Jack Shepherd (29 October 1940 – 24 November 2025) was an English actor, playwright and theatre director. He was known for his television roles, most notably the title roles in Trevor Griffiths' political drama Bill Brand (1976), and the detective series Wycliffe (1993–1998). His film appearances included All Neat in Black Stockings (1969), Wonderland (1999) and The Golden Compass (2007). He won the 1983 Society of London Theatre Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play for the original production of Glengarry Glen Ross. He was also nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1977.
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Early life
Shepherd attended Roundhay School in Leeds and then studied fine art at King's College, Durham University (now the University of Newcastle upon Tyne). During his time in Newcastle he was an amateur actor with the People's Theatre. After gaining a BA he went on to study acting, first at the Central School of Speech and Drama and then as a student founder of the Drama Centre London. He was a talented musician too, playing in a jazz ensemble with fellow drama student, Jon Lord, later of Deep Purple and Whitesnake. Lord said of him in a 1982 interview, "In my early days I had a band with a lineup of piano, bass, drums, vibes, alto sax and clarinet so we were able to do some quite weird things. The alto sax player was Jack Shepherd, who later turned to acting. For me he was one of the best alto players and he introduced me to Charles Mingus and that school."
Career
Shepherd worked at the Royal Court Theatre from 1965 to 1969, making his first appearance on the London stage as an Officer of Dragoons in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance. In July 1967, he played Arnold Middleton in David Storey's The Restoration of Arnold Middleton, which transferred to the Criterion Theatre, a performance for which he received the Plays and Players London Critics' Award as most promising actor of the year. In 1969, he starred in the satirical comedy series World in Ferment.
During the 1970s, Shepherd appeared in many television dramas, including several appearances in the series Budgie (1971–72). In Ready When You Are, Mr McGill (1976), by Jack Rosenthal, he played a television director struggling to maintain his composure during a doomed location shoot, and in Trevor Griffiths's Thames TV series Bill Brand (also 1976), a radical Labour MP. Both performances gained Shepherd Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards. He appeared as Renfield in Count Dracula (1977), with Louis Jourdan in the title role.
Shepherd also spent the decade running a drama studio in Kentish Town, north London along with fellow actor Richard Wilson, and during that time became interested in scriptwriting. He devised several plays for the theatre including The Sleep of Reason, Real Time, Clapperclaw and Half Moon.
In 1972, Shepherd was a founding member, along with Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge, of the democratically run Actors' Company, playing Vasques in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Inspector of Police in Ruling the Roost (Edinburgh Festival and tour) and Okano in The Three Arrows at the Arts, Cambridge in October 1972. In December 1972, he played Ben in David Mercer's Let's Murder Vivaldi at The King's Head Theatre, and in January 1973 took the title role in Dracula at the Bush Theatre, also collaborating in the writing.
His television work in the 1970s included All Good Men, Through the Night and Occupations, all by Trevor Griffiths.
From 1977 to 1985, he was a member of Bill Bryden's Cottesloe Theatre Company at the National Theatre, playing Teach in American Buffalo, Judas in The Passion, Boamer in Lark Rise, Thomas Clarkeson in The World Turned Upside Down, Smitty in The Long Voyage Home, The Correspondent in Dispatches and Hickey in The Iceman Cometh. Shepherd originated the stage role of Richard Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Cottesloe in 1983, for which he received a Society of West End Theatre award (later known as the Laurence Olivier Awards) as Actor of the Year in a New Play.
Personal life and death
Shepherd married Judith Harland in 1965, and they had two children, Jan and Jake Shepherd. The couple later divorced. In 1975, he married film and television producer Ann Scott. They had three children together, Victoria, Catherine and Ben Shepherd.
Shepherd died in hospital on 24 November 2025 at the age of 85 following a short illness.
Plays
Plays by Jack Shepherd include:
The Incredible Journey of Sir Francis Younghusband (Royal Court Upstairs)
The Sleep of Reason (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh) 1973
Clapperclaw (BBC Two) 1981
Real Time (directed and devised with the Joint Stock Theatre Company) 1982
Revelations (Bridge Lane, London) 1983
In Lambeth (Partisan Theatre and Donmar Warehouse) 1989. Published by Methuen.
Comic Cuts (Derby Playhouse, Salisbury Theatre and Lyric Studio, Hammersmith) 1995
Chasing the Moment (Southwark Playhouse) 1994 and (BAC1 London) 1995 dir. Janos Bruck, (revived Arcola, Dalston) 2007 dir. Mehmet Ergen. Published by First Write
Half Moon (Southwark Playhouse) 1998
Through a Cloud (Birmingham Rep and Drum, Plymouth) 2004), revived Arcola) 2005. Published by Nick Hern Books.
Man Falling Down: A Mask Play (devised and co-written with Oliver Cotton, Shakespeare's Globe) 2005
Holding Fire! (Shakespeare's Globe) 2007. Published by Nick Hern Books
The Cutting Edge (Arcola Theatre, 2020)
Co-wrote with Keith Dewhurst Impossible Plays, an account of his years in Bill Bryden's Cottesloe Company at the National Theatre. Published by Methuen.
Publications
Impossible Plays: Adventures With the Cottesloe Company by Keith Dewhurst and Jack Shepherd, Methuen Drama (2006) ISBN 0-413-77585-2
