John Bentley (Wikipedia)

John Bentley was a British film actor who appeared in the 1970s as Hugh Mortimer, Meg Richardson’s ill-fated new husband in the soap opera Crossroads. He also starred in the jungle adventure series African Patrol (1957) as Chief Inspector Paul Derek and made various other guest appearances.

John Bentley was well known to cinema-goers in the 1950s, generally in the role of a detective/policeman/official, mainly in “B” films. He was also an accomplished singer and stage actor.

Born in Sparkhill, Birmingham, in 1916, Bentley was brought up by his mother after his father, a furniture retailer, died when he was a toddler. He arrived in acting quite by chance, in his own words:

As a result of singing for Webster, he was given the joint leading role in a radio musical, backed by the BBC Midland Orchestra and Chorus. He worked for Radio Luxembourg in the late 1930s as an announcer, and in 1940 made his West End stage debut in the variety show New Faces at the Comedy Theatre with Judy Campbell and Charles Hawtrey (of Carry On… fame).