A versatile and successful British actor, John Thaw worked in television, theater, and cinema. But the small screen guaranteed him almost continual employment throughout his exceptional career.

After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, at a 1960 stage debut he was "discovered" and promoted by Granada TV. His first TV outing was in 1961; after that he took the lead role in an impressive array of series. He had parts ranging from The Avengers to Z Cars, and the lead in the series Redcap before his big break in The Sweeney ( 1974-78), a landmark in the police-action genre. Thaw played rough-mannered detective Jack Regan of the Flying Squad. The Sweeney was described as a U.S.­ influenced imitation of West Coast shows, and was prominent in debates about the levels of violence and bad language on television, being criticized for glamorizing guns and car chases. Its superiority over standard violent fare, however, owed much to Thaw's performance, along with the growing rapport between his and Dennis Waterman's characters and the show's constant originality.

For years after The Sweeney, Thaw found it difficult to throw off the Jack Regan image, but in 1987 he began another long-running detective series for which he is perhaps best known. Inspector Morse was remarkably popular with critics and audiences internationally. Its ITV ratings in Britain were second only to those of Coronation Street. Again, the show owed much of its success to Thaw's central performance, for which he twice won a British Academy of Film and Television Award (BAFTA). He held together Morse's eccentricities, as the irascible, world-weary, and introspective crossword and classical-music lover. Julian Mitchell, writer of several episodes of Morse, saw Thaw as the consummate TV actor: "His technique is perfect, and by seeming to do very little he conveys so much." In this way he suggested hidden depths to Morse, and conveyed his troubled morality. The tranquility and gentle English manner associated with Morse were a far cry from The Sweeney, and it gained fans as an an­tidote to violent American television.

Audiences were accustomed to Thaw's downbeat manner in gloomy roles, but he claimed to prefer doing comedy. He played the lead in the sitcom Home to  Roost, appeared  with  Sweeney  partner Waterman in  the  1976 Morecambe  and  Wise  Christmas Show, and starred in the widely derided A Year in Provence, which lost a record 10 million viewers during one series.

Despite this, Thaw remained a very bankable star. Kavanagh QC, a part written especially for him after Provence, was another big hit. He was back on familiar territory as a barrister reconciling principle and his working-class roots with a lucrative law practice.

Thaw saw himself as a "jobbing actor, no different from a plumber." Part of his success may have been a result of his ability to play everyman roles that people could relate to easily. Despite a distinctly un classical repertoire, he continued to act on stage whenever his busy TV career allowed, latterly in "special guest star" roles. He also appeared in several feature films, including two Sweeney films, and Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom (1987). John Thaw died on February 21, 2002.