Warner's first
Shakespearean role was that of the Chief Fairy in a production of
The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by
Tyrone Guthrie in 1942. He appeared in
Peter Brook's productions of
Romeo and Juliet and ''
Love's Labour's Lost'' at the
Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1947. In the 1950s Warner spent some years at the
Bristol Old Vic when it regularly transferred productions to the
Old Vic. In 1951 he played Osric and Reynaldo to
Alec Guinness's
Hamlet at the
New Theatre in London. running for 2,283 performances to become the longest-running show in musical theatre history until overtaken by
My Fair Lady in the US (1956) and
Oliver! in the UK (1960). He appeared in
A Man of Distinction at the
New Theatre in 1957. He was the Vice-President of the Actors' Benevolent Fund. John Warner died of
heart attack on 19 May 2001 in
Canterbury, Kent aged 77. He never married. ==Filmography==