Robin Ramsay (actor)

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Robin Ramsay
Born
Education Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active1957-2008
Family William Ramsay (grandfather)
Tamasin Ramsay (daughter)

Robin Ramsay is an Australian former television, film and stage actor. He appeared in the rural series Bellbird as Charlie Cousins, in which he was best known for the scene in which he falls to his death from a wheat silo.

Contents

Early life and education

Ramsay studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1957. He worked in England briefly before returning to Australia in 1958.

Personal life

Ramsay is father of Robina Ramsay, an internationally ranked dressage rider, [1] and anthropologist Tamasin Ramsay.[ citation needed ]

Career

Theatre

After returning to Australia, Ramsay joined the fledgling Union Theatre Company in Melbourne. He starred in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, produced for the first Adelaide Festival in 1960.

He has played roles in theatre locally starting from 1957 [2] and then went to the United States in 1961 and joined the Theatre Company of Boston. He then toured the country in The National Repertory Theatre, with Eva Le Gallienne and Faye Emerson.

In 1964, he took the role of Fagin in the hit musical Oliver! on Broadway, a role he played for a further two years in New York, followed by a record-breaking national tour. He shared the bill with the Beatles, singing a song from the musical in a subsequently memorable edition of The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1966, Ramsay recreated his role of Fagin for a West End revival of Oliver!.

Television

Returning to Australia, Ramsay's role as Charlie Cousens in Bellbird , Australia's first successful television soap opera, garnered him considerable public notice. A regular character on the show from August 1967, Ramsay left in May 1968 to take the role of Fagin in a Japanese stage production of Oliver!.

The show's producers decided to kill off his character, with Cousens falling off a wheat silo, staging what has been described as "one of the most-watched and best-remembered moments in Australian TV history", [3] fans wrote letters protesting about his death and even sent flowers to his funeral.

He appeared in the TV movie Wicked City .

Return to stage

Ramsay returned to the theatre playing the controversial priest Daniel Berrigan in the Trial of the Catonsville Nine in Sydney. He went on to play Pontius Pilate in 's original production of Jesus Christ Superstar. [3] He was in the first production at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1972: playing MacHeath in The Threepenny Opera. Ramsay spent the next few years as a leading actor with the Sydney Theatre Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company, and working in film and television. He has twice won the Melbourne Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He was in Medea, the opening production of the Melbourne Arts Centre, playing opposite Zoe Caldwell.

In 1977, with Rodney Fisher, he developed his first solo show, drawn from the writings of Henry Lawson, The Bastard From The Bush. [4] This refocusing on Lawson as a sophisticated short-story writer and diarist, rather than as a 'bush poet', radically altered Australia's view of their favourite icon. The play toured to Riverside Studios in London, and played extended seasons at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre and the Victorian Arts Centre. The production won the Australian Arts Award

In the early 1980s Ramsay was commissioned to create a new solo show celebrating the life and times of Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel Prize-winning poet: titled Borderland. The invitation came from the Indian High Commission in Canberra. The play was performed in Australia, then toured to more than 60 countries, in tandem with The Bastard from the Bush.

Ramsay then formed his own chamber theatre company, "Open Secret", and continued touring internationally, developing new productions, notably Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales from Here and There and incorporating local musicians into the company's presentations. His new solo play The Accidental Mystic, high times on the Indian ashram trail, written by his wife Barbara Bossert, opened at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in 1995, after seasons in Sydney and the Edinburgh Festival. The play toured to London and throughout India. Ramsay was nominated for a Melbourne Critics Circle Best Actor Award for his performance.

In 1994 he toured the Tokyo International Theatre Festival with the Playbox Theatre.

Producing and directing

In 2008, he produced and directed the feature film Tao of the Traveller, a spiritual adventure film which won a Best Film Award at the South African International Film Festival in 2008, and was selected for screening at several festivals in 2009, including the British Film Festival in Los Angeles, Egypt International Film Festival, Thailand International Film Festival, and Swansea Bay International Film Festival. In 2008 the film was also invited to the Fallbrook Film Festival in California, and won awards in the Research and Experimental categories at the Accolade Film Festival.

Filmography

Films

YearFilmRoleType
1959 Till Death Do Us Part TV movie
1960 No Picnic Tomorrow TonyTV movie
1969 The Cheerful Cuckold Tony ChampionTV movie
1972 Jesus Christ Superstar Pontius Pilate TV movie
How Could You Believe Me When I Said I'd Be Your Valet When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life? TruffalinoTV movie
1975 The Box Bruce MadiganFeature film
1976 Mad Dog Morgan RogetFeature film
Oz Glynn the Good FairyFeature film
1980BedfellowsFeature film
1981The MesmeristTV movie
1982 Running on Empty DadFeature film
Oliver Twist VoiceAnimated film
1984 Conferenceville TV movie
1985 A Street to Die TomFeature film
1987 Dear Cardholder Hec HarrisFeature film
1991RequiemShort film
1996 Cosi Minister for HealthFeature film
2015Force of DestinySurgeonFeature film

Television

YearFilmRoleType
1967 Love and War Mercutio Miniseries, 1 episode
1967-68 Bellbird Charlie CousensTV series, 82 episodes
1970Music on 2 Percy Grainger TV series, 1 episode
1973 Ryan MarioTV series, 1 episode
1974This Love AffairTV series, 1 episode
1975 Behind the Legend Marcus ClarkeTV series, 1 episode
Shannon's Mob Andrew BlakeTV series
1976 Tandarra DexterMiniseries, 1 episode
1978Tickled PinkRichardTV series, 1 episode
Chopper Squad MurrayTV series, 1 episode
1981The Willow Bend MysteryAdrianTV series, 5 episodes
1983 Silent Reach Father BridgesMiniseries, 2 episodes
1984 Carson's Law Jeremy ForbesTV series, 2 episodes
1984 Special Squad MassiniTV series, 1 episode
1986 Return to Eden Sheik AmahlTV series
1988 The Flying Doctors Lloyd GreenwayTV series, 1 episode
Dadah Is Death Wilf BarlowMiniseries
1990 Embassy AlexTV series, 1 episode
1994 The Damnation of Harvey McHugh Father NillsonTV series
1995 Mercury Simon HayesMiniseries, 1 episode

