Russell Hunter

{{Short description|Scottish actor (1925–2004)}} {{About|the Scottish actor|the writer, playwright, and composer|Russell Hunter (playwright)|the English drummer|Pink Fairies}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}} {{Use British English|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox person | image = Russell_Hunter_Callan1.jpg | name = Russell Hunter | caption = Hunter as "Lonely" in ''Callan'' | birth_name = Russell Ellis | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1925|02|18}} | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2004|02|26|1925|02|18}} | death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | occupation = Actor | spouse = Marjorie Thomson (m. 1949–19??) Caroline Blakiston (m. 1970; div. 19??) {{marriage|Una McLean |1991}} | children = 4 }}

'''Adam Russell Hunter''' (18 February 1925 – 26 February 2004)<ref name="guardianobit">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/mar/01/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries |title=Obituary: Russell Hunter |first=Brian |last=Wilson |newspaper=The Guardian |date=1 March 2004 |accessdate=24 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="heraldobit">{{cite web |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12516602.russell-hunter-actor-who-was-best-known-as-lonely-in-callan/ |title=Russell Hunter {{!}} Actor who was best known as Lonely in Callan |newspaper=The Herald |date=28 February 2004 |access-date=23 February 2022}}</ref> was a Scottish television, stage and film actor. He played Lonely in the TV thriller series ''Callan'', starring Edward Woodward, and shop steward Harry in the Yorkshire Television sitcom ''The Gaffer'' (1981–1983) with Bill Maynard. He made guest appearances in television series such as ''The Sweeney'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Taggart'', ''A Touch of Frost'', ''The Bill'' and ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'' in The Adventure of Silver Blaze.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090509/episodes?year=1988|title=The Return of Sherlock Holmes (TV Series 1986–1988) |publisher=IMDb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0685618/?ref_=ttep_ep2|title=Silver Blaze|date=April 13, 1988|publisher=IMDb}}</ref>

==Life== Born '''Russell Ellis''' in Glasgow, Hunter's childhood was spent with his maternal grandparents in Lanarkshire, until returning to his unemployed father and cleaner mother when he was 12. He went from school to an apprenticeship in a Clydebank shipyard. During this time, he did some amateur acting for the Young Communist League before turning professional in 1946.<ref name="guardianobit"/>

==Career== ===Early work=== Under the stage name Russell Hunter, he acted at Perth Rep and at the Glasgow Unity Theatre  also performing in the very first Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1947 in ''The Plough and the Stars'' by Seán O'Casey, was a comedian in summer variety shows and toured with a one-man show.

Hunter worked in repertory theatre and Scottish variety before making his film debut in ''Lilli Marlene'' (1950). In the same year, he appeared in the film ''The Gorbals Story'',<ref name="guardianobit"/> which featured members of the Glasgow Unity Theatre including Archie Duncan and Roddy McMillan. The film also featured Hunter's first wife, Marjorie Thomson. He followed these by playing a pilot in the Battle of Britain drama ''Angels One Five'' in 1951.

His theatre work included joining Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company, working with Peggy Ashcroft and Dame Edith Evans.<ref name="guardianobit"/> and appearing in Charlie’s Aunt at the Bristol Old Vic in 1964-5.

===''Callan''=== right|thumb|Hunter as Lonely in a prison scene from ''Callan'' Hunter portrayed the timid, smelly, petty criminal Lonely, unlikely accomplice to a clinical spy-cum-assassin, in the downbeat 1967 television spy series ''Callan''.<ref name="independentobit">{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/russell-hunter-38083.html |title=Russell Hunter : Obituaries |work=The Independent |date=28 February 2004 |accessdate=24 December 2015}}</ref> Reportedly, he said of his identification with Lonely that "I take more baths than I might have playing other parts. When Lonely was in the public eye I used only the very best toilet water and a hell of a lot of aftershave."<ref name="independentobit"/>

After playing Costard in a BBC television production of ''Love's Labour's Lost'' (1965), Hunter was cast as Lonely in ITV's "Armchair Theatre" production ''A Magnum for Schneider'' in 1967, which introduced the secret agent Callan to the screen. Four series followed (1967, 1969–72). Hunter and Edward Woodward reprised their roles in both a 1974 feature film of the same name and, seven years later, in the television film ''Wet Job'', by which time Lonely had gone straight, got married and was running a plumbing company called Fresh and Fragrant.<ref name="independentobit"/> The title plays on "wet job", the euphemism for murder or assassination.

===Other roles=== During his years with ''Callan'', Hunter acted in the Hammer horror film ''Taste the Blood of Dracula'' (1970) and took the roles of Crumbles, Dr Fogg and Dr Makepeace in an ITV production of ''Sweeney Todd'' (1970), He also appeared in the British comedy film ''Up Pompeii'' (1971) as the Jailer.

