John Barrett

John Barrett was a British actor whose career spanned theater, film and television, best known for playing Smellie Ibbotson in The Dustbinmen and Hylda Baker's father in Not On Your Nellie. Born in Rochdale in 1910, he entered the theater in the 1930s as an assistant stage manager and later worked as an actor, director and actor-manager. He produced and acted in local productions before and during World War II, then joined weekly repertory companies across England. From the mid 1950s he appeared frequently on screen, and in the 1960s and 1970s he performed in London at the Royal Court, the Savoy and the National Theatre under directors such as William Gaskill, Lindsay Anderson and Bill Bryden. He played the lead in a 1968 revival of D. H. Lawrence's A Collier's Friday Night and in Barry Hines's Billy's Last Stand in 1970, with reviewers praising both performances. The Daily Mirror in 1976 called his career the envy of younger actors.