Researching John Sweet

Sweet was born in Milford, New York on September 1, 1880, and moved to Palmyra, Nebraska in 1885. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Lincoln Business College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

After graduating, he worked as court reporter in western Nebraska from 1899 to 1900, and then as a grocer in Nebraska City from 1902 to 1909. After that he served as manager and then editor of the Nebraska City News newspaper and was a Nebraskan delegate to the 1912 Progressive National Convention.

In 1940 was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-sixth United States Congress to fill the vacancy left by the previous representative George H. Heinke, who had died in a car crash in the January of that year. Sweet served for less than a year, and did not run in the following election.

He died April 4, 1964, in Wickenburg, Arizona and was buried at Wyuka Cemetery, Nebraska City, Nebraska.

Sweet was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After the movie, he went back to the United States and made a few attempts at an acting career, notably in theater, but finally decided to go back to his original profession, teaching.

Sweet returned to Canterbury in October 2000 to join Sheila Sim for a Michael Powell celebration and gave a 20-minute interview in the documentary A Pilgrim's Return by Nick Burton and Eddie McMillan. This documentary is featured in the Criterion Collection DVD of the film. The soft-spoken Sweet provides details about the shooting of the movie, his relationship with Michael Powell and the rest of the crew, and the effect the film has had on his life. Sweet stated that "The few months I spent making the film were the most profound and influential of my life".

Sweet was paid $2,000 for working on A Canterbury Tale, all of which he donated to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a remarkable gesture for the time.

Sweet died at home in Fearrington Village, North Carolina, on July 5, 2011, aged 95.