08 |
Movie | The Jokers | Lt. Col. Paling | 1967-05-15 |
Movie | The Night of the Generals | Hauser | 1967-01-29 |
Series | Man in a Suitcase | Unknown | 1967-09-27 |
Series | Callan | Unknown | 1967-07-08 |
Movie | Von Ryan's Express | Captain Stein | 1965-06-23 |
Movie | Man in the Middle | Colonel Shaw | 1964-01-27 |
Movie | 633 Squadron | Squadron Leader Frank Adams | 1964-04-06 |
Movie | The Gorgon | Professor Jules Heitz | 1964-10-18 |
Movie | Woman of Straw | Solicitor | 1964-04-28 |
Movie | The 7th Dawn | Trumphey | 1964-09-02 |
Movie | Troubled Waters | Jeff Driscoll | 1964-12-01 |
Movie | 80,000 Suspects | Clifford Preston | 1963-08-15 |
Movie | Jigsaw | Clyde Burchard | 1962-08-21 |
Movie | Number Six | 1962-04-01 | |
Movie | The £20,000 Kiss | Sir Harold Trevitt | 1962-12-31 |
Series | The Saint | Unknown | 1962-10-04 |
Series | Zero One | Unknown | 1962-10-03 |
Series | The Avengers | Unknown | 1961-01-07 |
Movie | No Love for Johnnie | Dr. West | 1961-02-14 |
Movie | The Day the Earth Caught Fire | Jacko Jackson the Night Editor | 1961-11-01 |
Movie | Testament of Orpheus | English Narrator (voice) (uncredited) | 1960-02-18 |
Movie | Sink the Bismarck! | Captain Banister | 1960-02-11 |
Movie | The Battle of the Sexes | Detective | 1960-02-25 |
Movie | The Trials of Oscar Wilde | Charles Gill | 1960-05-28 |
Series | Maigret | Unknown | 1960-10-31 |
Movie | Peeping Tom | Don Jarvis | 1960-05-16 |
Movie | Conspiracy of Hearts | Father Desmaines | 1960-04-07 |
Movie | The White Trap | Inspector Walters | 1959-08-01 |
Movie | Carve Her Name with Pride | Coding Expert | 1958-02-18 |
Movie | Up the Creek | Nelson | 1958-05-13 |
Movie | The Camp on Blood Island | Father Paul Anjou | 1958-04-15 |
Movie | Further Up the Creek | Lt. Commander Blakeney | 1958-10-28 |
Movie | A Night to Remember | Thomas Andrews | 1958-07-03 |
Movie | Three Crooked Men | Shop Customer | 1958-10-01 |
Movie | Fortune Is a Woman | Detective Insp. Barnes | 1957-03-13 |
Movie | The One That Got Away | R.A.F. Interrogator | 1957-11-22 |
Movie | Wicked as They Come | Larry Buckham | 1956-05-22 |
Movie | The Battle of the River Plate | Captain McCall, R.N., British Naval Attache, Buenos Aires | 1956-10-30 |
Movie | The End of the Affair | Smythe | 1955-02-24 |
Movie | Quentin Durward | Count De Dunois | 1955-09-09 |
Series | Dixon of Dock Green | Unknown | 1955-07-09 |
Movie | Dial 999 | John Moffat | 1955-12-01 |
Movie | Front Page Story | Kennedy | 1954-03-15 |
Movie | Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue | Robert Walpole | 1954-02-27 |
Movie | Sea Devils | Ragan | 1953-04-12 |
Movie | The Hour of 13 | Anderson | 1952-11-21 |
Movie | Plan for Coal | 1952-01-02 | |
Movie | Cry, the Beloved Country | Martens | 1951-11-16 |
Movie | Captain Horatio Hornblower | Col. Caillard - POW Escort | 1951-04-10 |
Movie | Family Portrait | Narrator (voice) | 1950-12-01 |
Movie | The Wooden Horse | Robbie | 1950-10-16 |
Movie | Stop Press Girl | McPherson | 1949-06-02 |
Movie | The Small Back Room | Till | 1949-02-21 |