He was the working class boy from Manchester whose intensity and natural honesty made him British television's most bankable actor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first starring role on TV was as Sgt John Mann in Redcap. His first great success, though, was as Detective Inspector Regan in The Sweeney. Violent and uncompromising, the series changed the portrayal of police work on British television and was one of the defining dramas of the 1970s.

For Inspector Morse, Thaw was yet again cast as a policeman, but this time a more cultured character than Regan. The leisurely-paced series, set in beautiful Oxfordshire, was Thaw's most popular and long-running project. It established him as British television's most bankable actor, and during the 1990s he had many other starring vehicles. He was also a favourite of film director Richard Attenborough, who cast him in Cry Freedom and Chaplin.

John Thaw was a quiet, private man. His marriage to actress Sheila Hancock was generally regarded as one of the strongest in showbusiness. When he died at the age of 60, the BBC website was inundated with tributes from the viewing public. His "Inspector Morse" co-star Kevin Whately simply described him as the country's finest screen actor.


Winner of 2 BAFTA awards for Best TV Actor in "Inspector Morse" (1989 and 1992) and nominee for the same series in 1990 & 1991. Treated for cancer of the oesophagus. His wife, Sheila Hancock, is a breast cancer survivor. [June 2001] Married Sheila Hancock on 24 December 1973 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He performed with the National Theatre. His most famous roles on British TV were all as straight-talking, no-nonsense characters: Jack Regan, Inspector Morse and James Kavanagh. Thaw was a fan of classical music ever since he was a young man. His mother Dorothy (Dolly) walked out on the family when he was 7 years old. He did not see her again for 12 years when she showed up briefly back stage in a production of "The Fire Raisers." He never saw her again. She died of stomach cancer in 1974. Was Laurence Olivier's understudy in the stage production of "Semi-Detached" and later stepped into the part for a week due to Olivier's problem with gout.