John Corvin: An Artistic Life - An Exhibition on the 2nd Floor of Fred Winter Ltd, Stratford-upon-Avon
I first met John some twenty years ago and was immediately overwhelmed – as many were – by the aforementioned enthusiasm. It wasn't long before I joined him on many an adventure, whether helping him with his one-man shows, acting alongside him on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, or getting involved as an extra on the odd film set or two, most notably a film version of the Scottish play where John played a wonderful Duncan. He was always fun, always helpful, and always generous with his time, advice, and red wine.
John was born in London, and by the time the Second World War came along he, aged fifteen, lied about his age and joined the army, only to be dragged out screaming again by his protesting mother. A year later he ran away and joined the Merchant Navy, and for the next four years or so sailed the U-boat invested waters of the North Atlantic, where, armed with only the collected works of Shakespeare, staged the odd play or two, with one performance of the above mentioned drama using-up every bottle of tomato ketchup on board.
It was while he was in the Merchant Navy that John also discovered he could draw, a talent the Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh (who was sailing from Halifax to the UK to take that famous photograph of Churchill) encouraged him to develop and broaden.
But after the war John decided it was the acting life for him. And, as so often happens, a chance meeting was to change his life.
By the early 1950s John was working as a travelling theatrical lighting salesman who, when in London, parked his pre-war Vauxhall on a bomb site near the Thames in Blackfriars. Then, one day, he found the site fenced-off with a small wooden shed plonked in the middle. John knocked on the door of the shed only to be confronted by the celebrated actor Bernard Miles, who offered John a cup of tea from his flask and explained that he planned to build a theatre on the site. It was going to be called the Mermaid.
The two men quickly became friends, with John acting out a little Shakespeare on Blackfriars Bridge most lunchtimes in the hope that the passing public would hang around just long enough to buy a brick for the new theatre at half-a-crown a time. And they did, in their thousands. The Mermaid Theatre was completed and opened in 1959.
As a way of showing his gratitude Bernard Miles helped John obtain a scholarship to RADA, where the young actor and artist shared classes with the likes of Tom Courtney.
And that chance meeting with Bernard Miles in the early 1950s, and that scholarship to RADA, led, in 1961, to John driving up to Stratford-upon-Avon to become one of the founding members of Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company.
While he was at the RSC John worked with some of the greats of British theatre, not least Paul Scofield – who remained a friend - and with such up and coming young actors as Peter O'Toole.
After leaving the RSC in the late 1960s John worked for the Oxford Playhouse, became a regular on our TV screens in such series as Callan, Z-Cars and Softly, Softly. He even played something of a cad in The Archers.
But painting was steadily becoming an increasingly important part of John's life with his reputation as a portrait and landscape artist growing with each decade, so much so that he had to limit the number of commissions he could accept each year.
Acting never went away of course, with his one-man show about Buffalo Bill (with Clive Bardell playing Texas Jack) becoming something of a hit. John took the show around the country, and was even invited performing it in Cody City, which he did to great acclaim.
It was always John's ambition to play King Lear, and there was a time when we got close to actually getting the play produced, but alas nothing came of it, although John did create and perform another one-man show about Lear that allowed him to get his theatrical teeth into a large proportion of the part. I remember a couple of memorable performances at Holy Trinity and The Shakespeare Institute.
John made Stratford his home after joining the RSC, and has been a great diplomat for the town, and a great inspiration to its artistic life and welfare. The town is a sadder place without him.
John's wife Rosemary loved and adored him, and looked after him with loving care, and was always a great champion of his work and ideas.
John and Rosemary were honoured guests when Hilary and I married in 2007, and we shall always remember the splendid way he entertained us all.
We shall miss him, and are proud to have been his friends.
God bless and keep him.
The exhibition is on the second floor of Fred Winter's store in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon.
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