While studying art in his native London, John Abbott relaxed
between classes by watching rehearsals of a student play.
When one of the actors fell ill, Abbott was invited to
replace him, and at that point he switched majors. He became
a professional actor in 1934, joined the Old Vic in 1936,
and made his first film, Mademoiselle Docteur, in 1937;
later that same year he made his first BBC television
appearance. Turned down for military service during World
War II, Abbott joined the Foreign Office, working as a
decoder in the British Embassy in Stockholm and working in
similar capacities in Russia and Canada. In 1941, he took a
vacation in New York, leaving his resume and photo with
various producers, just in case something turned up. On the
very last day of his vacation, he was hired for a small role
in Josef Von Sternberg's The Shanghai Gesture (1941), thus
launching the Hollywood phase of his career. Generally cast
as a fussy eccentric, Abbott was seen at his very best as
whining hypochondriac Frederick Fairlie in Warner Bros.'
The Woman in White (1948). He also received at least one
bonafide starring role in the 1943 quickie London Blackout
Murders. In the late 1940s, Abbott began amassing some
impressive Broadway credits in such productions as He Who
Gets Slapped, Monserrat and Waltz of the Toreadors. He also
appeared in 1950's Auto da Fe, which was specifically
written for him by Tennessee Williams. Though still active
in films and TV into the 1980s (he played Dr. Frankenstein
in the ill-fated 1984 cinemadaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's
Slapstick), John Abbott spent most of his twilight years as
an acting teacher. Abbott died in a Los Angeles hospital on
May 24, 1996 after a prolonged illness.