Early Life
John Nettles was born in St Austell, Cornwall in 1943. He was adopted at birth by a carpenter Eric Nettles and his wife Elsie and he attended the local grammar school in St Austell. When he was seven years old he learned that his birth mother was a Roman Catholic Irish nurse who had been working in England during World War II. She was placed into a mental institution after illegitimately giving birth and died of tuberculosis aged 28. Nettles has never discovered the identity of his father, but did discover he has a brother and two sisters.
In 1962, Nettles won a scholarship and studied history and philosophy at the University of Southampton. At Southampton he first performed and, having found he liked acting, he was given several amateur parts.
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