Theatre

YearTitleRoleCompany/Venue
1957 The Matchmaker Union Theatre
Tonight in Samarkand Union Theatre
Ring Round the Moon Union Theatre
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Union Theatre
Arsenic and Old Lace Union Theatre
A View from the Bridge Union Theatre
Speak of the Devil Union Theatre
Beauty and the Beast Union Theatre
A Hatful of Rain Union Theatre
1958 Lola Montez Union Theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire Union Theatre
Hotel Paradiso Union Theatre
The Knight of the Burning Pestle Union Theatre
Blood Wedding Union Theatre
The Threepenny Opera Union Theatre
Lysistrata Union Theatre
1959Moby Dick Union Theatre & Elizabethan Theatre
1960 Moon on a Rainbow Shawl MTC at Union Hall for Adelaide Festival
1964-66 Oliver! Fagin Broadway & West End
1966The Knack Russell Street Theatre
1967 A Flea in Her Ear Russell Street Theatre & Canberra Theatre
The Servant of Two Masters Russell Street Theatre
Incident at Vichy Russell Street Theatre
1968 Everything in the Garden Russell Street Theatre
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg Russell Street Theatre, Theatre Royal, Hobart & The Little Theatre Launceston
1969 Henry IV, Part 1 Octagon Theatre & Keith Murdoch Court, Melbourne
The Country Wife Russell Street Theatre & Canberra Theatre
Loot Russell Street Theatre
The Soldiers Russell Street Theatre & Canberra Theatre
A Long View Russell Street Theatre
1970 Trial of the Catonsville Nine Pitt Street Congregational Church
Day of Glory Russell Street Theatre
The Devils Russell Street Theatre
Son of Man' Russell Street Theatre
1970-71 All's Well That Ends Well Princess Theatre (Melbourne), Canberra Theatre & Octagon Theatre
1971 The Government Inspector Russell Street Theatre
1972 How Could You Believe Me When I Said I'd Be Your Valet When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life? Canberra Theatre
1972-73 The Threepenny Opera MacHeath Sydney Opera House
Jesus Christ Superstar Pontius Pilate Jim Sharman production at Festival Hall (Melbourne), Kings Park Perth, Princess Theatre, Launceston, Hobart City Hall, Palais Theatre, Capitol Theatre
1974 Pericles, Prince of Tyre Russell Street Theatre
1975 The Taming of the Shrew SGIO Theatre
Absurd Person Singular St Martins Theatre, Melbourne
When Voyaging Playhouse Adelaide
1976The Wolf Parade Theatre, University of NSW
Martello Towers Nimrod
1977Yamashita Playhouse Canberra
The Merchant of Venice Athenaeum Theatre
The Bastard from the Bush Rodney Fisher Belvoir Street Theatre, Russell Street Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Riverside Studios London & Nimrod
1978Rock-Ola Nimrod & Scott Theatre, Adelaide
1979 P.S. Your Cat Is Dead The Space Adelaide & Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1980 The Sunny South Eli Grupp Sydney Opera House
Cyrano de Bergerac Sydney Opera House
The Merry Wives of Windsor Sydney Opera House
1980-81 The Magic Pudding Sydney Opera House, Victorian country tour, Western Australian tour, The Playhouse Adelaide
1982 Macbeth Sydney Opera House
The Butterflies of Kalimantan Stables Theatre
1982-83 Trafford Tanzi Seymour Centre, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
1983 On Our Selection Athenaeum Theatre
1983-84The Bastard from the Bush (double bill with Borderland)Arts Centre ANU, Seymour Centre, Playhouse Newcastle & International tour
1984 Medea Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse Melbourne
1985 The Dance of Death Wharf Theatre
1986Hamlet & The Marriage Sydney Opera House
1987 A Chorus of Disapproval Playhouse Melbourne, Canberra Theatre
1988Faces in the Street Seymour Centre
1991 Racing Demon Wharf Theatre
Hay Fever Playhouse Melbourne
Beastly Tales from Here and There Open Secret (Ramsay’s chamber theatre company)
1994The Bastard from the BushFairfax Studio Melbourne, Seymour Centre
1995The Accidental MysticSolo playOpen Secret at Ensemble Theatre, Theatre 3 Acton, Malthouse Theatre, Lion Theatre Adelaide, Seymour Centre, Edinburgh Festival, Malthouse Theatre, London & India
The Head of MaryThe Small Theatre - Tokyo International Arts Space & Malthouse Theatre
1996 Heretic Derek Freeman Sydney Opera House, Subiaco Theatre Centre, Canberra Theatre, Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Goldfields Arts Centre Kalgoorlie & Playhouse Melbourne
2003-06BorderlandOpen Secret at Lord Mayor of London's India Now celebrations, London

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References

  1. Robina Ramsay Becomes a Bride. 17 September 1989. Accessed 27 July 2007.
  2. "Robi eRamsay".
  3. 1 2 Superstar: The Australian Production at MilesAgo: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 Accessed 5 November 2012
  4. Archived 22 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine at Cameron's agency. Accessed 5 November 2012.