William Vanderpuye

William Vanderpuye
William Vanderpuye
Other names	Will Vanders
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1971–present

Last updated November 18, 2024

William Vanderpuye, also known as Will Vanderpuye or Will Vanders, is a British actor, broadcaster, writer, voice-over artist and producer.

He is the grandson of Jacob Sylvanus Bruce-Vanderpuye, a Barrister-at-Law, Djastse and Ga Mantse (Paramount Chief) of The Otubluhun Stool, Jamestown, Accra, Ghana, formerly the British colony of the Gold Coast. The titles are hereditary, although not used by Vanderpuye or his father William Wallace Bruce-Vanderpuye Snr. The Bruce "Clan" (Nanka Bruce) are an aristocratic Ghanaian family with a pedigree tracing back to King Robert the Bruce of Scotland. The Vanderpuyes are Kings of Elmina dating back to Jacobus Vanderpuye (1780), a nobleman and Dutch Governor-General of the region at St George's Castle Elmina.

Vanderpuye has had a long career consisting of many leading theatrical roles and supporting characters in British films and television programs. He is also a sportscaster, covering combat sports such as kickboxing and mixed martial arts.^{[ citation needed ]}

Acting

Vanderpuye studied at the Corona Theater-Academy with Nicholas Lyndhurst and Ray Winstone and took exams at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1971, he had his first role at the age of eight in the film Melody , written by Alan Parker and produced by David Putnam. He went on to work extensively with iconic British director Alan Clarke during the late 70s and 80s.

Film roles include Aitch in The Firm with Gary Oldman, and thriller action film Down .^[1] He voiced the Hutu radio DJ in the multi-Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda and characterized Phillip the dog in the BAFTA- and Oscar-winning film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit .

He has also appeared in London's Burning , Jonathan Creek , The Brokers Man, Minder (Gunfight at the O.K. Laundrette), One Foot in the Grave , Scum , Touching Evil , The Last Detective , Casualty , and Holby City more recently as Tom Hilton in "Death in Paradise" on British television. Animations as a voice-over include Budgie the Little Helicopter The Greedysaurus Gang A Monkeys Tale and the BBC's "Fun with Phonics ,^[2]

Vanderpuye's theater-performances include Reggae Britannia at the Royal Court Theatre, The Great White Hope , Tramway Road with Freddie Jones and Richard E. Grant, and an appearance with Lily Savage in Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens the off-Broadway production about AIDS.

Voice acting

Will Vanderpuye is a voice-over actor and can be heard regularly on TV and radio. As a video game voice actor, he is well known for providing the voice of the character Patches in each of the latter's appearances across FromSoftware's Dark Souls series and the closely related Bloodborne , Demon's Souls and Elden Ring . Vanderpuye also voiced the Grand Theft Auto series and the 2005 racing video game Juiced as Biggi Mombassa, the leader of the A.W.B crew. He played the Head Honcho in Heart of Darkness ^[3] and more recently the WW1 game Tungaska, yet to be released. As a voice-actor he has also played characters in the Hobbit trilogy .^{[ citation needed ]}

He appeared in the films The Curse of the Were-Rabbit , Quest for a Heart , and Minions .^{[ citation needed ]}

He is the voice to certain promos for the Nickelodeon UK Channels (common with Nick Jr), The Africa Channel, Comedy Central and the Fox International Channels.^{[ citation needed ]}

Martial arts

Inspired by the Kurosawa Akira-film Seven Samurai , Vanderpuye began studying Shotokan-Karate at the age of 13 earning a brown belt in the discipline. He later switched to Kyokushin in which he currently holds a 3rd Dan black belt. In addition to karate, he has also studied/trained boxing, jujutsu and judo.^[4]

In 2002, he began commentating for K-1 and Fight Club on Eurosport under the name Will Vanders (or Sensei Will Vanders) and has commentated to viewing audiences in over fifty countries.^[5] He is known for his commentary on past K-1 events, and his catchphrases "it's a knockdooooooown!" and "bye bye Pepsi-Cola, hello holy wine" (a line from the song "The Last Train" by the 1970s rock band The Movies, off their album Bullets through the Barrier.)

His TV production company produces Fight-Sport programs for Eurosport and other major TV channels. He has worked as a broadcaster for the BBC, Sky TV, BT Sport, Fox TV, Abu Dhabi TV, and Channel 4. Presenting for television for K-1, Glory, King of Kings, Superkombat, Legends, Pancrase, Shooto, World Freefight Challenge, KSW and Abu Dhabi Warriors. He is an official AIBA (IOC) and World Series of Boxing commentator.

Related Research Articles

James Broadbent is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, an International Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sallis</span> English actor (1921–2017)

Peter John Sallis was a British actor. He was known for his work on British television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Peck</span> English actor (1945–1999)

Robert Peck was an English actor who played Ronald Craven in the television serial Edge of Darkness, for which he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor. He was also known for his role as game warden Robert Muldoon in the film Jurassic Park.

Ian William Richardson was a British actor from Edinburgh, Scotland. He was best known for his portrayal of machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards (1990–1995) television trilogy, as well as the pivotal spy Bill Haydon in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979). Other notable screen work included a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in two films, as well as significant roles in Brazil, M. Butterfly, and Dark City.

