John Bardon (born John Michael Jones, 25 August 1939 – 12 September 2014) was an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1988 (1987 season) for Kiss Me, Kate, sharing the award with co-star Emil Wolk. He was best known for playing the patriarch of the Branning family, Jim Branning, in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, for 13 years from 1996 to 2011. Early life and amateur acting John Michael Jones was born in Brentford, Middlesex; his father was a shipping clerk who formerly ran a building business. "Bardon" was his grandmother's maiden name. His early acting experience was with a group called The Taverners, who played in pubs. He then appeared in productions by the Civil Service drama group, which toured theatres in Germany and Austria. Acting career Bardon became a professional actor in 1970 at the age of 30, joining a repertory company in Exeter. He may be best known for having played Jim Branning in EastEnders. His character, the father of established character Carol Jackson, first appeared briefly in 1996. The character of Jim returned to the series in 1999 and this time became a regular character, later marrying Dot Cotton (June Brown). Bardon filmed his final scenes for EastEnders in March 2011 after years of poor health. He also was a regular in Rumpole of the Bailey, as a member of the "clan Timson, a family of South London villains", as described by Rumpole. He had made notable guest appearances in Dad's Army in 1975 in the episode "Ring Dem Bells" (in addition to this, he played Private Walker in the 1975–76 stage adaptation of Dad's Army, as original television actor James Beck had died in 1973) and Are You Being Served? in 1976 in the episode "No Sale". He also starred in the British police drama The Sweeney, in which he played villain Doc Boyd in the episode "Faces", first broadcast on Monday 8 September 1975. In the same year, he also appeared as a bookmaker in the film One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. In 1978 he was cast as Del Rogers in G. F. Newman's Law and Order on BBC2. In 1980 he appeared in an episode of Hi-de-Hi!. In 1982 he appeared on Channel Four as legendary comedian Max Miller in Here's a Funny Thing in a reprise of the