John Stride

John Stride was an English actor known for his television work, especially in the 1970s. Born in London, he trained at RADA and made his West End debut in 1959 in Five Finger Exercise, directed by John Gielgud, which ran for 608 performances. At the Old Vic he played Romeo in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Romeo and Juliet and Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1, and at the end of the 1960s he was Rosencrantz in the National Theatre Company's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. On screen he played Ross in Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971) and took the title role in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Henry VIII (1979). He became most closely associated with the solicitor David Main in the Yorkshire Television series The Main Chance (1969 to 1975), and he later had a lead role in Wilde Alliance (1978) and appeared in the BBC adaptation of The Old Devils (1992). He died in 2018.