Joss Ackland

Infobox actor
name = Joss Ackland


imagesize =
caption =
birthname = Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland
birthdate = Birth date and age|1928|02|29
location = North Kensington, London, England, UK
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = actor
spouse = Rosemary Kirkcaldy (1951-2002) (her death) 7 Children

Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE (born February 29 1928), known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films in his career. He has appeared extensively on television, notably as C. S. Lewis in "Shadowlands" (1985).

Biography

Early life

Ackland was born in North Kensington, London, the son of Ruth Izod and Sydney Norman Ackland. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/82/Joss-Ackland.html "Joss Ackland Biography (1928-)".] FilmReference.com.] He was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Ackland and his wife, the former Rosemary Kirkcaldy, were married on August 18 1951 when Ackland was 23 and she 22. She was an actress and Ackland wooed her when they appeared onstage together in "Pitlochry". The couple struggled initially as Ackland's acting career was in its infancy. They moved to Africa where Ackland had decided to try his luck managing a tea plantation in Kenya, and moving to Cape Town after six months when they decided it was too dangerous. Though they both obtained steady acting jobs in South Africa, after two years, they returned to England in 1957.

Career

Ackland joined the Old Vic, appearing alongside such luminaries as Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Tom Courtenay. Ackland's career advanced with parts in "The Sicilian", "Lethal Weapon 2" and "White Mischief". He has since kept busy with work and features in "Passion of Mind" with Demi Moore and the 2-part TV miniseries "Hogfather" based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel of the same name.

His stage roles included creating the role of Juan Perón in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Evita" opposite Elaine Paige.

Ackland appears in the Pet Shop Boys' 1987 film "It Couldn't Happen Here", and in the video for their version of the song "Always on My Mind", which was taken from the film. Several years later, he claimed in an interview with the Radio Times that he appeared with the band purely because his grandchildren liked their music.

Ackland, in an 2001 interview with the BBC, admitting to being forced to make "awful films" due to being a workaholic, mentioning by name "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" and the Pet Shop Boys music video, while lambasting former co-star Demi Moore as "not very bright or talented". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1476550.stm "Joss Ackland admits 'awful' films."] BBC.com.]

In 2007 Ackland narrated and provided the voice for the Robert Garofalo biography /film and documentary on notorious Occultist Aleister Crowley, titled "In Search of The Great Beast 666" that was released on DVD.

Personal life

Ackland and his wife were married for 51 years. They had seven children and, as of May 2006, 32 grandchildren. Despite his filming taking him to far-flung locations, Ackland said they never spent a night apart. In 1963, their house in Barnes caught fire. Rosemary Ackland managed to save their five children but broke her back when jumping from the bedroom window to safety. She was told she would lose the baby she was carrying and would never walk again. She managed to confound the doctors, and both gave birth and returned to walking, after 2 years in Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Their eldest son, Paul, died of a heroin overdose in 1982, aged 29. In 2000, Rosemary Ackland learned she had motor neurone disease. The last two years of her life saw the degenerative effects of this disease manifest, but she maintained her humorous disposition and continued writing a diary, just as she had done for decades. Rosemary Ackland died on July 25 2002.

In the years since her death, Ackland has read and edited the diaries for a forthcoming publication.

