Simon Lack in They Drive By Night (1938)

Every so often, I do a google image search on Steve Ihnat and Simon Lack, just to see if anyone's put some photos on the web. (And if there are photos, there'll be text!)

Well, today my search finally paid off. For Simon Lack, at least.

In doing a Google image search, I found a Spotlight Casting Directory page that had a very young Simon Lack on it, circa 1939. (He'd be 24 if born in 1915, which most sources say.) (The photo was newly uploaded as a memorabilia company in London was offering it for sale.)

It listed his height - 5' 9" I have to admit I was surprised by that. He'd always seemed much shorter than that to me. I guess everyone he ever acted against must have been very tall. (Patrick McGoohan was 6'2, so he was 5 inches shorter than him...I guess that's why he looked so short in his Secret Agent ep when he was speaking with McGoohan.)

Anyway, the paper also listed three movies he'd been in...one of which was They Drive By Night (1938). I checked the IMDB and he wasn't listed in it. Then I checked YouTube, and glory be it was there, uploaded in its entirety. )Being 74 years old I guess it's in the public domain.

I started watching it, and a very young Simon Lack appeared within the first 5 minutes. As the star of the film is coming out of prison, Simon stops him. He wonders if Shorty had known Allen in prison. Shorty give shim a flip reply and walks past, until Simon says that Allen is his brother. Allen is due to die at 9 o'clock am for having killed a woman. Simon speaks in a soft, Scottish-accented voice (which of course makes sense as he is Scottish!) and then bows his head as 9 am tolls and inside the prison he knows his brother is being hung.

Simon Lack on the left talks to Emlyn Williams as Shorty on the right.

 "Roy Allen" wants to know if Shorty knew Allen in prison (they never give his first name) and how he took his last day before his scheduled execution.

A bell begins to toll nine am. (That white streak at Emlyn's mouth is a cigarette.)

Simon Lack in Cage Me A Peacock, 1948

In 1948, Simon Lack co-starred in a musical called Cage Me A Peacock, based on a popular book of the time by Noel Langley.

Music: Eve Lynd
Lyrics: Adam Leslie
Book: Noel Langley
London production opened at the Strand Theatre on June 18, 1948 and ran for 337 performances

Collatinus - Ballard Berkely
Lucrece - Yolande Donlan
Mercury - Bill O'Connor
Cassandra - Linda Gray
Sextus - Simon Lack
Dionysus - Richard Littledale
Volumnia - Mai Bacon
Octavius - GEorge Bradford
Britannicus - - Simon Traherne


Simon Lack far right as Sextus. Lucre (Yoland Donlan) far left. Man gesturing towards her, Collatinus (Ballard Berkely).


Bill O'Connor as Mercury and Linda Gray as Cassandra direct Sextus and Casso in search of Lucrece. Simon lack far right.


Simon Lack as Sextus plighting his troth to Althea (Lucrece)


Sextus and Althea in fond embrace


Sextus sees his bride with Octavian

Simon Lack - an Obit

I'd asked for info about Simon Lack on a message board called Brit Movies, and someone very kindly posted a PDF, the text of which I reproduce below.

Lots of actors lost out during World War II. They went off to war for 6 years while other actors stayed home and acted in movies and plays and kept in the public eye. The soldier-actor comes home...and if he was a "juvenile" lead, all of a sudden he's too old to play that lead...so he gets relegated to character roles.

Especially if he's 5 ft 7 or less, which I suspect is what Lack was.

The Times, Tuesday, Aug 12, 1980

Mr. Simon Lack, the actor, who died on August 6, had a steady career that began, appropriately enough for a Scot, in the Brandon-Thomas repertory companies at Edinburgh and Glasgow during the season of 1935-37. Born at Cleland on December 19, 1917, son of Alexander and Euphemia Macalpine, he was educated at Eastland Academy, Glasgow.

Reasonably, too, his first West End part, confidently managed, was also a Scot, the Glasgow financier’s son, part of a slight love interest, in Bridie’s The Last Trump (Duke of York’s, 1938). In the following year he had the brief and poignant scene of the dead airman, reappearing in his mother’s memory, in [J.B.]Priestley’s Music at Night (Westminster). Later for six years he was out of the theatre, serving with The Lancashire Fusiliers and The Buffs (and being mentioned in dispatches.)

