John François Landry was born in Nairobi, Kenya and appeared twice in Coronation Street: in October 1971 he played Jim Stoker and he returned in November 1976 as Clifford Willis. Alongside these roles he appeared in an extensive range of programmes from the 1960s to the 1990s including No Hiding Place, Z Cars, Paul Temple, Public Eye and Minder. He played the regular role of Dolby in the 1976 ITV min-series Dickens of London but remains best known for the part of Turtle which he played in the 1975 thriller The Hanged Man and the sequel Turtle's Progress from 1979 to 1980.