Ralph Bates

Ralph Bates

Born: February 12, 1940
Died: March 27, 1991
in Bristol, England
​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  

Ralph Bates (12 February 1940 – 27 March 1991) was an English film and television actor, known for his role in the British sitcom Dear John and for being one of Hammer Horror's best-known actors from the latter period of the company.

Bates was born in Bristol, England, of French ancestry (He was the great, great nephew of French scientist Louis Pasteur) and educated at Trinity College Dublin. He read French there, before winning a scholarship to Yale Drama School. The course completed, Bates returned to Ireland to make his stage debut in Shaw's You Never Can Tell at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 1963. A career in repertory theatre soon followed and the young actor gained experience in productions ranging from Hedda Gabler, to raucous comedies.

Later, Bates carved a niche in the world of horror films and played important roles or the lead in several Hammer Horror productions, such as Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Horror of Frankenstein, Lust for a Vampire, and Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, in which he played a deranged doctor who mistakenly transforms himself into a beautiful siren.

He portrayed Caligula in the series The Caesars and alongside Cyd Hayman in a passionate French tale of murder and mystery - Crime of Passion series. After playing Thomas Culpeper in an episode of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), he went on to star in the BBC drama series, Moonbase 3 (1973) and the long-running Poldark, in which he played villainous George Warleggan. The series ran for 29 episodes, starting in 1975. He also played Communist Paul Vercors in the final season of the drama series Secret Army. Because of his French ancestry and dark looks, he was often chosen to play a Frenchman on television. Bates also appeared in the television movie Minder on the Orient Express, again as a Frenchman.

It looked, for some time, as if he might remain typecast in sinister roles, but he was offered a part in a farcical comedy by the writer John Sullivan, which saw Bates as the loveable but loveless central character among a singles group, with each of its members looking for that perfect but ever elusive partner. Dear John (1986–87), in which he realistically played the part of a divorcee returning to single life, lasted for two series, and around the same time he appeared in the ITV Yorkshire Television sitcom Farrington of the F.O. (1986) with Angela Thorne and Joan Sims.

Bates became ill and was diagnosed with cancer. He died in London at age 51 from pancreatic cancer. He was divorced from the actress Joanna Van Gyseghem, and survived by his second wife, the actress Virginia Wetherell (married 1973-1991). The couple had one daughter actress Daisy Bates (b. 1974), and a son William Bates (b. 1977), an actor & musician.

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Movies for Ralph Bates...

