Biography for
David Jason (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

2 February 1940, Edmonton, London, England, UK

Birth Name

David John White

Height

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

David Jason was born in Edmonton, London, in 1940. He has become one of Britain's most famous and respected actors. He is a versatile actor who is most famously known for his role in "Only Fools and Horses...." (1981) as Del Boy. He made his debut as DelBoy back in 1981 and was still playing the same role up to the Christmas special in 2002. His big break came in the 1967 children's comedy show "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967) starring alongside members of the Monty Python team: Terry Jones; Eric Idle, and Michael Palin.

Sadly, in 1990, he spent time away from work to nurse Myfanwy Talog, the Welsh actress who was his long time partner, before she died of cancer at the age of 49. He has come a long way from his days as an electrician and has won numerous awards for his work. He has managed to combine the comedy aspect of his career with rather more serious roles, such as that of Jack Frost in the highly-rated detective Series "A Touch of Frost" (1992) and has proved that he is a man of many talents. In the mid 1970s, he was convincingly made up as Blanco, an elderly prisoner, in episodes of "Porridge" (1974) with Ronnie Barker. He has also done voice work in children's TV.

He has not really concentrated on films, although he was very impressive in the TV film, All the King's Men (1999) (TV) in 1999, playing Frank Beck, the Commander of the Sandringham Company who mysteriously disappeared whilst in action in The Great War campaign in Gallipoli in 1915.

He currently lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Gill Hinchcliffe and their daughter, Sophie Mae, who was born in 2001. His hobbies are a little DIY and gardening.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Hasselbaink007

Spouse

Gill Hinchcliffe

(30 November 2005 - present) 1 child

Trivia

Younger brother of actor Arthur White, who appears in many episodes of "A Touch of Frost" (1992) with him.

Became a father for the first time at age 61, when his partner of 4 years, Gill Hinchcliffe (41) gave birth to a daughter, Sophie Mae. [26 February 2001]

Worked as a self-employed electrician before becoming an actor, initially in the theatre and later moving to television.

Did not find out until age 14 that he had a twin brother who had died at birth.

He was considered for the role of Corporal Jones in the BBC series "Dad's Army" (1968), which eventually went to Clive Dunn.

Received two awards at the British Television Awards. He got the awards for "Britain's Best Actor" and "Britain's Best Comedy Actor".

After discovering that there was already a "David White" registered with Equity, he took the name "David Jason". It has long and popularly been rumoured that the name "Jason" came from his twin brother who had died in infancy. This is incorrect. His twin brother died without being named, and he chose "David Jason" as his stage name from his favourite film at the time Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

Knighted in the Queen Elizabeth II's Birthday Honours. He collected the award from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 1 December 2005, having secretly married his long-term partner Gill Hinchcliffe at the Dorchester Hotel in London the day before. [2005]

He was awarded an O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of British Empire) for his services to drama.

Bob Monkhouse was enthusiastic about David Jason's comic potential and attempted to put together a pilot film for him called "Jason" in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

Personal Quotes

"I've been fascinated by deep sea diving since watching 'Jacques Cousteau''s TV programmes as a lad".

"Marriage is like throwing yourself into a river when you only wanted a drink of water".

I've never ever 'felt my age', whatever that means. I think that there are a lot of people who feel 22 when in fact they're 62, and there are a lot of youngsters out there who behave as if they were four times their age. It's an attitude of mind, isn't it?

"I've done my fair share of waiting on tables in restaurants, cleaning cars, whatever. I was even an electrician at one time, and I've done my fair bit of decorating, too. But slowly my fortunes changed".

"It was a long time before TV wanted me - I would have had to commit murder to get a part on the box at one time".

"Perhaps being a character actor on radio was, in retrospect, the best training I could get".

When you had just three and then four channels, I could always find something that was watchable because the standard of TV was much higher. In those days they had so much more money to put into so many less programmes. I feel sorry for ITV, who are finding it difficult because of the recession and lack of advertising and they're in a bit of a spiral. One thing follows the other, of course, and if you don't have advertising revenue, you can't put it into programmes, so you end up with the shows that will generate the most ads, like "The X Factor" (2004) and "Britain's Got Talent" (2007). Personally, I'm not sure if I like those shows, but other people do, so I suppose, from ITV's point of view, it's good programming. But I'm an actor and so of course I want to see TV companies making good dramas. I want that to be a priority.

A show like the "Only Fools and Horses...." (1981) Christmas special got 24 million viewers, so practically everyone in the country was watching. But of course it's a different world now, with so many channels. And those kind of figures are really difficult to achieve. It doesn't help that channels try to split the audience by putting their best shows head-to-head. Recently the BBC moved "Strictly Come Dancing" (2004) to compete with "The X Factor" (2004) which, quite rightly, annoyed a lot of people. Why play silly buggers with the audience, especially in the case of the BBC, who don't need to do it at all? In the end the motive is just plain power hunger and empire-building and it's unnecessary; it doesn't serve the audience.

When I worked with Ronnie Barker, who was very well known himself at the time, I always remember him saying, 'You don't have to be a shit to be a big star, David.' I've always tried to remember that.

When we did "Only Fools and Horses...." (1981), it was a five-day week. You'd rehearse for four days and record on a Sunday, but it was much more laid back. "The Royal Bodyguard" (2011) has been extremely intensive. I think that's because today's budgets are so tight, not just at the BBC, but for everybody. It's been really hard work.

Salary

All the King's Men (1999) (TV)	250,000 pounds (UK)
"Only Fools and Horses...." (1981)	$69,000