Biography

John Cairney made his stage debut at the Park Theatre, Glasgow, before enrolling at the RSAMD in Glasgow. After graduation, he joined the Wilson Barrett Company as Snake in 'The School for Scandal'. A season at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre followed before going on to the Bristol Old Vic where he appeared in the British premiere of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible'. He returned to the Citizens from time to time, most notably as Hamlet in 1960. He also appeared in the premiere of John Arden's 'Armstrong's Last Goodnight' in 1964.

Other stage work until 1991 included King Humanitie in 'The Thrie Estaites' for Tyrone Guthrie at the Edinburgh Festival, Archie Rice in 'The Entertainer' at Dundee (1972), as the title character in 'Cyrano de Bergerac' at Newcastle (1974), Becket in 'Murder in the Cathedral' at the Edinburgh Festival of 1986 and 'Macbeth' in the same Festival in 1989. He also wrote and appeared in his own productions of 'An Edinburgh Salon', 'At Your Service', 'The Ivor Novello Story' and 'A Mackintosh Experience" while continuing to tour the world in his solo 'The Robert Burns Story'. His affiliation with Robert Burns began in 1965 with Tom Wright's solo play 'There Was A Man' at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and at the Arts Theatre, London. The solo was televised twice nationally and was also an album recording for REL Records, Edinburgh, as well as a video for Green Place Productions, Glasgow. From Burns he moved on to other solos on William McGonagall, Robert Service and Robert Louis Stevenson until he worked with New Zealand actress Alannah O'Sullivan at the Edinburgh Festival of 1978. They married in 1980. As Two For A Theatre they toured the world for P&O Cruises and the British Council as well as the Keedick Lecture Bureau, New York, with programmes on Byron, Wilde and Dorothy Parker until 1986.

Cairney's first film was Intelligence service (1957) for the Rank Organisation, followed by Alerte en extrême orient (1957), L'épopée dans l'ombre (1959), La victime (1961), Jason et les Argonautes (1963), Cléopâtre (1963), Les pirates du diable (1964) and Sherlock Holmes contre Jack l'Éventreur (1965), among others. His many television parts include Branwell Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert the Bruce, and featured in such television series as Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962), Destination danger (1964), Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (1961), Jackanory (1965), Elizabeth R (1971), Taggart (1983), and as Ian Craig in the BBC2's This Man Craig (1966). Also, he wrote and recorded his own songs for EMI at Abbey Road.

As a writer, he published 'Worlds Apart', 'A Scottish Football Hall of Fame', 'Heroes Are Forever', and 'A Year Out In New Zealand'. He wrote three books about Robert Burns for Luath Press (Edinburgh) as well as biographies of R.L. Stevenson and C.R. Mackintosh and a book of essays on Glasgow ('Glasgow by the Way, But'). 'Flashback Forward' was published for Random House (New Zealand), and his book on acting, 'Greasepaint Monkey', was due for publication by Luath Press, Edinburgh in 2010.

Cairney earned a Master of Letters degree from Glasgow University for a "History of Solo Theatre" in 1988 and, in 1994, a PhD from Victoria University, Wellington, NZ, for his study of Stevenson and Theatre. Having spent 17 years in New Zealand, John and Alannah returned to live in Scotland.

- IMDb mini biography by: John Cairney