Ralph Bates
Encyclopedia
Ralph Bates was an English
film and television actor
, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John
and for being one of Hammer Horror
's best-known actors from the latter period of the company.
Bates was born in Bristol
, England, of French
ancestry (he was the great-great-nephew of French scientist Louis Pasteur
) and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He read French there, before winning a scholarship to Yale Drama School. The course completed, Bates returned to Ireland
to make his stage debut in Shaw
's You Never Can Tell at The Gate Theatre
, Dublin, in 1963. A career in repertory theatre soon followed and the young actor gained experience in productions ranging from Hedda Gabler
, to raucous comedies.
Later, Bates carved a niche in the world of horror films and played important roles or the lead in several Hammer Horror
productions, such as Taste the Blood of Dracula
, The Horror of Frankenstein
, Lust for a Vampire
, and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
, in which he played a deranged doctor who mistakenly transforms himself into a beautiful siren.
He portrayed Caligula in the series The Caesars
and alongside Cyd Hayman
in a passionate French tale of murder and mystery - Crime of Passion series. After playing Thomas Culpeper
in an episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), he went on to star in the BBC
drama series, Moonbase 3
(1973) and the long-running Poldark
, in which he played villainous George Warleggan. The series ran for 29 episodes, starting in 1975. He also played Communist Paul Vercors in the final season of the drama series Secret Army
. Because of his French ancestry and dark looks, he was often chosen to play a Frenchman on television, as for instance in a second series episode of ITV comedy drama Turtle's Progress
. Bates also appeared in the television movie Minder on the Orient Express
, again as a Frenchman.
It looked, for some time, as if he might remain typecast in sinister roles, but he was offered a part in a farcical comedy by the writer John Sullivan
, which saw Bates as the loveable but loveless central character among a singles group, with each of its members looking for that perfect but ever elusive partner. Dear John
(1986–87), in which he realistically played the part of a divorcee returning to single life, lasted for two series, and around the same time he appeared in the ITV
Yorkshire Television sitcom Farrington of the F.O.
(1986) with Angela Thorne
and Joan Sims
.
Bates became ill and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
, and died in London at age 51 from the disease. He was divorced from the actress Joanna Van Gyseghem
, and survived by his second wife, the actress Virginia Wetherell
(married 1973-1991). The couple had one daughter, actress Daisy Bates
(b. 1974), and a son William Bates (b. 1977), an actor & musician.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film and television actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John
Dear John (UK TV series)
Dear John is a British sitcom, written by John Sullivan. Two series and a "special" were broadcast between 1986 and 1987.This sitcom's title referred to letters sent by girls to their boyfriends breaking off the relationship, known as "Dear John" letters. In the opening episode, John discovers his...
and for being one of Hammer Horror
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
's best-known actors from the latter period of the company.
Bates was born in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England, of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
ancestry (he was the great-great-nephew of French scientist Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
) and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He read French there, before winning a scholarship to Yale Drama School. The course completed, Bates returned to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to make his stage debut in Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's You Never Can Tell at The Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
, Dublin, in 1963. A career in repertory theatre soon followed and the young actor gained experience in productions ranging from Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
, to raucous comedies.
Later, Bates carved a niche in the world of horror films and played important roles or the lead in several Hammer Horror
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
productions, such as Taste the Blood of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1970. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and was directed by Peter Sasdy...
, The Horror of Frankenstein
The Horror of Frankenstein
The Horror of Frankenstein is a 1970 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions that is both a semi-parody and remake of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein. It was produced and directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson and David Prowse as the monster...
, Lust for a Vampire
Lust for a Vampire
Lust For a Vampire is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnston and Barbara Jefford. It is the second film in the so-called Karnstein Trilogy loosely based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla...
, and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British film directed by Roy Ward Baker based on the short story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions and was their second adaptation of the story after their 1960 film The...
, in which he played a deranged doctor who mistakenly transforms himself into a beautiful siren.
He portrayed Caligula in the series The Caesars
The Caesars (TV series)
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the emperors of...
and alongside Cyd Hayman
Cyd Hayman
Cyd Hayman is an English actress.She appeared in the following films: Percy, The Godsend and Rogue Male....
in a passionate French tale of murder and mystery - Crime of Passion series. After playing Thomas Culpeper
Thomas Culpeper
Sir Thomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, to the south of Maidstone in Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a...
in an episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), he went on to star in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
drama series, Moonbase 3
Moonbase 3
Moonbase 3 is a British science fiction television programme that ran for six episodes in 1973. It was a co-production between the BBC, 20th Century Fox and the American ABC network...
(1973) and the long-running Poldark
Poldark
Poldark is a BBC television series based on the novels written by Winston Graham which was first transmitted in the UK between 1975 and 1977.-Outline:...
