Celebrity Biographies
Colin Welland
“The British are coming,” Englishman Colin Welland said to scare members of the Hollywood Academy, when he won the Oscar for “Chariots of Fire.” He recalled the quote from Paul Revere, hero of the American War of Independence. The screenwriter and actor passed away on Monday, November 2, 2015, at the age of 81.
Born precisely on July 4, Independence Day in that country, in 1934, in Leigh, in the north of England, Colin Williams (his real name) accepted his father’s advice, who recommended that he put aside his acting vocation, and engage in teaching.
But although he taught art classes in Manchester for a long time, he finally made his debut in the theater, and ended up starring in the series Z Cars, which made him popular in his country. He left teaching when he played Mr. Farthing, a teacher in Kes , by Ken Loach . He decided to dedicate himself exclusively to acting, taking part in titles such as Straw Dogs , by Sam Peckimpah .
After a time writing television scripts, in 1979 he wrote his first film, Yankees , about the culture clash between the British and the Americans during World War II. He established himself with his masterful script about willpower and self-improvement skills, Chariots of Fire , based on the real lives of the athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Lidell, who participated in the 1924 Olympic Games. In addition to the Oscar Welland received, he obtained other three: film, costume design and soundtrack.
Until the mid-90s he continued acting in films with little impact, and writing scripts. But then he had to retire as a result of Alzheimer’s.