Bill Paterson

Bill Paterson (June 3, 1945 in Glasgow) is a Scottish actor who has appeared in many films, plays and television series.

Biography

As a young man, Paterson spent three years as a quantity surveyor's apprentice, before attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He made his professional acting debut in 1967, appearing alongside Leonard Rossiter in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre.

In 1970, Paterson joined the Citizen's Theatre for Youth. He remained there as an actor and assistant director until 1972, when he left to appear with Billy Connolly in The Great Northern Welly Boot Show at the Edinburgh Festival. (Paterson would work with Connolly again, some years later, when he performed in Connolly's play An Me Wi' a Bad Leg Tae.)

Paterson spent much of the 1970s in John McGrath's 7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company, of which he was a founding member, touring the UK and Europe with plays such as The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil. He made his London debut in 1976 with the company.

After this, Paterson's career began to centre more on television than the theatre. His first appearances included the 1978 BAFTA award winning drama Licking Hitler, and playing King James in the UK television serial Life of Shakespeare the same year.

Paterson did not, however, entirely neglect the theatre, and in 1982 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier award for his performance as Schweyk in another Brecht play, Schweyk in the Second World War at the National Theatre. He has continued to perform in many plays over the years.

The early 1980s also saw Paterson starting to appear in films, including The Killing Fields, Comfort and Joy and A Private Function (all 1984). Other film credits include The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1987), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Chaplin (1992), Sir Ian McKellen's Richard III (1995), Bright Young Things (2003) and Miss Potter (2006).

Bill Paterson made his name in 1985 as the devious gangster Ally Fraser in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet alongside Gary Holton and Jimmy Nail. His other television credits include Smiley's People (1982) The Singing Detective (1986), Traffik (1988), The Crow Road (1996) and The Whistleblower (2001). He has also provided voice-over narration for many documentaries.

A lot of his most recent work has been for the BBC, starring as Dr. Douglas Monaghan in the supernatural drama series Sea of Souls, and providing the voice of the Storyteller in the children's serial Shoebox Zoo. He also played the role of Dr. Gibson in the 1999 production of Wives and Daughters.

In 2007, Paterson will star in the movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.

He is married to Hildegard Bechtler, a theatre and opera designer. He has two children (a son and daughter) and lives in London.

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