James Ellis (actor)
Encyclopedia
James Ellis is an actor from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 with a television career of more than 45 years. He went to school at Methodist College Belfast
Methodist College Belfast
Methodist College Belfast , styled locally as Methody, is a voluntary grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, and is a member of the Independent Schools Council...

 and later studied at both Queen's University Belfast and the Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic
The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...

.

BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

 cast him as Bert Lynch in Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...

, in which he rose from the rank of PC to Inspector over a period of sixteen years from 1962 to 1978 and became a household name in the process.

Ellis is also a writer of poems and prose and a translator. The BBC broadcast a selection of his adaptations from French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 in 2007.

Theatre career in Northern Ireland

Ellis started acting in 1952 with the Belfast-based Ulster Group Theatre. He first appeared in the Louis D'Alton play They Got What They Wanted, and he became established as their company's leading young man in such plays as April in Assagh, where he was cast as McFettridge (1954), Is the Priest at Home? as O'Grady (1954), and The Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank (play)
The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...

as Peter van Daan (1957).

While continuing as an actor in the main company, he also undertook the management of the Group's summer theatre in the seaside town of Larne
Larne
Larne is a substantial seaport and industrial market town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a population of 18,228 people in the 2001 Census. As of 2011, there are about 31,000 residents in the greater Larne area. It has been used as a seaport for over 1,000 years, and is...

, north of Belfast. Ellis' most important roles for the Group include the starring role of Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World
The Playboy of the Western World
The Playboy of the Western World is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on January 26, 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo during the early 1900s...

(1957). He did not have a major part in the Group's staging of The Bonefire, Gerard McLarnon
Gerard McLarnon
Gerard McLarnon was an Irish playwright and actor. His plays have been performed throughout the world, and he collaborated with, amongst others, John Tavener, Laurence Olivier and Tyrone Guthrie....

's controversial play about the tragic love between a wealthy Protestant young woman and a poor Catholic man (1958), but was cast in the minor role of Davy.

Ellis had a major part to play in the staging of Sam Thompson
Sam Thompson (writer)
Sam Thompson was a Northern Irish playwright best known for his controversial plays Over the Bridge, which exposes sectarianism, and Cemented with Love, which focuses on political corruption...

's even more controversial Over the Bridge (1960). In December 1958 Ellis had been appointed the Group Theatre's Director of Productions, but he resigned this position in July 1959 to direct the production of Thompson's play, which was to be staged by a group of actors and directors who had quit the Group in protest over its decision to withdraw Over the Bridge, which had been in rehearsals, after the Group's board deemed the play too inflammatory.

Television career in England

Ellis soon left Northern Ireland for London, where his first break came when he was cast as Dandy Jordan in the BBC TV production of Stewart Love's Randy Dandy, which aired on 14 September 1961, an "Angry
Angry young men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading members included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis.The phrase was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John...

" play that was deemed so controversial and sexually charged that the BBC aired a warning before the play warning that it was "unsuitable for people of a nervous disposition". In a 2008 interview with the theatre historian Scott Boltwood, Ellis remembered being stopped on the streets regularly and for several years afterwards, by working-class men who strongly identified with his character. His success as Dandy made him a sought-after actor and led to subsequent roles with BBC Television and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

, including as Philip in the BBC TV production of Love's The Sugar Cube (aired 21 June 1961) and ultimately his role as Bert Lynch in Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...

.

He portrayed Norman Martin, the violent and troubled father, in the "Billy" trilogy of plays by Graham Reid
Graham Reid (writer)
Graham Reid is a playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland.-Background:Born into a working class family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Reid left school at age 15, served in the British army, married young, but returned to education and graduated from Queen's University in 1976...

, the first of which, Too Late to Talk to Billy, was broadcast in 1982 on BBC1. He appeared in the subsequent "Billy" plays A Matter of Choice for Billy (1983), A Coming to Terms for Billy (1984), and the postscript Lorna (1987).

His other notable roles include parts on Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, In Sickness and in Health
In Sickness and in Health
In Sickness and in Health was a BBC television sitcom which ran between 1985 and 1992. It was also a sequel to both the highly successful Til Death Us Do Part which ran between 1966 and 1975 and Till Death... which ran for one series in 1981.-Series 1:This comedy series debuted in 1985 and took...

, Ballykissangel
Ballykissangel
Ballykissangel is a BBC television drama set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the UK from 1996 to 2001...

, Playing the Field
Playing the Field
Playing the Field is a BBC television drama series following the lives of the Castlefield Blues, a fictitious female football team from South Yorkshire.-Outline:...

, One By One
One By One (TV series)
One By One is a British television series made by the BBC between 1984 and 1987.The series, created by Anthony Read, followed the career of international veterinarian David Taylor and his work caring for exotic animals at zoos in Britain, from the 1950s to the 1970s...

, the cult sitcom Nightingales
Nightingales
Nightingales is a British situation comedy set around the antics of three security guards working the night shift. It was produced by Alomo Productions for Channel 4 in 1990.-Outline:...

and Antonia Bird
Antonia Bird
Antonia Bird is an English television drama and feature film director.-Life and career:Bird was born in London. She began her career at the Royal Court Theatre before moving to television in the mid 1980s, directing episodes of EastEnders , Casualty , and drama serials like Thin Air and The Men's...

's Priest. Ellis has also contributed cameos to popular series such as Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2....

by Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...

, Only Fools and Horses
Strangers on the Shore
"Strangers on the Shore" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses, first screened on 25 December, 2002 as the second part of the early 2000s Christmas trilogy.-Synopsis:...

, The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

, Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...

, Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather was a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC1 from 1989 until 1998. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers.The first episode sees sisters...

, Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...

, Boon
Boon (TV series)
Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV...

and Common as Muck
Common As Muck
Common As Muck was a comedy drama serial made by the BBC about the lives of a crew of binmen; it ran for two series.-Characters:-Series One :...

.

Family

Ellis's first marriage was to actress Beth Ellis. They had two sons and a daughter and were divorced in the late 1960s. Ellis married his second wife Robina in 1976, by whom he had another son - Toto.

Ellis's first son, Adam, was murdered in London in August 1988. The murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989.

Ellis's second son, Hugo, followed his father into professional acting and directing. Hugo died in January 2011.

In July 2008 Queen's University Belfast awarded Ellis an honorary doctorate as part of its centenary celebrations.

External links

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