By Andrew Bullock For Mailonline
Published: 08:21 EST, 29 December 2017 | Updated: 08:36 EST, 29 December 2017
David Jason shows off the boyish grin that made him famous in a newly-unearthed school photo taken in 1954.
The 62-year-old snap shows the now-77-year-old veteran actor, aged just 14 at the time, as he stands with his football team in matching football shirts.
David is unmistakable in the black and white image, smiling with his arms crossed, looking every inch the young Del Boy – a role that went on to make him famous.
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Del (school) Boy! David Jason, 77, looks like an even cheekier version of his Only Fools And Horses alter ego as he poses for football team photo aged 14… in a newly-unearthed 62-year-old photo
Before he was famous: David is unmistakable in the black and white image, smiling with his arms crossed, looking every inch the young Del Boy – a role that went on to make him famous
The actor – who was given an OBE in 1993 and named on the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2005 – uses Jason as a stage surname. His real name is White, and he was raised in North Finchley, North London.
He attended Northfield Secondary Modern after failing his 11-plus in 1951.
He left and trained to be an electrician – but he had always wanted to act.
Although he kept up with football as a hobby, Sir David started out on the stage.
He later landed the iconic roles of Del Boy on BBC's Only Fools And Horses, Granville in Open All Hours (also on the BBC) and ITV crime drama A Touch of Frost as the titular character.
![Household name: He left and trained to be an electrician - but he had always wanted to act. Although he kept up with football as a hobby, Sir David started out on the stage [pictured with Nicholas Lyndhurst and Buster Merryfield]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/12/29/13/0055ED5D00000258-0-Household_name_He_left_and_trained_to_be_an_electrician_but_he_h-a-68_1514553569939.jpg)
Household name: He left and trained to be an electrician – but he had always wanted to act. Although he kept up with football as a hobby, Sir David started out on the stage [pictured with Nicholas Lyndhurst and Buster Merryfield]
![He later landed the iconic roles of Del Boy on BBC's Only Fools And Horses, Granville in Open All Hours [pictured] and ITV crime drama A Touch of Frost as the titular character](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/12/29/13/479D76EB00000578-5220873-image-a-72_1514554170288.jpg)
He later landed the iconic roles of Del Boy on BBC's Only Fools And Horses, Granville in Open All Hours [pictured] and ITV crime drama A Touch of Frost as the titular character
The newly revealed photo cropped up on the Only Fools And Horses Appreciation Society Facebook page this week.
Sir David released a memoir this month, which opened up about the roles he has played.
Only Fools And Stories – which hit shelves in early-December – gives an engrossing behind-the-scenes glimpse of his famous roles, revealing he was the fifth choice for Del Boy — the producers really wanted Jim Broadbent.
Only Fools And Horses, set during the Thatcher era(‘a mini boom-time for dodgy entrepreneurship’), went on to be adored by 24.3 million viewers.
A vast range: He was equally as convincing as the grey and slightly melancholy Inspector Frost in his raincoat and trilby
Multi-talent: He also starred in The Darling Buds Of May, which was ‘carefree, sunny and escapist, a vision of bucolic bliss’
Sir David tells us how he decided upon the costume, make-up and voice, ‘increasing the Cockney content’ and creating a Derek Trotter who was ‘spry and nippy’, a human bantam.
He was equally as convincing as the grey and slightly melancholy Inspector Frost in his raincoat and trilby, and also starred in The Darling Buds Of May, which was ‘carefree, sunny and escapist, a vision of bucolic bliss’.
This was the role that famously brought Catherine Zeta Jones to prominence, before she made in it Hollywood.
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