, in which he played villainous George Warleggan. The series ran for 29 episodes, starting in 1975. He also played Communist Paul Vercors in the final season of the drama series Secret Army
Secret Army (TV series)
Secret Army is a television drama series made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT created by Gerard Glaister. The series chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the...
. Because of his French ancestry and dark looks, he was often chosen to play a Frenchman on television, as for instance in a second series episode of ITV comedy drama Turtle's Progress
Turtle's Progress
Turtle's Progress is a British television series broadcast between 1979 and 1980.The series was an ITV ATV Drama, and dealt with a petty criminal named Turtle and his minder, "Razor" Eddie , who by accident come into possession of the proceeds of a major bank robbery...
. Bates also appeared in the television movie Minder on the Orient Express
Minder on the Orient Express
Minder on the Orient Express is a comedy/thriller television film made in 1985 as a spin-off from the successful television series Minder...
, again as a Frenchman.
It looked, for some time, as if he might remain typecast in sinister roles, but he was offered a part in a farcical comedy by the writer John Sullivan
John Sullivan (writer)
John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....
, which saw Bates as the loveable but loveless central character among a singles group, with each of its members looking for that perfect but ever elusive partner. Dear John
Dear John (UK TV series)
Dear John is a British sitcom, written by John Sullivan. Two series and a "special" were broadcast between 1986 and 1987.This sitcom's title referred to letters sent by girls to their boyfriends breaking off the relationship, known as "Dear John" letters. In the opening episode, John discovers his...
(1986–87), in which he realistically played the part of a divorcee returning to single life, lasted for two series, and around the same time he appeared in the 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...
Yorkshire Television sitcom Farrington of the F.O.
Farrington of the F.O.
Farrington of the F.O. was a British television comedy series by Dick Sharples about the staff of the British Consulate in "one of the armpits of Latin America". It was produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast from 1986 to 1987...
(1986) with Angela Thorne
Angela Thorne
Angela Thorne is an English actress who is best known for her roles in To the Manor Born and Anyone for Denis?-Early life:Angela Thorne was born in Karachi, British India, , in 1939...
and Joan Sims
Joan Sims
Joan Sims was an English actress best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, and latterly for playing Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.-Early life:...
.
Bates became ill and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
, and died in London at age 51 from the disease. He was divorced from the actress Joanna Van Gyseghem
Joanna Van Gyseghem
Joanna Van Gyseghem is an English actress, educated at Malvern Girls' College and Trinity College, Dublin....
, and survived by his second wife, the actress Virginia Wetherell
Virginia Wetherell
Virginia Wetherell is an English actress best known for her roles in Hammer horror films such as Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde and Demons of the Mind...
(married 1973-1991). The couple had one daughter, actress Daisy Bates
Daisy Bates (actress)
Daisy Bates is a British actress.She was born in London, the daughter of Ralph Bates and actress Virginia Wetherell and also the sister of actor & musician Will Bates...
(b. 1974), and a son William Bates (b. 1977), an actor & musician.
Selected filmography
- Taste the Blood of DraculaTaste the Blood of DraculaTaste the Blood of Dracula is a British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions and released in 1970. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, and was directed by Peter Sasdy...
(1970) - The Horror of FrankensteinThe Horror of FrankensteinThe Horror of Frankenstein is a 1970 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions that is both a semi-parody and remake of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein. It was produced and directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson and David Prowse as the monster...
(1970) - Lust for a VampireLust for a VampireLust For a Vampire is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Yutte Stensgaard, Michael Johnston and Barbara Jefford. It is the second film in the so-called Karnstein Trilogy loosely based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla...
(1971) - Dr. Jekyll and Sister HydeDr. Jekyll and Sister HydeDr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British film directed by Roy Ward Baker based on the short story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions and was their second adaptation of the story after their 1960 film The...
(1971) - Fear in the NightFear in the Night (1972 film)Fear in the Night is a 1972 British psychological horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster and starring Judy Geeson, Joan Collins and Peter Cushing. A young woman goes to take up a new position working in a boy's boarding school. She soon begins to believe she is losing her mind when a one armed man...
(1972) - PersecutionPersecution (film)Persecution is a 1974 British thriller film directed by Don Chaffey. The dialogue was written by Frederick Warner, based on story & screenplay by Robert Hutton and Rosemary Wootten...
(1974) - I Don't Want to Be BornI Don't Want to Be BornI Don't Want to Be Born is a 1975 British horror film, directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Eileen Atkins and Donald Pleasence, which tapped into the 1970s fad for devil-child horror films. The film was originally marketed as a straight-faced and serious product, and as...
(1975)