Richard Shaw (actor)


Richard Shaw was an English actor remembered for appearing in the science fiction franchises Quatermass and Doctor Who. He also had a recurring role as henchman Ryan in the children's series Freewheelers. He was a regular face on British TV networks BBC and ITV. Shaw played many supporting roles, mostly British crime films, through the 50s, 60s and 70s. He locked the bunker, full of Nazis and their families, before it was filled with gasoline and grenades were dropped in during the last scenes of the Second World War movie The Dirty Dozen.
During the latter part of his career, in 1980, he played the love interest of both Bet Lynch and Elsie Tanner, Dan Johnson, in the UK soap opera Coronation Street. He appeared in the 1959 BBC TV serial of Quatermass and the Pit playing drill operator Sladden. The series was remastered and rereleased by the BBC in 2018. He was asked to reprise the role in the 1967 film adaptation but was unable to do so due to other commitments. Duncan Lamont was therefore cast instead. Shaw made three appearances in Doctor Who: The Space Museum, Frontier in Space and Underworld.
He was a regular face on BBC and ITV series over four decades. Amongst the other television shows Richard Shaw appeared in were Ghost Squad, Richard the Lionheart, Villains, Circle of Deception, The Wednesday Play, ITV Play of the Week, BBC Sunday-Night Play, Steptoe and Son, Sykes and a..., The Saint, Biggles, Sunday Night Theatre, The Flying Doctor, The Troubleshooters, Emergency Ward 10, Clochemerle, King of the River, Crossroads, Softly, Softly, Please Sir!, Man from Interpol, Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond, Pathfinders, The Capone Investment, Softly, Softly: Task Force, Barlow at Large, The Hanged Man, The Onedin Line, The Famous Five, The Sandbaggers, Robin's Nest, George and Mildred, and Matlock.

Personal life

Born in Brazil, Shaw was raised in the Jewish community of Whitechapel, East London, to a Latvian father and Polish mother. Shaw changed his surname in his late teens and adopted the acting name Richard. He started his career as an adagio dancer, going on to become a weightlifter and ballroom dancer plus worked as a motor mechanic and served in the British military during World War II before beginning his acting career.
On 12 September 1959, Shaw married beauty queen Marilyn Davies in Surrey. Afterwards, they had two sons: Richard Ian and Darren.
In 1966, Shaw had a daughter, Donna, with another beauty queen, Carol Crompton. Early the following year, his wife filed for divorce because of his adultery, winning custody of their two children. Shaw and Crompton were subsequently married in 1971.