John Michael Bird, an English actor, and humorist was born on November 22, 1936, and passed away on December 24, 2022.
His appearances on television frequently included John Fortune. John Michael Bird was born in the Nottingham suburb of Bulwell, where his father ran a small chemist’s shop. He failed his 11-plus, but his secondary modern headmaster was able to get him transferred to High Pavement Grammar School at the age of 12.
In 1956 he passed the entrance exam for King’s College, Cambridge, where he read English and stayed for postgraduate studies, with a thesis on “European Drama 1888-1914”.
He met fellow King’s student John Fortune while attending Cambridge. With his appearances in That Was The Week That Was (1962 and 1963), a television satire series he created, Bird rose to fame during the 1960s television satire boom. Ned Sherrin originally planned Bird to play David Frost in the series, but she had other commitments. Additionally, from 1964 to 1965, he made appearances on the television shows If It Moves File It and Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1970).
John Bird’s children: Who are his two sons?
Bird was married to Ann Stockdale from 1965 to 1970; she was the daughter of Grant Stockdale, the US Ambassador to Ireland from 1961 to 1962. From 1975 to 1978, he was married to television presenter Bridget Simpson, from whom he divorced in 1978. He was unhappy in his personal life, and his career was stalled; he began drinking heavily and abusing amphetamines. By the mid-1970s, he was seriously ill, paranoid, and contemplating suicide.
He began living with pianist and teacher Libby Crandon in 1978, and the two later married.
He had two stepsons from her previous marriage. Bird lived in Newdigate, Surrey.
