Acting
Ralph Bates
Born 1940-02-12 · 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ralph Bates, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
6.1Three 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.
Taste the Blood of Dracula
1970
5.9Brilliant but arrogant scientist Victor Frankenstein builds a man from spare body parts, only for the monster to come alive and wreak havoc.
The Horror of Frankenstein
1970
5.9In 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.
Lust for a Vampire
1971
3.8During World War II, two allied soldiers escape from a Nazi POW camp to Lyons, where they accept the hospitality of mademoiselle Helene.
Letters to an Unknown Lover
1986
7.0An Englishwoman seeking to escape her marriage arrives at a French hotel.
Mrs. Reinhardt
1981
7.0Short film version of the Mary Shelley tale
Frankenstein Reborn
1993
5.1A woman gives birth to a baby, but this is no ordinary one. The child is seemingly possessed by the Devil.
I Don't Want to Be Born
1976
6.2In 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.
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde
1971
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.
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991
5.8It 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 Peggy 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?
Fear in the Night
1972
9.5A history of the famous vampire of books and movies, using film clips, previews and other methods.
Dracula: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991
10.0A retrospective of Dracula's appearances in film. It includes trailers and scenes from many Dracula-related films. There is an emphasis on films which feature the actors Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, as they portrayed the most popular versions of Dracula. Also covered are films depicting sons and daughters of Dracula, and Dracula-like vampires. Many of the trailers focus on the beauty of Dracula's victims, or the beauty of female vampires.
Dracula in the Movies
1992
3.6A cat lover (Lana Turner) kills her husband, blackmails her lover (Trevor Howard) and torments her son (Ralph Bates).
Persecution
1974
7.0In 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.
King of the Wind
1990
NRDomestic drama by Alma Cullen
Kay
1978
10.0A young woman looking into the disappearance of her fiance discovers that the last place he was seen was at a very strange motel.
Murder Motel
1975
Drama about the 1914-16 Irish uprising, from the perspective of Irish rebels and English military planners.
Would You Look at Them Smashing All Those Lovely Windows
1970
NRSue 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.
Flying in the Branches
1989
9.0A social satire in which advertisers realise that having a blind beggar as the public face of charities would help make them seem more appealing to donors.
Thank You Very Much
1971
6.0Santa's sled crash-lands in the desert where some children and a herd of magic camels help get him back in the air.
Santa's Christmas Crash
1995