James Booth

For other uses, see James Booth (disambiguation).

James Booth
Born	David Noel Geeves (1927-12-19)19 December 1927 Croydon, Surrey, England
Died	11 August 2005(2005-08-11) (aged 77) Hadleigh, Essex, England
Other names	David Geeves-Booth
Years active	1958–2005
Spouse	Paula Delaney ​ ​ (m. 1960)​
Children	4

James Booth (born David Noel Geeves; 19 December 1927 – 11 August 2005) was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter. Though considered handsome enough to play leading roles, and versatile enough to play a wide variety of character parts, Booth naturally projected a shifty, wolfish, or unpredictable quality that led inevitably to villainous roles and comedy, usually with a cockney flavour. He is best known for his role as Private Henry Hook in Zulu.

Variety called him "a punchy blend of toughness, potential evil and irresistible charm."

Though many observers expected Booth to become a major star, his acting career stalled and nearly stopped. In interviews, Booth was forthcoming about the reasons for his professional difficulties. These included his appearance in the flop stage musical Twang!! in 1965, the flop film The Secret of My Success opposite such popular actresses as Honor Blackman and Shirley Jones, his alcoholism, his unaggressive approach to selling himself, his lack of connections and his own failure to work hard because everything came so easily to him at first. Booth also turned down the lead role of Alfie. By 1974 he was bankrupt, heavily in debt and was forced to return to the stage.

Early life and career

David Noel Geeves was born in Croydon, Surrey, on 19 December 1927, the son of Salvation Army probation officer Captain Ernest Edward Geeves and Lillian Alice (née Edwards), also a Salvation Army officer. The Geeves family moved often due to their duties, serving mainly in working-class areas, where they were more financially comfortable than their neighbours; these early experiences of interacting with the working classes had a strong influence on Booth. Having been injured during World War I and left with recurring partial paralysis that affected his ability to walk, Ernest Geeves died in 1938 after suffering a stroke; Lillian subsequently married Salvation Army Lieutenant-Colonel Cliff Barnes.

Booth was educated at Southend Grammar School, which he left aged 17 to join the army. Having trained recruits in the use of the bayonet, he rose to the rank of Captain in tank transport. He spent several years working for an international trading company. However, his interest in acting soon took priority.

He successfully applied for a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he studied from 1954 to 1956. Classmates included Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Alan Bates and Richard Harris. Early in his career, he was advised to change his name, "Geeves" being reminiscent of P. G. Wodehouse's fictional Jeeves.

Booth made his first professional appearance as a member of the Old Vic company in a production of Timon of Athens (1956) with Ralph Richardson. His first film role was a bit in The Narrowing Circle (1956) and he had small parts in The Girl in the Picture (1957).

Joan Littlewood

He joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in 1958. He appeared on stage in The Hostage (1958). For TV he appeared in The Iron Harp and episodes of William Tell and The Invisible Man.

Booth was in the cast of Sparrers Can't Sing. In 1960 he starred in the stage musical Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be which became a hit and Booth, who played its most pungent character, looked poised for stardom.

According to one obituary, "Booth seemed to excite the theatre like a fountain of high spirits, with his cockney voice and his mischievous way of expressing himself, sometimes teasing, sometimes truly... Booth's manner with an audience, which he took into his confidence, was so personal...The reason for Booth's success lay simply with his personality. His height also helped. He would loom over the footlights with a commandingly wide grin. And his unpretentious manner added to the ease with which these early performances were accepted."

Warwick Films

Producer Irving Allen signed Booth to an exclusive contract with Warwick Films. By this stage he met and married Paula Delaney and he would later say " 'I don't know what kind of mess my life would be in today if it hadn't been for Paula and Irving. I'm a very insecure person. I've always needed someone to give me security. And they both did."

Booth's first sizeable film role was in Jazz Boat (1960), directed by Ken Hughes for Warwick. That movie starred Anthony Newley and Anne Aubrey, who were also in Booth's next film, Let's Get Married (1960).

Hughes cast Booth in two more movies for Warwick, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) with Peter Finch and In the Nick (1960) with Newley and Aubrey.

