The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

See which big screen releases you can watch from the comfort of your couch.

Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

See who dazzled on the red carpet and took home gold at the 78th Primetime Creative Emmy Awards.

Primetime Creative Arts Emmys: Photos We Love

Jack Shepherd was born in Leeds, on October 29th, 1940. His father was a cabinet maker and his mother an infant school teacher. He was educated at Roundhay School, Leeds and went on to study fine art at Kings College, Newcastle. After gaining a BA in Fine Art, he first studied acting at the Central School and then at the Drama Centre London, a drama school he helped found.

He worked at the Royal Court theatre from 1965 to 1969, and here he was involved in the first production of "Saved" by Edward Bond, and also "Narrow Road To the Deep North" and "Early Morning" by the same author. He won the "Most promising actor of year" in 1967, for his performance in David Storey's restoration of "Arnold Middleton".

During the 1970s, he went on to appear and star in many television dramas, including: Ready When You Are, Mr. McGill (1976) by Jack Rosenthal, All Good Men (1974), Through the Night (1975), the series Bill Brand (1976) (all by Trevor Griffiths) and in 1977 appeared in Count Dracula (1977).

In 1971, he teamed up with the actor Richard Wilson and together they ran a drama studio in north London. Their intention was to provide workshops for professional actors to meet and develop their skills. Shepherd and Wilson took the classes on alternate weeks, each taking part in the others. It was during these times that Shepherd developed an interest in devising plays for theatre. He wrote "The Sleep of Reasons" which was produced at the Edinburgh festival in 1974; in 1982 he wrote "Real Time"; in 1983 he wrote the play "Revelations"; "Underdog" and "Clapperclaw" were both written for the BBC. Most recently, in 1998 he wrote "Half Moon".

He was a member of the National Theatre from 1978 to 1986 and was a regular member of Bill Bryden's company in Cottlesloe. He appeared in "American Buffal" as Teach, and won "best actor" for his performance as Roma in "Glengarry Glen Ross". He appeared as Hickey in "The Iceman Cometh" and a variety of biblical characters in the mysteries which were recently revived to celebrate the millennium.

During the 80s and 90s, he continued to work in television. Some of his work includes: Escape from Sobibor (1987), Blind Justice (1988), Ball-Trap on the Cote Sauvage (1989), A Day in Summer (1989) and, most famously, the part of Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe, in Wycliffe (1993) (from 1994-1998). His work has not been exclusive to theatre and television. He has appeared in several films throughout his long career; these include: The Virgin Soldiers (1969), Lights and Shadows (1988), Twenty-One (1991) and Wonderland (1999). Quite recently, Richard Wilson and Shepherd were re-united in the ITV six-part comedy series High Stakes (2001).

Not only does he act and write, he has also directed many stage plays, notably "Two Gentlemen of Verona" for the opening season at The Globe, "King Lear" at Southwalk Playhouse, "The School of Night" by Peter Whelan at Chichester and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Most recently, Shepherd has been seen in the ITV hit drama The Jury (2002) and in the BBC adaptation of Tony Parsons' Man and Boy (2002).

Shepherd is an accomplished jazz musician, favouring the saxophone, but has also been known to play piano and flute in some of his television appearances.

He was awarded the <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000059/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Laurence Olivier</a> Theatre Award in 1984 (1983 season)
for Best Actor in a New Play for &quot;Glengarry Glen Ross&quot;.

Played the husband of characters played by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0267622/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Lynn Farleigh</a> in both <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0162791/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Bill Brand (1976)</a> and <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/title/tt0108992/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Wycliffe (1993)</a>.

Father of actor <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm1343486/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Catherine Shepherd</a>.

He was cast along with <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0577705/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Joe Melia</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0323974/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Derek Godfrey</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0493513/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Dilys Laye</a> and <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0447555/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Felicity Kendal</a> in a production of &quot;The Seven Who Were Hanged&quot;, but it was canceled when the finance ran out.

Left almost one million pounds to his wife in his will.

Sir <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0753314/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Mark Rylance</a> and Sir <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0002376/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">David Hare</a> paid tribute to Shepherd for BBC Radio 4&#39;s &quot;Last Word&quot;. According to Rylance, Shepherd&#39;s performance as Teach in <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000519/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">David Mamet</a>&#39;s &quot;American Buffalo&quot; on stage was far superior to <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0000199/?ref_=nmtrv_trv">Al Pacino</a>&#39;s.

Trivia

Jack Shepherd

Contribute to this page

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed