He was the working class boy from Manchester whose intensity and natural honesty made him British television's most bankable actor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first starring role on TV was as Sgt John Mann in _"Redcap" simply described him as the country's finest screen actor.
Winner of 2 BAFTA awards for Best TV Actor in "Inspector Morse" (1989 and 1992) and nominee for the same series in 1990 & 1991.
He was awarded the CBE in the 1993 Queens New Year Honours List for his services to drama.
(June 2001) Treated for cancer of the oesophagus. His wife, Sheila Hancock, is a breast cancer survivor.
Broke his foot in his teens when he tripped while running for a school bus. This left him with a slight limp that is noticeable in some scenes of the Inspector Morse series.
Married Sheila Hancock on 24 December 1973 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
When he married Hancock he decided to officially adopt her daughter Melanie, from her first marriage to Alec Ross, which is why she bears Thaws surname.
He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His favourite episodes of "Inspector Morse" were "The Dead of Jericho", "Masonic Mysteries" and "Promised Land".
He performed with the National Theatre.
He lived quietly in an 18th century manor house in Wiltshire, England.
His most famous roles on British TV were all as straight-talking, no-nonsense characters: Jack Regan, Inspector Morse and James Kavanagh.
Father of actress Abigail Thaw , born 1967, (with first wife Sally Alexander ) and Joanna Thaw , born 1974, (with second wife Sheila Hancock ), and adopted father of Melanie Thaw , born 1964 (Sheila Hancocks daughter by her first marriage).
Thaw was a fan of classical music ever since he was a young man.
Younger brother, Ray, was born November 15, 1944. He died in 2004.
His mother Dorothy (Dolly) walked out on the family when he was 7 years old. He did not see her again for 12 years when she showed up briefly back stage in a production of "The Fire Raisers." He never saw her again. She died of stomach cancer in 1974.
Began at age 11 performing in school plays. In one of them he appeared as Mistress Quickly in "Henry V."
Was Laurence Olivier s understudy in the stage production of "Semi-Detached" and later stepped into the part for a week due to Oliviers problem with gout.
His first stage role was at Green End Junior School in Manchester, England as Uncle Joseph, the leading part in "Where the Rainbow Ends" .
Was accepted by RADA in 1958 when he was two years underage. Thaw was told to say he was 19 if anyone asked.
Started smoking when he was twelve.
I get to work with some of the finest actors around.
I was born looking fifty.
[on the death of Inspector Morse]: All good things come to an end. I am,proud to have done it. When I saw him (Morse) dead I had a mental,flashback of the fifteen years that we had been doing it. All the,stories, all the various locations and the different actors and it all,ends with a dead human being in the morgue. But in a way I think it is,a good thing he died rather than driving off into the Oxford sunset.