The financial failure of these films saw the end of Warwick, but Irving Allen then used Booth in a movie for a new company, The Hellions (1961), shot in South Africa. Booth appeared on TV in The Ruffians (1960) and The Great Gold Bullion Robbery (1960), as well as the Rank comedy In the Doghouse (1961).

In 1962 Booth spent a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He appeared in King Lear alongside Paul Scofield for Peter Brook. He also played in The Caretaker.

Film stardom

Booth's first lead role came in Sparrows Can't Sing (1963) directed by Littlewood. He then made Zulu (1964), the film for which he is best remembered; he was billed above Michael Caine. Joseph E. Levine put him under contract.

Booth did Stray Cats and Empty Bottles (1964) for TV and played the lead in a comedy, French Dressing (1964), the feature debut of Ken Russell. It was a box office disappointment.

Booth was in Herb Gardner's play, A Thousand Clowns in London 1964. He starred in 90 Degrees in the Shade (1964), a thriller, and the comedy, The Secret of My Success (1965). Neither movie was popular. A proposed film with Peter Sellers, Barbu, never eventuated.

Booth starred as Robin Hood in the stage musical Twang! (1965), which was a troubled production (Littlewood resigned as director) and a notorious flop. Booth later claimed the failure of the musical put him out of work for a year.

Booth was a policeman in a heist movie, Robbery (1967), for Levine, alongside his Zulu co-star Stanley Baker. He did a comedy with Shirley MacLaine, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968) then Fräulein Doktor (1969) and The Vessel of Wrath (1970) for TV.

Booth went to Australia to make Adam's Woman (1970) and played Rod Taylor's best friend in The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970). He worked with Taylor again in Darker Than Amber (1970). In 1970 he did "The Alchemist" at the Chichester Festival and had a support role in Macho Callahan (1970), then the lead in Revenge (1971).

In 1972, he appeared on stage in The Hostage for Joan Littlewood again. Booth returned to leads in the films Rentadick (1972) and Penny Gold (1973) and TV comedy Them (1972).

Booth could be seen in That'll Be the Day (1974), Percy's Progress (1974), The Confederacy of Wives (1975), Brannigan (1975), and I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1976).

Hollywood

Booth appeared on Broadway in 1975 in a production of Travesties. He then relocated to Hollywood and found work as a character actor in films like Airport '77 (1977), Murder in Peyton Place (1977), Wheels (1978), Evening in Byzantium (1978), Jennifer: A Woman's Story (1979), Caboblanco (1980), The Jazz Singer (1980) and Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981).

He also regularly guest starred on shows like Hart to Hart and The Fall Guy along with TV movies like Hotline and The Cowboy and the Ballerina (1984).

Screenwriting

When no one would offer Booth an acting job, he tried his hand at screenwriting and found opportunities in Hollywood. His first writing credit was Sunburn (1979).

He was in Pray for Death (1985) which he also wrote; he did double duty on Avenging Force (1986). He wrote the TV movie Stormin' Home (1985).

As an actor only he was in Bad Guys (1986). He played a pornography baron living in enforced exile in Spain in series 2 of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in 1986 and was seen in Moon in Scorpio (1987), Deep Space (1988), The Lady and the Highwayman (1988), and Have a Nice Night (1990).

He wrote American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1988) and American Ninja 4: The Annihilation (1990); he acted in the latter and was in episodes of Bergerac and Twin Peaks.

Later career

Later acting appearances included Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992), Inner Sanctum II (1994), The Breed (2001), Red Phone 2, and Keeping Mum (2005).

In later life Booth moved back to Britain. He never retired from performing.

