Ray Burdis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ray Burdis (born August 23, 1958 in London) is an English Actor, Screenwriter Director and Film Producer. Ray Burdis started his Acting career at the age of eleven years old where he trained at the famous Anna Scher Theatre in Islington. His first major role was at the age of sixteen, in the hit Thames TV production of You Must Be Joking, alongside a young Birds of a Feather, Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson, which he co created, wrote and starred in. He also starred with Quadrophenias Phil Daniels in Four Idle Hands, at the time having two hit TV network shows running alternately in the same hour.
An actor from adolescence, he starred in an episode of the classic BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son before he turned 16. He first came to real prominence when he took the part of cowardly inmate Eckersley in the controversial movie Scum in 1979. He had played the same role two years earlier in a BBC version of the story, although this was not transmitted for many years due to its nature, hence the cinematic re-make. He later had a small role alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in the film Gandhi.
Burdis, whose younger brother Mark was a teenage heart-throb in the early 1980s with a leading role in children's drama Grange Hill, then played a supporting role as Richard, a gay neighbour in Channel 4's shortlived sitcom "Dream Stuffing" in 1984 (which featured a theme song performed by the late Kirsty MacColl). After this, he played ambitious photographer Nick Tyler in the BBC comedy Three Up, Two Down. His character was the son and son-in-law respectively of the two lead characters, played by Michael Elphick and Angela Thorne.
As a second string to his acting, Ray co-founded Fugitive as an independent film, television and music production company which started life as a premier music video producer, producing videos for internationally renowned artists such as Elton John, Queen, Tina Turner and George Michael, placing itself in the Top 5 international music video production companies. Burdis also produced for television The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the largest ever live outside broadcast at the time, it was transmitted in every country around the world to an audience 40% larger than Live Aid. Ray Burdis’ first foray into television drama was creating the series The Fear, for Euston Films, which was broadcast on the ITV Network. The series was critically acclaimed and was based on the unpublicised real-life gangster scene in the late 1980’s.
Ray Burdis has subsequently concentrated more on writing - producing and directing. He was the producer of The Krays, the critically-acclaimed biopic of the East End gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, and also co-wrote-produced and directed the movies Final Cut and Love, Honour and Obey starring such actors as Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Kathy Burke, Ray Winstone, Rhys Ifans. He also created, co wrote, produced, directed and starred in the television police fly on the wall docu-comedy Operation Good Guys for three seasons. The series was awarded the Silver Rose for Best Sitcom and the Prix de la Presse, voted for by the International Press, at the Montreux Golden Rose Festival.
Turning his hand once again to acting he went on to star in Manchild for two seasons. The program was a BBC comedy drama with Nigel Havers, Anthony Head and Don Warrington.
[edit] External links
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article about an English film and TV actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