Santa's Christmas Crash
Title: Santa's Christmas Crash
Released: January 1, 1995
Type: Movie
Santa's sled crash-lands in the desert where some children and a herd of magic camels help get him back in the air.
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Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Title: Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Character: Victor Frankenstein (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
Documentary with a treasure trove of rare footage and vintage trailers, offering a rich and unusual look at the history of Frankenstein on the screen.
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Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Title: Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
Character: Lord Courtley (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
A history of the famous vampire of books and movies, using film clips, previews and other methods.
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King of the Wind
Title: King of the Wind
Character: LeDuc
Released: May 25, 1990
Type: Movie
In 1727, an Arab colt is born with the signs of the wheat ear and the white spot on his heel: evil and good. And thus begins the life of Sham. He is a gift to the King of France, through a series of adventures with his faithful stable boy, Agba, he becomes the Godolphin Arabian, the founder of one of the greatest thoroughbred racing lines of all time.
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Flying in the Branches
Title: Flying in the Branches
Character: Ed
Released: January 22, 1989
Type: Movie
Sue hasn't seen her family in Prague since she became a refugee in London in 1968. When her younger sister, Dana, is allowed to visit the West for the first time, Sue is reminded of things she had tried to forget. Amid the tensions of the sisters' less than joyful reunion, Dana announces that she wants to find a husband.
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Letters to an Unknown Lover
Title: Letters to an Unknown Lover
Character: Bernard
Released: May 28, 1986
Type: Movie
During World War II, two allied soldiers escape from a Nazi POW camp to Lyons, where they accept the hospitality of mademoiselle Helene.
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Title: Dear John
Character: John Lacey
Released: February 17, 1986
Type: TV
Dear John is a British sitcom, written by John Sullivan. Two series and a special were broadcast between 1986 and 1987. This sitcom's title refers to letters - known as "Dear John" letters - from girls to their boyfriends breaking off a relationship. John discovers in the opening episode that his wife is leaving him for a friend, and he is forced to find lodgings. In desperation, he attends the 1-2-1 Singles Club and finds other members mostly social misfits. The series was also re-made for the U.S. market.
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Title: The Agatha Christie Hour
Released: September 7, 1982
Type: TV
This ten episode program was based on ten short stories written by Agatha Christie but with wide-ranging themes. Some were romances, some had supernatural themes and a couple were adventures. The common link was that all came from the talented pen of Agatha Christie, all were entertaining and each drama was carefully crafted and well cast with many of Britain's best known actors of the time represented.
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Mrs. Reinhardt
Title: Mrs. Reinhardt
Character: Mr. Reinhardt
Released: October 30, 1981
Type: Movie
An Englishwoman seeking to escape her marriage arrives at a French hotel.
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Title: The Gentle Touch
Released: April 11, 1980
Type: TV
The Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months.
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Title: Minder
Character: François LeBlanc
Released: October 29, 1979
Type: TV
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley.
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Title: Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Paul Foster
Released: March 24, 1979
Type: TV
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
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Title: Secret Army
Character: Paul Vercors
Released: September 7, 1977
Type: TV
World War II drama about covert organisation Lifeline helping allied airmen escape after being shot down in occupied Europe, working with the Resistance and hiding from the Gestapo.
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Title: Secret Army
Released: September 7, 1977
Type: TV
World War II drama about covert organisation Lifeline helping allied airmen escape after being shot down in occupied Europe, working with the Resistance and hiding from the Gestapo.
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Title: Dangerous Knowledge
Character: Sanders
Released: May 19, 1976
Type: TV
A gritty six-part mystery thriller serial from 1976, starring John Gregson as Bill Kirby. Bill is an insurance salesman travelling back to the UK from France. Accompanied by Laura Marshall (Prunella Ransome), he has to evade the two armed agents that are following him. A series of murders follow and Bill tries to unmask who's behind them.
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I Don't Want to Be Born
Title: I Don't Want to Be Born
Character: Gino Carlesi
Released: February 1, 1976
Type: Movie
A woman gives birth to a baby, but this is no ordinary little tyke. The child is seemingly possessed by the spirit of a freak dwarf who the mother once spurned. Cue a spate of strange deaths, the one common factor being the presence of a baby in pram at the scene...
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Title: Poldark
Character: George Warleggan
Released: October 5, 1975
Type: TV
Period drama series about the brooding rivalry between former soldier Ross Poldark and local industrialist George Warleggan, and the two women in their lives. Based on the books by Winston Graham.
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Murder Motel
Title: Murder Motel
Released: May 24, 1975
Type: Movie
A young woman looking into the disappearance of her fiance discovers that the last place he was seen was at a very strange motel.
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Persecution
