James Beck, born Stanley James Carroll Beck, (21 February 1929 — 6 August 1973), was a British actor best known for playing Private Walker in Dad's Army.
After doing his national service in the British Army, he started a career in acting, first on stage and then moving to TV. Some of his first TV roles came in episodes of Dr. Finlay's Casebook and The Merchant of Venice. From 1964-67 he played Seargent Bowden in Coronation Street, making from one to three appearances in the soap a year in this time.
When Dad's Army was being cast in 1968, Jimmy Perry had hoped to play the spiv Private Walker in addition to his writing duties but was talked out of the role by his producer and co-writer, David Croft. Beck was cast due to having, as Perry said he had, "the right mix of cheekiness and charm".
While starring in Dad's Army, he also starred in Romany Jones as Bert Jones, a layabout living on a caravan site, and filmed a Pilot with his DA co-star, Arthur Lowe, called Bunclarke With an E, which was based on scripts from Hancock's Half Hour.
He fell into a coma and died from a tragic combination of heart failure, renal failure, and pancreatitis at the age of 44. As for what was to happen to Beck's three aforementioned series, the final two episodes of Dad's Army's sixth series had to be quickly rewritten to explain Private Walker's absence, Romany Jones gained a new lead in the form of Jonathan Cecil's Jeremy Crichton-Jones, and Bunclarke With an E went unproduced.
Works on TV Tropes he appeared in:
Films- Carry On Loving (1970) — Mr. Roxby (Deleted Role)
- Dad's Army (1971) — Private Joe Walker
- Dixon of Dock Green, 6 episodes:
- "New Man in the Manor" (1961) — Geoff Bastin
- "Outside the Gates" (1962) — Bert Mason
- "The Switch" (1963) — Don
- "Facing the Music" (1964) — Jim Carter
- "Other People's Lives" (1965) — Tommy Preston
- "The Step-Brother" (1967) — Gordon
- Z Cars, episode "The Five Whistles" (1962) — Constable
- Coronation Street, 8 episodes (1964-67) — Sergeant Bowden
- All Gas and Gaiters, episode "The Bishop Rides Again" (1966) — Policeman
- Foreign Affairs, 2 episodes:
- "Can We Have Our Ball Back?" (1966) — Waiter
- "The Leak" (1966) — Burke
- Dad's Army, 59 episodes:
- 59 episodes (1968-73) — Private Joe Walker
- "The Two and a Half Feathers" (1970) — Private Green
- Doctor in the House, episode "What Seems to Be the Trouble?" (1970) — Mr. Wale
- Jackanory, episode "Humbert, Mr Firkin, and the Lord Mayor of London/The Golden Horse" (1970) — Storyteller
- The Trouble With You Lilian, episode "The Presence" (1971) — Man
