Rip Johnny Briggs (Actor)

[onthebusesfan]

He Starred In Two Carry On Films, A Episode Of On The Buses, And Most Famous For His Role As Mike Baldwin In Coronation Street.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56229247

[George 1978]

Great actor - as Mike Baldwin,. the character always seemed to be portrayed as being the richest character in the series amongst characters who were prominently working class, especially within his factory workforce - (I believe that the actress who played Shirley Armitage is the only surviving Baldwin's Factory character actress still alive?)

His London-born sub-Max Bygraves personality made him unique. He is not to be confused with the CBBC series Jonny Briggs from the 1990s - his name does sound like a stage name. I read on Corriepedia that Baldwin wasn't Briggs' first character that he played in Corrie - I think that he also played a one episode wonder character a couple of years earlier as a delivery driver or something like that. He had a couple of Baldwin catchphrases such as "packet of my cigars" if he was in the Corner Shop, Kabin or the Rovers, and he liked his wines as well. And he had a novelty hit with his screen wife Amands Barrie at Christmas 1995 with a coiver version of the Sinatra hit Something Stupid.


Briggs was also in one or two Carry On Films - I believe he was also in a PIF as well (one of those "Before they were famous" clips shows had a few seconds of it), and Coronation Street wasn't the first soap opera he appeared in - just before Corrie he had a stint in Crossroads as Cliff Layton. I saw him in an On the Buses episode (which I am sure the OP would identify!), and he was in the 1972 Bless This House film as a removal man (premiered on ITV the day after I was born!)

What was it about Coronation Street and the interchangeable surnames of Barlow and Baldwin? Ken and Mike were at loggerheads for years, the Deirdre affair of 1983 and of course, Alma and Maggie Redman - ironic that Mavis and Derek were played by actors also called Barlow and Baldwin as well!

He was someone who looked young for his age and so one would feel that he would have a long life - saying that, 85 these days isn't too bad.

[beccabear67]

Aw. I know the Mike Baldwin character has been gone for quite awhile now but he was definitely memorable! I did see Briggs in a movie or two from before he joined t'street.

[George 1978]

Wasn't he in The Great Escape as well? - someone a few years back mentioned he was in that film.