Arthur Leslie
British actor
Arthur Leslie Scottorn Broughton (8 December 1899 – 30 June 1970), better known as Arthur Leslie, was a British actor and playwright, best known for original character of public house landlord Jack Walker in television soap Coronation Street.
Early life
Leslie was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, but moved to Lancashire at an early age. He served in the British Merchant Navy, during World War I, where he served aboard convoys in the North Atlantic.
Career
His first job was in 1916 at the Old Queen's Theatre in Farnworth, and he also had a spell as actor-director at the Hippodrome theatre in Wigan.
Leslie's best known role is as Jack Walker, genial landlord of the Rovers Return Inn in television soap Coronation Street. Jack ran the pub alongside his wife Annie (played by Doris Speed). The Walkers were extremely popular characters, and both Leslie and Speed were much liked and respected by fellow cast members. Jack appeared in the show from the second episode on 14 December 1960 until his last appearance on 24 June 1970. In addition to acting, Leslie was also a playwright, and wrote under the name "Arthur S. Broughton". One such play, Welcome Little Stranger, enjoyed success in repertory theatre.
The public source identifies “Arthur Leslie” as british actor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Arthur, Leslie and British.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4799501. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1899, 1970, 1916 and 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arthur Leslie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.