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Simon Lack Chronological Biography
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19 December 1915
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Alexander Macalpine, who will be called Sandy by family and friends, is born in Cleland, Scotland. (Note, some sources say he was born in 1917.)
His parents are Alexander and Euphemia Macalpine.
He goes to school at Eastbank Academy, in Glasgow (which is about 30 miles from Cleland). Eastbank Academy is still in existsnce.
Cleland
Cleland is a small village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The two nearest towns are Wishaw and Motherwell. By train, it is a 30 minute journey to to Glasgow and an hour to Edinburgh.
The village has a strong mining heritage and is a typical example of a working class village in North Lanarkshire and the Glasgow area. Due to its location, despite being at the heart of North Lanarkshire, the village is very much removed, geographically and culturally, from surrounding towns such as Wishaw, Motherwell and Shotts.
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1935-1937
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Simon Lack joins the Brandon-Thomas Repertory Company, which performs plays in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
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20 |
1938
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Stage
Simon Lack makes his West End (London) debut in James Bridie’s The Last Trump at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
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23 |
1939
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Movies
Simon Lack acts in the movie Shadow of Death, which will be released in 1939. He works, in an uncredited role as Wainwright, in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, released in 1939. He works, in a co-starring role, as Philip Hyde in Sons of the Sea, also released in 1939.
Stage
On stage, he has a "brief and poignant scene" as the dead airman, reappearing in his mother’s memory, in J.B.Priestley’s Music at Night at the Westminster Theatre.
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24 |
1940
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Movies
Simon works in a co-starring role as Emlyn Parly in The Proud Valley opposite Paul Robeson, released in 1940. He also works in Just William as Robert Brown, released in 1940. |
25 |
1940 - 1947
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Simon joins the Army and serves in the Lancashire Fusiliers and The Buffs for seven years. He is mentioned in dispatches. |
25-32 |
1947
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Simon Lack returns from the war.
Movies
He works in the role of Don in his sixth movie, and first since 1940, Silver Darlings, released in 1947. |
32 |
1954
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Television
Simon appears in two episodes of BBC Sunday-Night Theatre.
15 August, 1954: Troilus and Cressida - as Paris
19 September, 1954: The Promised Years #4: Return to the River - as Kent
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39 |
1955
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Radio
Simon appears in his first Paul Temple radio mystery serial, as Chris Boyer in Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery, an 8-part serial starring Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury that is now lost. It aired in June and July of 1955, and was a remake of a previous Paul Temple serial that had starred Kim Peacock as Temple. [Simon will go on to appear in 8 Paul Temple serials, either as police officer, red herring, or killer.] |
40 |
1956
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Movies
Simon works on his seventh movie, and his first since 1947, in an uncredited role in Port of Escape released in 1956. |
41 |
1960
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Movies
Simon works on his eight movie, and his first in four years, as Jock in The Clue of the Twisted Candle. He also works in his ninth movie, as the Navigator in Trouble in the Sky. |
45 |
1961
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Movies
Simon appears in his tenth movie, as Sergeant Philips in the short, Wings of Death . He appears in his eleventh movie, in a small role as Flight Lt. Baldwin in the movie Operation Snafu . And he appears in a small role in his twelfth movie, The Court Martial of Major Keller
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46 |
1962
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Movies
Simon appears in his thirteenth movie, The Durant Affair, as Roland Farley. He also appears in an uncredited role as Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory in The Longest Day.
Radio
On March 31, 1962, Simon appears in the radio play Exclusive To The 'Argus' by Gale Pedrick.
On October 3, 1962 he appears in Headline Family, by B.M. Girvin Cosens
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47 |
1969
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Movies
In this year, Simon appears in his fourtheenth movie, in a small role as the First Officer in The Bushbaby. |
54 |
1970
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Movies
Simon has a small role in his fifteenth movie, All at Sea . He also has a role as Colonel Vickers in the Joan Crawford movie Trog .
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55 |
1971
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Movies
Simon appears in his sixteenth and final movie, Night After Night After Night as Endell's Q.C. |
56 |
6 August, 1980
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Simon Lack dies. |
65 |
Below is an appreciation of Lack published in The Times on August 12.
| Mr. Simon Lack, the actor, who died on August 6, had a steady career that began, appropriately enough for a Scot, in the Brandon-Thomas repertory companies at Edinburgh and Glasgow during the season of 1935-37. Born at Cleland on December 19, 1917, son of Alexander and Euphemia Macalpine, he was educated at Eastland Academy, Glasgow.
Reasonably, too, his first West End part, confidently managed, was also a Scot, the Glasgow financier’s son, part of a slight love interest, in [James] Bridie’s The Last Trump (Duke of York’s, 1938). In the following year he had the brief and poignant scene of the dead airman, reappearing in his mother’s memory, in [J.B.]Priestley’s Music at Night (Westminster). Later for six years he was out of the theatre, serving with The Lancashire Fusiliers and The Buffs (and being mentioned in dispatches.)
Reappearing on the stage in 1946 [at age 29], he found an odd variety of of plays and parts: David in H.P. Templeton’s You Won’t Need the Halo (Arts), set in a London mission-hall; another David in Peter Yates’ The Assassin, a bold attempt at a verse tragedy in the grand manner (Lyric, Hammersmith); Gilbert in Jane, S. N. Behrman’s version of a story by [Somerset] Maugham (Aldwych, 1947); and Sextus in Cage Me A Peacock, a musical (Strand, 1947) set in classical Rome.
He had a long run as an amiably sympathetic young man in [Noel] Coward’s Relative Values (Savoy, 1951); and at various times played one of the undergraduates in Charley’s Aunt, and the elder son in Enid Bagnold’s The Chinese Prime Minister (Globe, 1965), besides his work out of London and in films.
He also made a number of television appearances and had been seen recently in Enemy at the Door and Telford’s Change. He had a part, too, in the new BBC television production The Borgias.
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