Filmography

*"Destination Downing Street" (1957) (TV) as Immelmann
*"In Search of the Castaways" (1962) (uncredited) as Seaman on yacht
*"The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling" (1963) (TV) as Editor of English Language Newspaper in India
*"David Copperfield" (1966) (TV Series) as Mr. Peggotty
*"" (1966) as The Bishop
*"Lord Raingo" (1966) (TV) as Tom Hogarth
*"On the March to the Sea" (1966) (TV)
*"Room 13" (1966) (TV) as Herr Scavenius
*"The Further Adventures of the Three Musketeers" (1967) (TV Series) as d'Artagnan
*"The Troubleshooters" (1966) (TV) (1966-1968) as Mr. Gibbon (1966), Sam Jardine (1966-1967), Considine (1968), Lewis (1968)
*"Mystery and Imagination" (1966) (TV) (1966, 1968) as Herr Scavenius
*"A Place of One's Own" (1968) (TV)
*"Z Cars" (1967) (TV) (1967-1968) as Det. Insp. Todd
*"The Avengers" (1969) (TV Series) as Brig. Hansing
*"The Gold Robbers" (1969) (TV) as Derek Hartford
*"Before the Party" (1969) (TV) as Harold Bannon
*"The House That Dripped Blood" (1970) as Neville Rogers
*"Mr. Forbush and the Penguins" (1972) as The Leader
*"Thirty-Minute Theatre" (1971) (TV) (1971, 1972)
*"Villain" (1971) as Edgar Lewis
*"The Persuaders!" (1972) (TV) as Felix Meadowes
*"Shirley's World" (1972) (TV) as Inspector Vaughan
*"The Happiness Cage" (1972) as Dr. Frederick
*"Six Faces" (1972) (TV Series) as Harry Mellor
*"Six Faces: True Life" (1972) (TV)
*"Six Faces: Gallery of Faces" (1972) (TV)
*"Penny Gold" (1973)
*"The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" (1973) (TV) as Grubber
*"" (1973) (TV) as Gen. Burgdorf
*"England Made Me" (1973) as Haller
*"The Three Musketeers" (1973) as D'Artagnan's Father
*"The Protectors" (1974) (TV) as Arthur Gordon
*"The Black Windmill" (1974) as Chief Supt. Wray
*"S*P*Y*S" (1974) ... Martinson
*"The Little Prince" (1974) as The King
*"Great Expectations" (1974) (TV) as Joe Gargery
*"One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing" (1975) as B.J. Spence
*"Royal Flash" (1975) as Sapten
*"Operation Daybreak" (1975) as Janák
*" [You Talk Too Much" (1976) (TV)
*"The Crezz" (1977) (TV Series) as Charles Bronte
*"The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It" (1977) as President
*"Watership Down" (1978) (voice) as Black Rabbit
*"Enemy at the Door" (1978) (TV) as Major General Laidlaw
*"The Greek Tycoon" (1978) (uncredited)
*"Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?" (1978) as Cantrell
*"Return of the Saint" (1978) (TV) as Gunther
*"The Sweeney" (1978) (TV) as Alan Ember
*"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (1979) (uncredited) as Prison Warden
*"Saint Jack" (1979) as Yardley
*"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (TV) (1979) as Jerry Westerby
*"Tales of the Unexpected" (1980) (TV) (1980, 1988) as Malcolm Harper (1980), Colonel George Peregrine (1988)
*"A Question of Guilt" (1980) (TV Series) as Samuel Kent
*"The Love Tapes" (1980) (TV) (uncredited) as Narrator
*"Rough Cut" (1980) as Insp. Vanderveld
*"The Gentle Touch" (TV) as Ivor Stocker
*"The Apple" (1980) as Hippie Leader/Mr. Topps
*"Dangerous Davies - The Last Detective" (1981) as Chief Insp. Yardbird
*"Thicker Than Water" (1981) (TV) as Joseph Lockwood
*"The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1982) (TV) as Edward Moulton-Barrett
*"Shroud for a Nightingale" (1984) (TV) as Stephen Courtney-Briggs, surgeon
*"The Tragedy of Coriolanus" (1984) (TV) as Menenius
*"Shadowlands" (1985) (TV) as C. S. Lewis
