Mark McManus (born 21 February 1935 in Hamilton, Scotland; died 6 June 1994 in Glasgow) was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart in the long-running ITV television series Taggart.
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Career
McManus moved to Australia in the 1960s, where he began performing in amateur theatre groups, which led to him becoming a professional actor. During this time he appeared in the popular children's TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, and starred in Tim Burstall's unsuccessful but historically important feature film 2000 Weeks (1969), which was the first full-length Australian-produced feature made in Australia since Charles Chauvel's Jedda in 1954. McManus also appeared in the American-produced historical drama Adam's Woman (1970) and co-starred with Mick Jagger in the unsuccessful Tony Richardson 1970 film version of the Ned Kelly story, Ned Kelly. He returned to the UK in 1971 and came to wider notice playing a coal miner in the 1973 TV series Sam and another dour Scots police officer in Strangers, a role he reprised as a guest star in the spin-off, Bulman.[1]
Death
In 1994, McManus died of pneumonia in Glasgow only eight months after the death of his wife Marion. He became the first person to be posthumously awarded the Lord Provost of Glasgow's Award for Performing Arts.[2]
Trivia
Occasionally cited as being the brother or otherwise related to Sweet vocalist, Brian Connolly. In actual fact, Connolly's foster father Jim Mc Manus was Mark Mc Manus' uncle.
