Alan Scarfe


Alan John Scarfe was a British–Canadian actor, stage director and author. He was an Associate Director of the Stratford Festival and the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.
Scarfe won the 1985 Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Bay Boy and earned two other Genie best actor nominations for Deserters and Overnight and a Gemini Award nomination for best actor in aka Albert Walker. He won a Jessie Award for best actor in 2005 for his performance in Trying at the Vancouver Playhouse. In 2006 he won the Jury Prize for best supporting actor at the Austin Fantastic Fest in The Hamster Cage and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle honorary award for lifetime achievement.

Early life

Scarfe was born in Harpenden, England to Gladys Ellen and Neville Vincent Scarfe, both university professors. Neville Scarfe was the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Education at UBC and served in that position from 1956 to 1973.

Career

Scarfe trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began his career as a classical stage actor. He has performed over 100 major roles in theatres across Europe, Canada and the United States, including King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Iago, Brutus, Cassius, Petruchio, Prospero, Cyrano de Bergerac, Doctor Faustus, Luther, Uncle Vanya, Verlaine, John Barrymore in Sheldon Rosen's Ned and Jack and Harras in Zuckmayer's The Devil's General. He is also a stage director whose productions have ranged from the works of Shakespeare to Albee, Brecht, Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Yevgeny Schwarz and Preston Jones.
Scarfe played NSA member Dr. Bradley Talmadge, the director of the Backstep Project operations, on the UPN series Seven Days. He also had guest roles as two separate Romulan characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Magistrate Augris in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Resistance". In 2003 he co-starred with his son Jonathan in Burn: The Robert Wraight Story.
After returning to Canada from Los Angeles in 2002, he began writing novels under the pseudonym Clanash Farjeon. The titles include A Handbook for Attendants on the Insane: the Autobiography of Jack the Ripper as Revealed to Clanash Farjeon, The Vampires of Ciudad Juarez, about the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs and the tragedy of 'las desaparecidas', The Vampires of 9/11, a political satire about America's blindness and inability to accept who the real culprits are, and the third book of the trilogy Vampires of the Holy Spirit completes the story in Rome during April 2005, the beginning of the papacy of Joseph Ratzinger. The first three can also be found in Italian under the titles Le Memorie di Jack lo Squartatore, I vampiri di Ciudad Juarez and I vampiri dell'11 settembre. In March 2014 Mosaic Press published The Autobiography of Jack the Ripper as revealed to Clanash Farjeon but this is no longer an approved edition. All four novels have now been republished, fully revised and without the pseudonym, by Smart House Books and have been retitled as The Revelation of Jack the Ripper, and the 'Carnivore Trilogy' as The Vampires of Juarez, The Demons of 9/11, and The Mask of the Holy Spirit.
The Vampires of Juarez was awarded the 2018 BIBA Star. The Revelation of Jack the Ripper won the 2019 BIBA. The Mask of the Holy Spirit won the 2020 BIBA for Satire.

Personal life and death

Scarfe has a son named Jonathan Scarfe who is also an actor and director. He was married to Barbara March from 1979 until her death from cancer in 2019. They had a daughter named Antonia Scarfe who is a musician and composer. Jonathan and Tosia collaborated on the short film Speak, Jonathan as director, Tosia as composer and performer of the title song, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the Short Category at Dances with Films in Los Angeles in 2001. He has two brothers; Colin Scarfe who was a professor of astronomy at the University of Victoria, and Brian Scarfe, who was a professor of economics at the University of Manitoba, University of Alberta, University of Regina, a senior university administrator at Alberta and Regina, and an Economics Consultant. Scarfe described himself as a lifelong atheist.
Scarfe died from colon cancer at his home in Longueuil, Quebec, on 28 April 2024, at the age of 77.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRole
1963The Bitter AshDes
1977Cathy's CurseGeorge Gimble
1982Murder by PhoneJohn Websole
1983The WarsCapt. Leather
1983DesertersSergeant Ulysses Hawley
1984The Bay BoySgt. Tom Coldwell
1984WallsRon Simmons
1985Joshua Then and NowJack Trimble
1985OvernightVladimir Jezda
1986Keeping TrackRoyle Wishart
1987Street JusticeEugene Powers
1988Iron Eagle IICol. Vardovsky
1989KingsgateDaniel Kingsgate
1990Divided LoyaltiesGeorge Washington
1991Double ImpactNigel Griffith
1992Lethal Weapon 3Herman Walters
1993The PortraitDavid Severn
1997Back in BusinessDavid Ashby
1997The Wrong GuyFarmer Brown
1997SilenceLawyer
1998SanctuaryWilliam Dyson
2005The Hamster CagePhil

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1983Will There Really Be a Morning?Doctor #3TV movie
1984The Littlest HoboDr. Richard Kellerman2 episodes
1985The Execution of Raymond GrahamThe GovernorTV movie
1986, 1989The Ray Bradbury TheaterMr. Nesbitt / John Oatis Kendall2 episodes
1987American PlayhouseDr. Jim BaylissEpisode: "All My Sons"
1988C.A.T. Squad: Python WolfBekkerTV movie
1989Day OneErnest LawrenceTV movie
1989HunterMilo1 episode
1989Alien NationDrevni1 episode
1989–1990Tour of DutyCol. Stringer5 episodes
1990Columbo Cries WolfSir Harry MatthewsTV movie
1990Jake and the FatmanJackson1 episode
1990MacGyverMajor Krik1 episode
1991The OwlHutchinsTV movie
1991Mimi & MeTV movie
1991Quantum LeapDr. Mason Crane1 episode
1991Star Trek: The Next GenerationAdmiral MendakEpisode: "Data's Day"
1993Star Trek: The Next GenerationTokathEpisode: "Birthright, Part II"
1993CounterstrikeLord ShefieldEpisode: "Bad Guys"
1993NYPD BlueThomas Wagner2 episodes
1993Jericho FeverKlaus BausenTV movie
1994Gunsmoke: One Man's JusticeSean DevlinTV movie
1994Heart of DarknessCaptain FenardTV movie
1994HighlanderCraig Webster1 episode
1994Without WarningGeneral Lucian AlexanderTV movie
1995Star Trek: VoyagerAugrisEpisode: "Resistance"
1996GridlockMartin JossTV movie
1996John Woo's Once a ThiefRobertson GravesTV movie
1997The Burning ZoneThe Coordinator1 episode
1997, 1998The Outer LimitsDr. Royce / Montgomery Bennett2 episodes
1998Due SouthWilson Warfield1 episode
1998–2001Seven DaysDr. Bradley TalmadgeMain cast
2002The Many Lives of Albert WalkerPaul MorrowTV movie
2004Kingdom HospitalHenry Havens8 episodes
2004Stargate AtlantisChancellor Druhin1 episode
2004EarthseaArch MagusTV miniseries
2004–2005AndromedaFlavin3 episodes
2007Babylon 5: The Lost TalesFather CassidyTV movie