Johnny Leeze, actor who played Ned Glover, the ‘unluckiest man in soaps’, in Emmerdale – obituary
Johnny Leeze, who has died after testing positive for Covid-19 aged 78, was a comedian and actor best known for his role as the farmer Ned Glover in Emmerdale.
The character, which Leeze played from 1994 to 1999, was once described as “the unluckiest man in British soaps”. In four and a half years on the ITV series one of his two sons died in a house fire, his daughter died in a car crash, his wife kidnapped a baby, went spectacularly mad and disappeared to her sister’s – and he was thrown off his farm.
But Leeze played his character stolidly throughout and Ned eventually got his reward, jetting off in January 1999 to run a bar in Ibiza with his old flame Dawn Wilkins (Rosy Clayton), having found the money for the trip when an old teddy bear of his daughter’s turned out to be a rare model worth over £13,000.
Leeze was born John Harold Glen in York on December 31 1941. After leaving school he did a five-year apprenticeship with British Gas in Sheffield. “Joe Cocker and I were in the same class. He was a nice guy but I haven’t seen him for years,” he recalled. He also spent some time in the Army as a tank recovery mechanic.
He began his performing career on the stand-up comedy circuit in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, winning a talent competition, before landing his first television role in 1982, a small part in the sitcom Open All Hours.
Apart from Emmerdale, in 1985 Leeze had a role in Coronation Street as a milkman. Harry Clayton played trombone with a local band and, like his Emmerdale character, had family issues: he and his family disappeared from the series after his daughter Andrea (Caroline O’Neill), for whom he had high hopes of a university education, became pregnant by the roguish Jack-the-Lad Terry Duckworth (Nigel Pivaro).
Among a long list of television credits Leeze also appeared on the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, playing different characters in four episodes, and returned to Coronation Street twice, again as different characters.
Leeze made a brief return to Emmerdale in July 2000 for the leaving storyline of Ned’s surviving son Roy. He offered Roy and his wife Kelly the chance to go back to Ibiza with him, but when Roy discovered Kelly was planning to force Ned and Dawn out of their bar, Roy ended his marriage and went off with his father alone.
The same year he appeared as Inspector Cox, a “special client” of Hilary Briss (Mark Gatiss), in five episodes of the black comedy series The League of Gentlemen.
Leeze’s other television credits included appearances in Play for Today, Juliet Bravo, All Creatures Great and Small, Heartbeat, Common As Muck, Doctors and Cracker. His most recent appearance was in Life on Mars in 2007.
Aside from his television work, Leeze, who lived in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, where he was a popular local figure, continued to appear on the stand-up comedy circuit, trod the boards in local pantomime and did guest spots for charity.
His marriage to Carol ended in divorce in 1983, and some years later she gave an interview to the News of the World in which she portrayed him as a violent drunk. “We had a stormy relationship – very love-hate,” Leeze admitted in a 1996 interview with Woman’s Weekly, “and we probably shouldn’t have ever got married.”
Leeze, who was reported to have underlying health issues, died following a heart attack a day after testing positive for coronavirus.
He is survived by two daughters.
Johnny Leeze, born December 31 1941, died October 25 2020