Title: Persecution
Character: David Masters
Released: November 7, 1974
Type: Movie
A cat lover (Lana Turner) kills her husband, blackmails her lover (Trevor Howard) and torments her son (Ralph Bates).
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Title: Moonbase 3
Released: September 9, 1973
Type: TV
The adventures of David Caulder and his crew stationed on Moonbase 3.
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Title: Thriller
Character: Michael Spencer
Released: April 14, 1973
Type: TV
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.
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Title: Crown Court
Released: October 11, 1972
Type: TV
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.
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Title: The Protectors
Character: David Lee
Released: September 29, 1972
Type: TV
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in contemporary times. It was also the only Gerry Anderson produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction elements, The Protectors became one of Anderson's most popular productions, easily winning a renewal for a second season. A third season was in the planning stages when the show's major sponsor pulled out, forcing its cancellation. The Protectors first aired in 1972 and 1973, and ran to 52 episodes over two series, each 25 minutes long - making it one of the last series of this type to be produced in a half-hour format. It starred Robert Vaughn as Harry Rule, Nyree Dawn Porter as the Contessa Caroline di Contini, and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet. Episodes often featured prominent guest actors.
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Fear in the Night
Title: Fear in the Night
Character: Robert Heller
Released: July 9, 1972
Type: Movie
It took Peggy Heller a long time to recover from the trauma of a brutal physical assault, suffered in her youth. When she married Robert, he provided her with the love and reassurance she craved for and the two settled down in a pretty house in the grounds of the public school where Robert was a master. But the headmaster of the school is not what he seems and Penny is convinced he means to harm her - is her fear a figment of her tortured imagination or are there forces at work that intend to manipulate her anxieties with fatal consequences?
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Thank You Very Much
Title: Thank You Very Much
Character: Peter
Released: November 11, 1971
Type: Movie
Raucous satire from NF Simpson, the famous absurdist author of One Way Pendulum et al. Featuring Ralph Bates, Stanley ‘Howard Hughes’ Lebor and Joanna ‘Duty Free’ van Gysegham.
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Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde
Title: Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde
Character: Dr. Jekyll
Released: October 17, 1971
Type: Movie
In foggy London Dr Jekyll experiments on newly deceased women determined to discover an elixir for immortal life. Success enables his spectacular transformation into the beautiful but psychotic Sister Hyde who stalks the dark alleys of Whitechapel for young, innocent, female victims, ensuring continuation of the bloodstained research. With each transformation Sister Hyde becomes the more dominant personality, determined to eventually suppress the frail, ineffectual Dr Jekyll forever.
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Title: The Persuaders!
Character: Michel
Released: September 17, 1971
Type: TV
An English aristocrat and an American millionaire come together to tackle crime.
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Title: Jason King
Released: September 15, 1971
Type: TV
Jason King - a suavely sophisticated former secret agent turned novelist - travels the world searching for material to fill his books, encountering an endless parade of glamorous women, exotic locales, menacing villains and daring intrigue! Before Austin Powers swung into action, Jason King set the standard for the hip crime-fighting international playboy!
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Lust for a Vampire
Title: Lust for a Vampire
Character: Giles Barton
Released: January 17, 1971
Type: Movie
In 1830, the Karnstein heirs use the blood of an innocent to bring forth the evil that is the beautiful Mircalla - or as she was in 1710, Carmilla. The nearby Finishing School offers rich pickings not only in in the blood of nubile young ladies but also with the headmaster who is desperate to become Mircalla's disciple, and the equally besotted and even more foolish author Richard Lestrange.
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The Horror of Frankenstein
Title: The Horror of Frankenstein
Character: Victor Frankenstein
Released: November 8, 1970
Type: Movie
Young Victor Frankenstein returns from medical school with a depraved taste for beautiful women and fiendish experiments.
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Taste the Blood of Dracula
Title: Taste the Blood of Dracula
Character: Lord Courtley
Released: May 7, 1970
Type: Movie
Three elderly distinguished gentlemen are searching for some excitement in their boring borgoueis lives and gets in contact with one of count Dracula's servants. In a nightly ceremony they restore the count back to life. The three men killed Dracula's servant and as a revenge, the count makes sure that the gentlemen are killed one by one by their own sons.
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Title: The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Character: Thomas Culpepper
Released: January 1, 1970
Type: TV
Series of television plays written by six different authors. Each play is a lavish dramatization of the trials and tribulations surrounding Henry and his wives. Keith Michell ties the episodes together with his dignified and magnetic performance as the mighty monarch.
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Title: The Caesars
Character: Caligula
Released: September 22, 1968
Type: TV
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the early emperors of Ancient Rome, but differed in its less sensationalist depictions of historical characters and their motives.
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Title: Broad And Narrow
Released: August 21, 1965
Type: TV