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Colin Welland

Colin Welland

Birthday: 1934-07-04 | Place of Birth: Liverpool, England

Actor and writer Colin Welland will perhaps be forever remembered for his triumph at the 1982 Academy Awards, when he won the Best Screenplay Oscar for his screenplay for the hit film Chariots of Fire, proclaiming "The British are Coming!" As an actor, his first film appearance is perhaps still his best-loved, the sympathetic Mr Farthing in Kes (1969), for which he won a BAFTA. Born in Liverpool, but raised in Leigh, Welland initially started out as an art teacher before moving into acting and becoming a household name playing the role of PC Graham in the long running BBC police serial Z Cars. Aside from Chariots of Fire, he wrote many other plays and films including the BAFTA winning Kisses at Fifty (later remade for Hollywood with Gene Hackman as Twice in a Lifetime), Leeds United! based on the rag trade strike that his own mother-in-law was active in, Yanks, A Dry White Season and War of the Buttons. As a film and TV actor his credits include Kes, Straw Dogs, Blue Remembered Hills, Cowboys and Sweeney! He died at the age of 81 on November 2, 2015, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1997
The Fix

as    Harry Catterick

1993
Femme Fatale

as    Martin Harty

1990
Dancin' Thru the Dark

as    Manager

1990
The Return of the Green Man

as    Narrator

1990
The Secret Life of Ian Fleming

as    Reuters editor

1980
Cowboys

as    Geyser

1979
Blue Remembered Hills

as    Willie

1977
Sweeney!

as    Frank Chadwick

1975
A Passage to England

as    Onslow

1971
Villain

as    Tom Binney

1970
Roll On Four O'Clock

as    Lennie Brown

1970
Kes

as    Mr. Farthing

1970