Reappearing on the stage in 1946 [at age 29], he found an odd variety of of plays and parts: David in H.P. Templeton’s You Won’t Need the Halo (Arts), set in a London mission-hall; another David in Peter Yates’ The Assassin, a bold attempt at a verse tragedy in the grand manner (Lyric, Hammersmith); Gilbert in Jane, S. N. Behrman’s version of a story by [Somerset] Maugham (Aldwych, 1947); and Sextus in Cage Me A Peacock, a musical (Strand, 1947) set in classical Rome.

He had a long run as an amiably sympathetic young man in [Noel] Coward’s Relative Values (Savoy, 1951); and at various times played one of the undergraduates in Charley’s Aunt, and the elder son in Enid Bagnold’s The Chinese Prime Minister (Globe, 1965), besides his work out of London and in films.

He also made a number of television appearances and had been seen recently in Enemy at the Door and Telford’s Change. He had a part, too, in the new BBC television production The Borgias.

The Simon Lack Affair: Paul Temple

The serials starring Peter Coke as Temple, and Marjorie Westbury as his wife Steve (Steve being a nickname because as a journalist she'd used this name as her pseudonym.)

1. Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case (29th March to 17th May 1954). This story was remade in 1959 with Simon Lack in on one of the principle roles, but the version for sale on CD, and the one aired on BBC Radio 7, is this version! Doubtless because this was the first time Coke had essayed the role.

2. Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery Another remake of a previous serial starring Kim Peacock as Temple. (Aired in June and July of 1955). All tapes are apparently lost. Simon Lack played Chris Boyer.

3. Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair. (11th April to 30th May 1956). Simon Lack is in this one, as Brian Dexter.

4. Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair. (13th November 1957 to 1st January 1958). Simon Lack plays Adrian Frost.

5. Paul Temple and the Van Dyke Affair. Remake of a previous serial, in which Peter Coke played one of the villains. (1st January to 19th February 1959). Simon Lack played Philip Droste.

6. Paul Temple and the Conrad Case. (2nd March to 20th April 1959). Simon Lack isn't in it. ; (

7. Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case. A remake of the 1954 serial. One we'll apparently never hear! (22nd November 1959 to December, 1959). Simon Lack played Lance Reynolds.

8. Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery. (1st January to 19th February 1961). Simon Lack plays Superintendent Rain (police officer).

9. Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery. A remake of a previous serial. (14th October to 2nd December 1963.) Simon Lack plays Reggie Macintosh - using his real, Scottish accent.

10. Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery. (11th April to 16th May 1965) (Only 6 episodes.) Simon Lack plays Vince Langham.

11. Paul Temple and the Alex Affair. A remake of a previous serial. (26th February to 21st March 1968). Simon Lack plays Carl Lathom.

I Didn't Want Him To Be the Killer!

I've been listening to Paul Temple and the Alex Affair. Recorded in 1968, it is broadcast on an annual basis by BBC Radio 7 (soon to lose their identity as they become Radio 4 Extra instead - so stupid.)

For 11 of these serials, from 1954 to 1968, Peter Coke (pronounced Cook) starred as Paul Temple, Marjorie Westbury starred as his wife Steve, and an actor named Simon Lack starred as Character X. He was in all but one of these serials, I think, sometimes playing the villain, sometimes the red herring, and on one occasion a police superitendent.

In Paul Temple and the Alex Affair, I had hoped he was the red herring, because I really liked his character. He plays a man who has been having hallucinations (at least, he says he's been having hallucinations) and then is being blackmailed by Alex.

Throughout his appearance, which begain in the last few minutes of episode 1 til now, midway through episode 5, he's been a sympathetic character whose been very afraid, the fear radiating out of his voice in a masterful vocal performance.

I couldn't stand it, and searched the web trying to find out who Alex (the master criminal whose name has been left at the site of two murders) was. And according to Yahoo Answers.com, it's him.

Damn I'm so pissed!

It's kind of funny...I really don't like these Paul Temple stories. They are each told in 8 episodes of 30 minutes each, and they are full of far-fetched plots, convoluted action, and people whose actions make no sense. By the eighth episode, a lot of people have died and anyone who hasn't died is a crook, involved in the crime in some way, and one of them - the "least likely suspect" is the master criminal...regardless of the fact that since they are the criminal, most of their actions for the previous seven episodes are rendered incomprehensible!

If they were books instead of radio serials I'd throw them against the wall each time they came to the end!

But I like Coke and Westbury and their rapport.

And I'm now a fan of Simon Lack - for all that he's been dead for 30 years - and will shortly be doing a website tribute to him.