Bill Paterson Biography
Bill Paterson is a Scottish actor and commentator. He most recently appeared in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag as the title character’s father. He has appeared in many film and television projects. Among them include: Comfort and Joy, Wives and Daughters, Sea of Souls, PBS’s Little Dorrit and many more.
Paterson made his professional acting debut in 1967. He appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre alongside Leonard Rossiter. Later on, he joined the Citizens’ Theatre for Youth in 1970. However, he left in 1972 to appear with Billy Connolly in The Great Northern Welly Boot Show at the Edinburgh Festival.
Paterson spent much of the 1970s in John McGrath’s theatre company. He then began to centre more on television than the theatre. His first appearances included the 1978 BAFTA award winning drama Licking Hitler. He also played King James in the UK television serial Will Shakespeare the same year.
He however did not neglect theater. In 1982, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as Schweyk in another Brecht play, Schweik in the Second World War. His most recent theatre is Earthquakes in London at the National Theatre in the summer of 2010.
In the 1980s, Peterson began to appear in films. Among them include: The Killing Fields, The Witches, Chaplin among many others. In addition, he appeared as Brian, a cafe owner who knows the Spice Girls, in Spice World.
Bill Paterson Photo
Much of his later work has been for the BBC. Throughout his career, he has appeared regularly in radio drama and provided the narration for a large number of documentaries. In 2010, Paterson starred in Doctor Who as Professor Edwin Bracewell.
Paterson has also narrated for various television and radio programmes. In 2003, he began broadcasting radio stories about his childhood. He also narrates the BBC’s annual coverage of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Moreover, in 2016 he narrated The Farmers’ Country Showdown, a series for the BBC.
Bill Paterson Age
Bill Paterson was born in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He was born on 3 June 1945. His current age is 74 years old as of 2019.
Bill Paterson Net Worth
Bill Paterson has a successful acting career. He has been in the industry since 1967. He has accumulated quite a lot of wealth throughout his entire career.
His exact net worth is not known. We will update you with the information once we get it.
Bill Paterson Wife
Bill Paterson is married to his wife Hildegard Bechtler. They got married in 1984. The two met at a bus stop. It was love at first site for both of them. They both felt attracted to each other.
The couple has two children, a son and a daughter. They currently live together in London. His wife is a German costume and set designer.
Bill Paterson Movies And Tv Shows | Bill Paterson Outlander | Bill Paterson Auf Wiedersehen Pet
1990 The Witches
1999 Wives and Daughters
2004-2006 Sea of Souls
2008 Little Dorrit
2009–2011 Law & Order: UK
2010 Doctor Who
2014 Outlander
2016 The Rebel
2016–2019 Fleabag
2018 Inside No. 9
2019 Good Omens
Bill Paterson Books
He has written various books. Check them out.
- Tales From the Back Green
- Buppa’s Big Surprise
- Centennial Park Outlet Model
Bill Paterson Interview
Q: What got you started?
Bill Paterson: I had no desire to be an actor. But I started going along to the Citizens theatre in Glasgow in my mid-teens and got completely obsessed. I saw everything from Shakespeare to Brecht; I went so often they eventually just let me in for nothing. Later, after drifting into the building trade as a quantity surveyor, I decided to pack it in and become a drama teacher. I was asked to be in a schools’ play, and the next thing I knew I was an actor.
Q: What was your big breakthrough?
Bill Paterson: I was a founder member of the Scottish company 7:84, and in 1973 we made a show called The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, about the effects of the discovery of North Sea oil on Highland life. We toured it to places few shows had ever gone to – let alone a show about crofting and oil rigs. It really affected Scottish social, political and theatrical life.
Q: Would independence be a good thing for the arts in Scotland?
Bill Paterson: I wouldn’t want to see a narrowing down into a purely Scottish view of the world. But a lot of Scottish people will say: “We’ll do it much better if we’re independent; we won’t have to filter everything through London.” It’s much too big a subject to sum up in a phrase.
Q: If you could change anything about your career, what would it be?
Bill Paterson: Maybe I should have turned up for that interview for a part in Alien. “Nobody will watch this,” I thought. “And Ridley Scott won’t want me anyway.”
Q: Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
Bill Paterson: Planned holidays and the vague possibility of a company pension.
Q: What work of art would you most like to own?
Bill Paterson: Rembrandt’s Titus, the Artist’s Son, in the Wallace Collection in London. It’s the most beautiful painting of Rembrandt’s son, who died just a few years later. It wouldn’t take up a lot of room: you could almost get it off the gallery wall without them noticing.
Q: What’s the worst thing anyone ever said about you?
Bill Paterson: I used to do a lot of shows in schools. After a show in Glasgow, I was crossing the playground when a little girl came up to me and said, in this tone of disdain: “You were in that an awful lot.”
Q: What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Bill Paterson: When I told my folks I was giving up quantity surveying to do a course in drama teaching, they were very good about it. My dad said quietly: “Just make sure you make a go of it this time, Billy.” Forty-three years later, I can say that I’ve at least had a go.
SOURCE: www.theguardian.com