Ed Bishop (born George Victor Bishop on 11 June 1932 in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York, USA and died on 8 June 2005 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England), was an American film, television, stage and radio actor based in Britain. He was 5 feet 11" tall with blue eyes and brown hair.
Bishop is best known for his television roles working for producer Gerry Anderson, most notably his performance as Commander Ed Straker in the science fiction series, UFO, which was produced in 1969 and broadcast during 1970-1971. Bishop also provided the voice of Captain Blue for Anderson's Supermarionation puppet series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Both series have become cult favorites. In UFO, he dyed his dark hair blond for the role of Straker, though he eventually started wearing a blond wig instead. Bishop kept one of the wigs he wore in UFO as a souvenir and was also given the Certina wristwatch he wore on the show, and before his death, said that he planned to pass it on to his eldest grandson. Bishop was the only cast member of UFO to appear in every episode of that series.
Bishop served in the US Army from 1952 to 1954, working as a disk jockey with the Armed Forces Radio at St. Johns in Newfoundland.
After graduating in Theatre Arts from Boston University, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to study for two years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 1959 and almost immediately found work in the British theatre and film industries. He adopted the first name "Edward" at this time for professional reasons. His first Broadway stage performance was in David Merrick's production of The Rehearsal in 1962, though he returned to Britain in 1964.
Bishop made his film acting debut in a small role in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 adaptation of Lolita (as an ambulance driver), and he had small roles in the James Bond films You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. Some of his other better known films include Saturn 3, Twilight's Last Gleaming, Whoops Apocalypse (he also appeared in the TV series version), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (where he played the Captain of the Aries 1B space-station-to-moon shuttle, in a role which first featured dialogue: the dialogue was later cut from his scenes). In 1963 he played an American astronaut going to the moon in the movie The Mouse on the Moon. Bishop also provided vocal work for the animated version of Star Trek and for Full Fathom Five, a Doctor Who audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. On radio, he played the private eye Philip Marlowe in six adaptations of Raymond Chandler's stories, the last of them produced almost a decade after the others, as the rights had previously been unavailable.
Bishop continued to act on film, TV and radio, usually in British and European productions, and was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions. He was also politically active, participating in the March 2004 British protest against the Iraq war. Bishop had already showed his disapproval of the military-industrial complex some years earlier, in a notable act of political theatre: in 1993 he gatecrashed an arms-trade fair held in Aldershot whilst dressed to resemble Augusto Pinochet. During the Aldershot protest he met photographer Jane Skinner, who would later become his third wife. His widow requested that instead of sending flowers to Bishop's funeral, donations should instead be made to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
Ed Bishop was married three times:
Jane Thwaites, 1955; (divorced)
Hillary Preen, 1962; 4 children - a son and 3 daughters (divorced 1996)
Jane Skinner, 2001 (widow)
Bishop died five days after the death of one of his UFO co-stars, Michael Billington. Bishop succumbed to a chest infection contracted while undergoing treatment for leukaemia. He lies buried in the churchyard of the Parish Church of Saint Lawrence in Napton, Warwickshire. The grey granite tombstone has a peace symbol prominently engraved on it. Bishop's epitaph reads: From This Valley They Say You Are Going. We Shall Miss Your Bright Eyes And Your Smile. His grave is adjacent to that of his son Daniel, who was killed in a car accident on 18 January 1988, aged 20.
His life and work was honoured at the British Academy Television Awards in May 2006.
He is survived by his widow and three daughters from his second marriage: Georgina, Jessica and Serina.
References
^ Ufoseries.com
^ Fanderson.org.uk
^ Bishop's grave at Findagrave.com
External links
Ed Bishop at the Internet Movie Database
Ed Bishop at Allmovie
Ed Bishop article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
Ed Bishop at Find A Grave
Obituary in The Independent newspaper
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Bishop"
Categories: 1932 births | 2005 deaths | American expatriates in the United Kingdom | American film actors | American radio actors | American stage actors | American television actors | Boston University alumni | Fulbright Scholars | UFO (TV series)
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