David Mervyn Johns (né John; 18 February 18996 September 1992) was a Welsh stage, film and television character actor who became a star of British films during the Second World War. After training in Camden and Primrose Hill, Johns began his career in repertory theatre in 1923. He made his screen debut with Lady in Danger in 1934 and went on to become an indelible part of British wartime cinema, with starring roles in such films as Saloon Bar (1940), The Next of Kin (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Halfway House (1944), Twilight Hour (1945), and Dead of Night (1945). In the postwar era, he worked regularly at Ealing Studios, first with starring roles in such films as They Knew Mr. Knight (1946), The Captive Heart (1946), Captain Boycott (1947), and Easy Money (1948), and later guest appearances on televised plays and anthology series, including his final role in BBC One's 1979 detective fiction drama series Shoestring as the Reverend James Appleby. Johns was the father of acclaimed actress Glynis Johns, and the grandfather of actor Gareth Forwood. Early life David Mervyn John was born on 18 February 1899 in Pembroke, Wales. The John family owned Glan Morlais Uchaf, a farm, and the surrounding land near Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire. He was a brother of Oxford academic Howard Johns, who became the rector of Pusey and Weston-on-the-Green, and an uncle of judge John Geoffrey Jones. Due to its growing reputation, Johns' parents enrolled him at Llandovery College, an independent boarding school styled the "Eton of Wales". While there, he was on the school's cricket and rugby teams. Upon leaving, he initially wanted to become a doctor of medicine and attended London Hospital, where he trained as a medical student. While there, he met concert pianist Alyce Steele (born Alice Maude Steele-Wareham), who was studying at the Royal Academy of Music. She persuaded him to pursue a career in drama and on her advice, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. They married on 17 November 1922 in St Giles, London, and began touring with her family's theatre company. While touring South Africa on 23 October 1923, their only child, Glynis Margaret Payne Johns was born; she would later become the fourth generation in her mother's family to act on stage. They returned to the United Kingdom and Mervyn re-enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he