Welsh actor Gareth Jones died of a heart attack during a live television broadcast of ITV's Armchair Theatre on November 30, 1958, and the rest of the cast unknowingly continued the performance. He posthumously holds the Guinness World Record for being the 'first actor to die on live TV'.
Tragic irony in 'Underground'
Jones, from Lampeter, Wales, was about 33 at the time, though his exact age remains unverified. He was performing in the live play Underground, in which his character, businessman Carl Norman, was supposed to suffer from a weak heart and have a heart attack. The irony of life imitating art was noted in media reports.
Armchair Theatre was an anthology drama series broadcast on ITV from 1956 to 1974, produced by Sydney Newman, co-creator of the original 1963 Doctor Who, between 1958 and 1962. Jones had previously appeared in three other Armchair Theatre plays in 1958. Underground was directed by William 'Ted' Kotcheff and set in a tube station following a nuclear attack.
Cast and crew recall the incident
The cast travelled to ABC Studios in Didsbury, Manchester, on Friday, November 28, with rehearsals held on Saturday and most of Sunday before the live broadcast at 10.05pm. The Daily Express was told by an unnamed actor that Jones 'did not look well' before they began, and that he was 'quiet, but I thought he was concentrating on his part'. The Daily Mail reported Jones had 'complained of feeling unwell, but was determined to carry on' during rehearsals.
The play progressed into the second of three acts when tragedy struck. Fellow actor Peter Bowles told The Guardian: "During transmission a little group of us was talking on camera while awaiting the arrival of Gareth Jones's character, who had some information for us. We could see him coming up towards us and he was going to arrive on cue, but we saw him drop, we saw him fall. We could see people tending to him."
Producer Sydney Newman later recounted that Jones "took his turn to be made-up, and whilst the girl was slapping on the make-up, he said that he felt sick." Jones reportedly took a sip of brandy from a flask, told make-up girl Miss Lee Halls he didn't 'feel well', and blamed it on 'perhaps just the nerves'. He then collapsed in the chair.
Live broadcast continues amid chaos
Director Ted Kotcheff said: "Halfway through act two, in the background of one of the sets, I saw a body being carried by two men. I cried out to the assistant director to clear the set. The make-up girl came running into our control room where I was, crying out to me that while she was applying black smudges to Gareth Jones's face, he had fainted and fallen face forward onto her makeup tray. He had been taken backstage, and a doctor was coming. We were still live on the air."
The five other actors in the scene, awaiting Jones's arrival, had a 'tense moment of indecision', after which the lead actor ad-libbed, saying: "Let's go down this tunnel. Carl must be waiting for us further down." As the play faded to black, the floor manager was told to gather the actors, and the make-up girl rushed in saying: "It's Gareth. The doctor declared him dead — heart attack."
No recording of Underground exists, as it was not common practice to record live broadcasts at the time. The ABC studios in Didsbury were reportedly 'haunted' by Jones's ghost until the building was demolished in 1992. The Stage newspaper called Jones 'a good actor, a hard worker, a real pro and a man of great personal charm' in his obituary, and his agent Joan Reddish said he had been 'all set to become a star'.
