Colin Welland


Actor, Screenwriter

About

Also Known As
Colin Williams
Birth Place
Lancashire, England, GB
Born
July 04, 1934
Died
November 02, 2015
Cause of Death
Complications Due To Alzheimer's

Biography

A British actor and screenwriter, Colin Welland wrote and performed in several British TV shows, including "Z Cars," before entering film in 1969 and garnering acclaim for his supporting role in Ken Loach's "Kes." Welland scripted John Schlesinger's "Yanks" (1979) and has since worked consistently as a screenwriter and occasionally as an actor. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs"...

Family & Companions

Patricia Sweeney
Wife
Schoolteacher. Married 1962.

Biography

A British actor and screenwriter, Colin Welland wrote and performed in several British TV shows, including "Z Cars," before entering film in 1969 and garnering acclaim for his supporting role in Ken Loach's "Kes." Welland scripted John Schlesinger's "Yanks" (1979) and has since worked consistently as a screenwriter and occasionally as an actor. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" (1971) and won a Best Screenplay Oscar for "Chariots of Fire" (1981), the story of the British 1924 Olympics runners which also won the Academy Award as Best Picture.

The Lancashire native, born Colin Williams, began his professional career as an art teacher. By 1964, he was working as a TV writer and actor. Among his credits are "Bangelstein's Boys" (adapted from his 1968 play) and "Blue Remembered Hills." Welland won a British Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor as the teacher who encourages a young, working-class male shoplifter to put his energies into raising a falcon in "Kes." In 1972, Welland starred in and adapted his 1970 teleplay "Say Goodnight to Grandma" for the stage. His "Kisses at 50" (1973) formed the basis for Bud Yorkin's "Twice in a Lifetime" (1987), in which Gene Hackman is a working class bloke who leaves steady but dull wife Ellen Burstyn for Ann-Margret.

After "Chariots of Fire," Welland's acting became more sporadic and his writing output increased. In 1989, he joined director Euzhan Palcy in co-writing the screenplay for "A Dry White Season" and provided the script for "War of the Buttons" (1994). Yet, Welland never completely abandoned acting. He had a supporting role in the TV-movie "The Secret Life of Ian Fleming" (TNT, 1990).

Life Events

1958

Was art teacher; also taught English

1968

Had play produced, "Bangelstein's Boys"

1969

Screen acting debut in "Kes"

1969

First teleplay, adaptation of "Banglestein's Boys", aired on ITV's "Saturday Night Theatre"

1979

Screenwriting debut, "Yanks"

1981

Wrote screenplay for "Chariots of Fire"

1987

Adapted his teleplay "Kisses at 50" as feature film "Twice in a Lifetime"

1989

Co-wrote "A Dry White Season" for the screen

1990

Acted in "The Secret Life of Ian Fleming"

1994

Adapted "The War of the Buttons" for the screen

Videos

Movie Clip

Chariots Of Fire (1981) -- (Movie Clip) The College Dash Ben Cross as Harold Abrahams and Nigel Havers as the fictional Lindsay attempt the famous Great Court Run, shooting at Eton College, Cambridge, though the true location is Trinity College, and the real Abrahams never tried it, in Chariots Of Fire, 1981, John Gielgud, observing.
Chariots Of Fire (1981) -- (Movie Clip) A Muscular Christian Ian Charleson as Scot Eric Liddell, encouraged by his missionary father and brother (John Young, David John) to pursue athletics for the greater good, touring with his devoted sister (Cheryl Campbell), ending with a speech written by the actor, in director Hugh Hudson’s Chariots Of Fire, 1981.
Dry White Season, A (1989) -- (Movie Clip) Justice And Law Johannesburg, 1976, after the Soweto riots and the police murder of his gardener and friend, teacher and former rugby star Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) visits famous human rights lawyer Ian MacKenzie (Marlon Brando), who at first digresses, in A Dry White Season, directed by Euzhan Palcy.
Dry White Season, A (1989) -- (Movie Clip) I'm Not Worried About These Wounds Soweto, 1976, trouble as young Jonathan (Bekhithemba Mpofu) is arrested, we meet his friend Johan (Rowen Elmes) playing rugby, parents (Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman) watching, then Jonathan’s dad Gordon (Winston Ntshona), opening Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season, 1989.
Dry White Season, A (1989) -- (Movie Clip) Away With Afrikaans! Director Euzhan Palcy’s careful recreation of a representative incident of the Soweto uprising of 1976, with characters Jonathan and Robert (Bekhithemba Mpofu, Tinashe Makoni) in a protest against the teaching of the Afrikaans language, in A Dry White Season, 1989, from a novel by Andrè Brink.
Chariots Of Fire (1981) -- (Movie Clip) May The Best Man Win After much build-up, the fictional first competitive meeting between between the missionary-athlete Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), arriving from Scotland, and Cambridge man Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross, with friends, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers), in Chariots Of Fire, 1981.
Chariots Of Fire (1981) -- (Movie Clip) Scotland's Finest Wing Beginning the back-story for Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), born to missionary parents in China, already a rugby star in Scotland, appearing at a highland fair, his sister (Cheryl Campbell) attending and friend Sandy (Struan Rodger) promoting an exhibition, in Chariots Of Fire, 1981.
Chariots Of Fire (1981) -- (Movie Clip) Those Few Young Men The opening from director Hugh Hudson, Nigel Havers and Nicholas Farrell as the matured Lindsay and Montague, then the beach sequence, shot in Scotland, featuring leads Ben Cross and Ian Charleson, and the much-lauded theme by Vangelis, from Chariots Of Fire, 1981.
Kes -- (Movie Clip) School Billy (David Bradley) is instructed by his teacher (Colin Welland) then by his classmates in Ken Loach's Kes, 1969.

Trailer

Family

John Arthur Williams
Father
Norah Williams
Mother
Genevieve Williams
Daughter
Catherine Williams
Daughter
Caroline Williams
Daughter
Christie Williams
Son

Companions

Patricia Sweeney
Wife
Schoolteacher. Married 1962.

Bibliography