John Albert Chamberlain Kefford[1] (5 June 1905 – 24 May 1996) was an English actor professionally known as John Abbott. His memorable roles include the invalid Frederick Fairlie in the 1948 film The Woman in White and the pacifist Ayelborne in the Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy". He also played Sesmar in an episode of Lost in Space, "The Dream Monster", in 1966.[2] Abbott was known as a Shakespearean actor.
Biography
Abbott was born in the district of Stepney in London on 5 June 1905.[3] He had two siblings - a sister, Ivy Skeates of Cambridge, and a brother, Harold Kefford.[2]
In 1934, he began his career in show business when he made his professional stage debut in a revival of Dryden's Aureng-zebe with Sybil Thorndike. He then joined the Old Vic Company and appeared in Shakespearean roles, including Claudius in a production of Hamlet at Elsinore Castle in Denmark with Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Alec Guinness. His first Broadway role was that of Count Mancini in He Who Gets Slapped in 1946. He also appeared on Broadway in Monserrat and The Waltz of the Toreadors. He made his film debut in Mademoiselle Docteur in 1937, and went on to act in scores of films in the next 30 years. Among his film credits are Mission to Moscow,Jane Eyre, A Thousand and One Nights, Humoresque, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. His television appearances in that time were even more numerous, beginning with pioneering broadcasts by the BBC before the Second World War.[2]
In the early days of the Second World War, Abbott worked at the British Embassy in Stockholm. When the time came to leave, he had to go by way of the United States. While in the U.S., he was offered a part in Hollywood in 1941[4] and ended up living there for the rest of his life.
^ abcd"John Abbott, 90. Was English Actor". The New York Times. 2 June 1996. Retrieved 2 December 2014. John Abbott, an actor in films, theatre and television, died on 24 May at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 90. Mr. Abbott, who was born in Britain, began his long career in show business in 1934, when he made his professional stage debut in a revival of Dryden's "Aureng-Zebe" with Sybil Thorndike. ...
^"John Abbott". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
^Palmer, Scott (1981). A Who's Who of British Film Actors. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-81081-388-5.
^Abbott had no idea why he was blacklisted until around 1990, when he was watching a documentary on Dalton Trumbo, discovered that the author had used Abbott's name as an alias.[citation needed]
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