He had two appearances in one-man plays performed on BBC Scotland in the early 1970s: ''Cocky'', where he played Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn, which ended with his speech to the jury defending Helen McDougal, Burke's wife, in the Burke and Hare case, and ''Jock'', where he played an archetypal Scottish soldier guarding a military museum. In 1974 he played Ted, a simple-minded but kind-hearted man in a two-part story in ''Rooms'', two-part dramas concerning the various drifters who rent rooms in a lodging house. He played 'Old Fred' in a 1974 episode of ''Thriller''. In 1975 he played a Scottish painter in the BBC's adaptation of the ''Lord Peter Wimsey'' story ''The Five Red Herrings''. In 1979, at the artist's request, he opened the Edinburgh Festival Exhibition of the Glasgow artist Stewart Bowman Johnson held at the Netherbow Gallery.

Hunter's other TV credits include ''The Sweeney'' (as a gay petty criminal and informant, Popeye, very similar to his Callan character Lonely), ''Ace of Wands'' (as the evil magician Mr Stabs, a role that Hunter twice reprised in episodes of two anthology series ''Shadows'' and ''Dramarama''), ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Robots of Death'' (1977),<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-guide/the-robots-of-death/ | title= The Robots of Death ★★★★★ | work=Radio Times | first=Mark | last=Braxton | access-date=19 April 2021}}</ref> ''Farrington of the F.O.'', ''The Bill'', ''A Touch of Frost'', ''Taggart'', sitcoms ''Rule Britannia'' (1975) as the Scotsman Jock McGregor and shop steward in ''The Gaffer'' (1981–83), and his last ever TV appearance, in the BBC drama ''Born and Bred''. In his last years he reprised his ''Doctor Who'' role for a series of audio plays released on CD, ''Kaldor City''. He also appeared in an episode of ''Mind Your Language'' as a minor character in the episode "I Belong To Glasgow"; he played an opinionated chauffeur who kept clashing with the students. He also appeared in the TV sitcom Lovejoy as a Scottish submariner in the episode "Angel Trousers". In his native Scotland, he was the central character in a long-running series of TV commercials in the early 1990s sponsored by the Law Society of Scotland in which he declared "''it's never too early to call your solicitor''".

He also appeared as different characters in the pilot and series of the BBC sitcom ''Rab C. Nesbitt''.

==Theatre== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Company ! Director ! Notes |- | 1971 || ''Confessions of a Justified Sinner'' || James Hogg || Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh || Richard Eyre || Edinburgh International Festival |}

==Filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1950|| ''The Gorbals Story'' || Johnnie Martin || |- |1950|| ''Lilli Marlene'' || Scottie || |- |1952|| ''Angels One Five'' || Pimpernel Pilot || |- |1952|| ''The Brave Don't Cry'' || Police Sergeant || |- |1970|| ''Taste the Blood of Dracula'' || Felix || |- |1971|| ''Up Pompeii'' || Jailer || |- |1974|| ''Callan'' || Lonely || |- |1975|| ''Five Red Herrings'' || Matthew Gowan || ''Lord Peter Wimsey (TV series)'', 3 episodes<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072502/fullcredits|title=Five Red Herrings (TV Mini-Series 1975– ) - IMDb|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref> |- |1977|| ''Doctor Who'' || Commander Uvanov || Serial: ''The Robots of Death'' |- |1979|| ''Mind Your Language'' || Jock || Episode: "I Belong to Glasgow" |- |1981|| ''Never Say Die!'' || || |- |1984|| ''The Masks of Death'' || Alfred Coombs || TV movie |- |1986|| ''The Christmas Star'' || Old McNickle || |- |1988|| ''The Play on One'' || Ian Sinclair || Episode: "The Dunroamin' Rising" |- |1992|| ''Lovejoy'' || Harry Mackie || Episode: Angel Trousers |- |1992|| ''Shooting Elizabeth'' || De-Miguel || Movie |- |1996|| ''The Detectives'' || Spanner || Episode: The Great Escaper |- |2003|| ''American Cousins'' || Nonno || |- |2003|| ''Skagerrak'' || Priest || |}

==Personal life== In 1949, Hunter married Marjorie Thomson and had two daughters.<ref name="guardianobit"/> In 1970, he married actress Caroline Blakiston after they both appeared in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park.<ref name="independentobit"/> They had a son and a daughter. His third marriage, in 1991, was to fellow performer Una McLean.<ref name="independentobit"/> They lived in a converted building at Taylor Gardens in Leith.

===Illness=== Although in the advanced stages of cancer, Hunter's last theatrical stint was in the Reginald Rose play ''12 Angry Men'' at the same, if inconceivably expanded, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with which he had remained inextricably linked.<ref name="guardianobit"/>

Despite being ill, Hunter received positive reviews for his appearances in the feature film ''American Cousins'' late in 2003 and as a priest in the film ''Skagerrak''.<ref name="independentobit"/> In November, ''American Cousins'', Hunter's last movie role, received the Special Jury Prize at the Savannah Film Festival in the United States, ending a career spanning six decades.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3491544.stm |title=Scots actor Russell Hunter dies |work=BBC News |date=26 February 2004 |access-date=24 December 2015}}</ref>

===Death=== Russell Hunter died aged 79 at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital of lung cancer.<ref name="BBC"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0403027|Russell Hunter}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Russell}} Category:1925 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Scotland Category:Male actors from Glasgow Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Scottish male television actors Category:Scottish male Shakespearean actors