Mackenzie Crook is an English actor, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in The Office, Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Orell in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and the title role of Worzel Gummidge. He is also the creator and star of BBC Four's Detectorists (2014–2022), for which he won two BAFTA awards. He also plays major roles in TV series Britannia, as the opposite leading druids Veran and Harka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Ineson</span> English actor and narrator (born 1969)

Ralph Michael Ineson is an English actor and narrator. Known for his deep and rough Yorkshire-accented voice, he is perhaps best known as Chris Finch in the BBC sitcom The Office (2001).

Rufus Jones is an English actor known for his appearances on television which include David Wilkes in W1A, Dr. Foggerty in Hunderby, Tom in Camping, and Peter in Home.

Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).

Benjamin Hugh Railton Edwards is a British motor racing commentator employed by Formula One, and formerly employed by Channel 4. In the past, he has voiced television coverage of Formula One, Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship, in addition to Formula One DVD Reviews for Duke Video. After spending well over a decade working for networks including Eurosport, ESPN, ITV and F1 Digital +, he was named the BBC's lead TV commentator on its Formula One coverage from 2012 in December 2011. He is known for his enthusiastic and energetic commentary style. In 2022 Edwards is one of the commentators for F1TV’s Formula One racing coverage. As of June 2023, he will also assume a role as one of the main commentators in respect of Formula E.

Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He has directed Hollywood movies such as White Oleander and television films like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise, Wolf Hall and The State.

Kayvan Novak is an English actor and comedian. He co-created and starred in the comedy series Fonejacker (2006–2008) and Facejacker (2010–2012), winning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy in 2008.

Timothy Charles Whitnall is an English actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is known for playing Angelo in the long-running CITV series Mike and Angelo and narrating the BBC children's TV programme Teletubbies from 1997 to 2001. As a writer, he has won a BAFTA and an Olivier Award for his work on TV movie Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story and play Morecambe. He is also a voice actor, providing voices on characters from television shows such as Fifi and the Flowertots, Roary the Racing Car, and Thomas & Friends.

Yuji Don Okumoto is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Chozen Toguchi in the film The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and its sequel television series Cobra Kai (2021–present). He has also appeared in the films Better Off Dead,Real Genius, True Believer (1989), American Yakuza (1993), Contact (1997), The Truman Show (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001), Only the Brave (2006), Inception (2010) and Driven (2018).

Rob Curling is a British television presenter and journalist. He presents the sport for Sky News. He also fronts the tennis coverage for British Eurosport. Up to and including 2011, he anchored BBC Sport's interactive television coverage of: Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Open Golf, Six Nations Rugby and World Athletics Championships. He was the host of the game show Turnabout, which aired on BBC One for eight series between 1990 and 1996. He presented the Halford Tour Series cycling for ITV4, and commentated on table tennis on the BBC at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Conor McNamara is an Irish sports commentator. He is the Lead Commentator for Premier League Productions and also works for BBC Sport on Radio 5 Live and Match of the Day, Amazon Prime Video and Sky Sports. Away from sport, he voices the character of 'Squawk The Parrot' on CBeebies show Swashbuckle.

Ross Dyer is a British sports and entertainment broadcaster. He is currently a football commentator and presenter for ESPN and Fox Sports in the United States.

Colin Bryce is a former Great Britain Olympic bobsledder, Strongman, now working as a television presenter and producer. He currently works as a sports commentator for the BBC, ESPN, Fox Sports, Eurosport, Channel Five, Channel 4 and CBBC.

Aneurin Barnard is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Davey in Hunky Dory, Claude in The Truth About Emanuel, Bobby Willis in Cilla, Tim in Thirteen, King Richard III in The White Queen, William in Dead in a Week or Your Money Back, Gibson in Dunkirk, and Boris Pavlikovsky in The Goldfinch.

The 2009 British Academy Television Awards were held on 26 April at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The event was broadcast live on BBC One and was hosted by Graham Norton. The nominations were announced on 24 March. Winners in bold.

Archibald Macpherson is a Scottish football commentator and author. He has been commentating on Scottish football, on radio and television, for over four decades.

References

↑ "Down (2001)". down.the-movie.net. Retrieved 17 August 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
↑ "Fun with Phonics". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
↑ Amazing Studio. Heart of Darkness. Infogrames Multimedia; Ocean Software; Interplay Productions. Scene: Ending credits, 30:39 in, English voiceover, cast.
↑ "William "The Sensei" Vanders". Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
↑ Doyle, Paul (3 February 2005). "Why K-1 is the toughest, most exciting sport in the world". Guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and media. Retrieved 17 August 2010.

External links

William Vanderpuye at IMDb

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Down (2001)". down.the-movie.net. Retrieved 17 August 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}

[2] "Fun with Phonics". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2010.

[hodcredits-3] Amazing Studio. Heart of Darkness. Infogrames Multimedia; Ocean Software; Interplay Productions. Scene: Ending credits, 30:39 in, English voiceover, cast.

[4] "William "The Sensei" Vanders". Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2011.

[5] Doyle, Paul (3 February 2005). "Why K-1 is the toughest, most exciting sport in the world". Guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and media. Retrieved 17 August 2010.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]