James Cairncross, actor, was born on December 21, 1915. He died on December 17, 2009, aged 94.


James Cairncross came to prominence with the Bristol Old Vic from 1954 in a production of Salad Days, which transferred to the Vaudeville in London and enjoyed a 5.1/2 year run. Other West End credits included Leonard Bernstein’s production of his Broadway musical Candide (Saville 1959), the Slade-Reynolds musical Follow That Girl (Vaudeville 1960), and John Osbourne’s Luther (Royal Court and Phoenix 1961). He was Polonius and the First Gravedigger in Ian McKellen’s Hamlet (Cambridge 1971), Dr. Blenkinsop in The Docror’s Dilema (Mermaid 1975), and played several seasons of Shakespear in regents Park in the 1980’s. His television credits include Dr. Who, The Tempest, Small World, Edna, the Inebriate Woman; and Taggart. Film credits included The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Tom Jones and Mr. Trott in The Fool.

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