John Turner played his first starring role in the West end in 1956 when he took over in No Time for Sergeants. He had already spent three years at Stratford and had appeared in the Peter Brook-Paul Scolfield season at the Phoenix in Hamlet and The Power and the Glory. Since then his London theatre work has included Keep Your Hair On, Mr Burke MP., Twelfth Night, I Claudius, Lulu, Pippin, Jeeves, A Month In the Country and Room With A View. At the Old Vic in 1978 he played Claudius in Hamlet as well as Antony in both Shakespeares' Anthony and Cleopatra and Dryden's All For Love. His Cleopatra was his wife, Barbara Jefford, with whom he has played in many classics and has toured with both theatre companies and their tow hand show The Labours of Love to some thirty-nine countries all over the world, setting a new box office record at the Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires. He was contracted to the Ealing –MGM and ABC film companies and starred in several feature films while his extensive TV work has ranged from the heroics of Knight Errant to the villainy of Carver Doone in Lorna Doone.

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