Personal life

He married Paula Delaney in 1960 and they had two sons and two daughters and lived in Buckinghamshire, Los Angeles and Hadleigh, Essex, where he died on 11 August 2005 aged 77. His last film – Keeping Mum – was dedicated to his memory.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	The Narrowing Circle	Bit Role	Uncredited
1957	The Girl in the Picture	Office boy	Credited as David Greever
1960	Jazz Boat	Spider Kelly
	Let's Get Married	Photographer
	The Trials of Oscar Wilde	Alfred Wood
	In the Nick	Spider Kelly
1961	The Hellions	Jubal
	In the Doghouse	Bob Skeffington
1963	Sparrows Can't Sing	Charlie Gooding
1964	Zulu	Private Henry Hook VC
	French Dressing	Jim
1965	Ninety Degrees in the Shade	Vorell
	The Secret of My Success	Arthur Tate
1967	Robbery	Inspector George Langdon
1968	The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom	Ambrose Tuttle
1969	Fräulein Doktor	Meyer
1970	Adam's Woman	Dyson
	Darker than Amber	Burk
	Macho Callahan	Harry Wheeler
	The Man Who Had Power Over Women	Val Pringle
1971	Revenge	Jim Radford
1972	Rentadick	Simon Hamilton
1973	That'll Be The Day	Mr MacLaine
	Penny Gold	Matthews
1974	Percy's Progress	Jeffcott
1975	Brannigan	Charlie the Handle
1976	I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight	S.J. Nutbrown
1977	Airport '77	Ralph Crawford
1978	Evening in Byzantium	Jack Conrad
1980	Caboblanco	John Baker
	The Jazz Singer	Paul Rossini
1981	Zorro, The Gay Blade	Valasquez
1985	Pray for Death	Willie Limehouse
1986	Bad Guys	Lord Percy
	Avenging Force	Admiral Brown	(also co-wrote)
1987	The Retaliator	Dr Brock	aka Programmed to Kill
1988	Deep Space	Dr Forsyth
1990	American Ninja 4: The Annihilation	Mulgrew
1994	Inner Sanctum II	Detective Hooper
2001	The Breed	Fleming
2004	The Pool	Patrick
2005	Keeping Mum	Mr Brown	(final film role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958–59	The Adventures of William Tell	Various	3 episodes
1962	Gunsmoke	Townsman (uncredited)	Episode: False Front (S8E15)
1964	First Night	Newton	Episode: Stray Cats and Empty Bottles
1971	Shirley's World	Edmund Remberg	Episode: A Mother's Touch
1972	Bonanza	Reverend	Episode: "Second Sight"
1975	The Sweeney	Vic Labbett	Episode: Poppy
1978	Wheels	Sir Phillip Sturdevant	Miniseries
1982	The Fall Guy	Ian Graham	Episode: Child's Play
1985–93	Minder	Godfrey and Toby 'Jug' Johnson	2 episodes: Give Us This Day Arthur Daley's Bread and Gone with the Winchester
1986	Auf Wiedersehen, Pet	Kenny Ames	8 episodes
1990	Bergerac	Nicholas Wolfe	Episode: All The Sad Songs
1990–91	Twin Peaks	Ernie Niles	5 episodes
1991	Lovejoy	Mordechai Frobel	1 episode
2000	The Bill	Freddy Walker	Episode: Crime and Punishment

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956–57	Richard III		Old Vic, London
1958	The Hostage	IRA officer	Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop
	A Christmas Carol	Bob Cratchit	For the Theatre Workshop
1959	Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be	Tosher	Theatre Royal, Stratford
	The Hostage	IRA officer	Wyndham's Theatre
1961–62	The Fire Raisers		Royal Court Theatre
1962	The Caretaker	Mick
	The Comedy of Errors		RSC, Stratford-on-Avon
	King Lear	Edmund	RSC, Stratford-on-Avon
1965	Twang!!	Robin Hood	Shaftesbury
1973	The Entertainer	Archie Rice
1975–76	Travesties	James Joyce	RSC & Noel Coward Theatre, London & Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York
1987–88	Peter Pan	Mr Darling/Captain James Hook	Tyne Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne and Opera House

Further reading

• Hall, Sheldon. Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It. Tomahawk Press, 2005.
• Noble, Peter. British Film and Television Yearbook: 1960/61. British and American Film Press, 1961.
• Walker, John. The Once and Future Film: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. London: Methuen, 1985.

External links

• James Booth at IMDb
• James Booth at the Internet Broadway Database
• BBC News - Zulu actor James Booth dies at 77
• The Scotsman - Obituaries: James Booth

Hadleigh Local Site James Booth (1927-2005) PORTRAIT OF AN ACTOR last interview

The Stage: Actor James Booth dies

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