Researching John Stratton

He is perhaps best known for his early film roles during the fifties, where he played the young apprentice parts of Ferraby and Ward opposite Jack Hawkins in both The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Long Arm (1956) respectively. He played a similar role on television in the third Quatermass serial Quatermass and the Pit, essaying the role of Captain Potter opposite André Morell's Professor Bernard Quatermass.

Older and less boyish by the sixties, he emerged as character actor of some range, playing numerous roles in many television programmes of the decade including the part of alcoholic journalist Fred Blane in It's Dark Outside. Other TV appearances include Dixon of Dock Green, The Avengers, Armchair Theatre, The Man in Room 17, Public Eye, Mr. Rose, Z-Cars, Sherlock Holmes (playing Inspector Athelney Jones), Coronation Street, UFO ("E.S.P." episode), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Hadleigh, The Forgotten Story, Softly, Softly, The Pallisers, Fall of Eagles, Backs to the Land, The Professionals, Doctor Who (in the serial The Two Doctors), Juliet Bravo, The Trinity Tales and Lovejoy.

Born at "Old Castle" near Eastville, Virginia, Stratton attended the common schools as a child. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1789 to 1792 and was later elected as a Federalist to the United States House of Representatives in 1800, serving from 1801 to 1803. He died in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 10, 1804, and was interred there in Saint Paul's Episcopal Churchyard.

Stratton made his debut for Buckinghamshire in the 1895 Minor Counties Championship against Oxfordshire. He played Minor counties cricket for Buckinghamshire from 1895 to 1901, making 27 appearances. He made his only first-class appearance in 1896 for Oxford University against the Marylebone Cricket Club. He took 3 wickets in the MCC first-innings for the cost of 93 runs. His wickets were those of: Frank Phillips, Billy Murdoch and George Brann. With the bat he scored a single run in the University's first-innings, before being dismissed by Albert Trott. Oxford followed on in their second-innings, and he scored 7 runs before being dismissed by George Bean.

He died in Repton, Derbyshire on 29 October 1919.