*"A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985) as Van Hoyten
*"" (1985) (TV Series) as Jephro Rucastle
*"Lady Jane" (1986) as Sir John Bridges
*"When We Are Married" (1987) (TV) as Henry Ormonroyd
*"White Mischief" (1987) as Sir Jock Delves Broughton
*"A Killing on the Exchange" (1987) (TV) as Sir Max Sillman
*"Queenie" (1987) (TV) as Sir Burton Rumsey
*"The Sicilian" (1987) as Don Masino Croce
*"It Couldn't Happen Here" (1988) as Priest/murderer
*"The Man Who Lived at the Ritz" (1988) (TV) as Goering
*"Codename: Kyril" (1988) (TV) as 'C'
*"To Kill a Priest" (1988) as Colonel
*"First and Last" (1989) (TV) as Alan Holly
*"A Quiet Conspiracy" (1989) (TV) as Theo Carter
*"The Justice Game" (1989) (TV) as Sir James Crichton
*"Lethal Weapon 2" (1989) as Arjen 'Aryan' Rudd
*"Jekyll & Hyde" (1990) (TV) as Dr. Charles Lanyon
*"The Hunt for Red October" (1990) as Ambassador Andrei Lysenko
*"The Secret Life of Ian Fleming" (1990) (TV) as Gen. Gerhard Hellstein
*"Incident at Victoria Falls" (1991) (TV) as King Edward
*"A Murder of Quality" (1991) (TV) as Terence Fielding
*"The Object of Beauty" (1991) as Mr. Mercer
*"Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" (1991) as Chuck De Nomolos
*"A Woman Named Jackie" (1991) (TV) as Aristotle Onassis
*"Ashenden" (1991) (TV) as Cumming
*"They Do It with Mirrors" (1991) (TV) as Lewis Serrocold
*"The Sheltering Desert" (1992) as Col. Johnston
*"Once Upon a Crime" (1992) as Hercules Popodopoulos
*"Shadowchaser" (1992) as Kinderman
*"The Bridge" (1992) as Smithson
*"The Mighty Ducks" (1992) as Hans
*"The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992) (TV) as The Prussian
*"" (1992) (TV) (voice) as Julius Caesar
*"Nowhere to Run" (1993) as Franklin Hale
*"Voices in the Garden" (1993) (TV) as Sir Charles (Archie) Peverall
*"The Princess and the Goblin" (1993) (voice) as King Papa
*"OcchioPinocchio" (1994) as Brando
*"Jacob" (1994) (TV) as Isaac
*"Citizen Locke" (1994) (TV) as Lord Ashley
*"Giorgino" (1994) as Father Glaise
*"Citizen X" (1995) (TV) as Bondarchuk
*"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (1995) as Insp. Sam Stringer
*"The Thief and the Cobbler" (1995) (voice) as Brigands
*"A Kid in King Arthur's Court" (1995) as King Arthur
*"Daisies in December" (1995) (TV) as Gerald Carmody
*"" (1996) (TV) (voice) as Noah
*"Hidden in Silence" (1996) (TV) as German factory manager
*"Deadly Voyage" (1996) (TV) as Captain
*"To the Ends of Time" (1996) (TV) as King Francis
*"Surviving Picasso" (1996) as Henri Matisse
*"" (1996) as Hans
*"Swept from the Sea" (1997) as Mr. Swaffer
*"Heat of the Sun" (1998) (TV) as Max van der Vuurst
*"My Giant" (1998) (uncredited) as. Monsignor Popescu
*"The Mumbo Jumbo" (2000) as Mayor Smith
*"Passion of Mind" (2000) as Dr. Langer, the French Psychiatrist
*"Othello" (2001) (TV) as James Brabant
*"The House on Turk Street" (2002) as Mr. Thomas Quarre
*"" (2002) as Marshal Zelentsov
*"" (2003) (voice) as Pieter Van Eckhardt
*"Henry VIII" (2003) (TV) as Henry VII
*"A Different Loyalty" (2004) as Randolph Cauffield
*"Midsomer Murders" (2006) (TVs) as Sir Freddy Butler
*"These Foolish Things" (2006) as Albert
*"Moscow Zero" (2006) as Tolstoy
*"Above and Beyond" (2006) (TV) as Winston Churchill
*"Hogfather" (2006) (TV) as Mustrum Ridcully
*"Rise of the Ogre" (Audiobook) (2006) (Narrarator)
*"How About You" (2007) as Donald
*"Prisoners of the Sun" (2007) as Prof. Mendella
*"Flawless" (2008) as MKA

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0000722|name=Joss Ackland