| The Right Honourable The Lord Fellowes of West Stafford DL |
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| Born | Julian Alexander Fellowes 17 August 1949 Cairo, Egypt |
| Spouse | Emma Joy Kitchener (1990); 1 child |
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, DL (born 17 August 1949), known as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer.
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Fellowes was born in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest son of Olwen (née Stuart-Jones) and Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes[1], a diplomat and Arabist who campaigned to have Haile Selassie restored to his throne during World War II.[2]
His childhood home was in Hereford Square in South Kensington.[3]
Fellowes was educated at several private schools in Britain: firstly at Wetherby School (Wetherby Place, South Kensington, London); followed by St. Philip's, a Roman Catholic pre-preparatory school, also in Wetherby Place; and lastly at the Catholic public school Ampleforth College. He went up to Magdalene College, University of Cambridge where he was a member of Footlights,[4] followed by the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (London).
Fellowes moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and played a number of small TV roles for the next two years. He believed his breakthrough had come when he was considered to replace Hervé Villechaize as the butler on the TV series Fantasy Island, but the role was given to a much older British actor.[5]
After returning to the UK, Fellowes played the part of Kilwillie in the television series Monarch of the Glen. Other notable acting roles included the part of Claud Seabrook in the acclaimed 1996 BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North and the second Duke of Richmond in the BBC drama serial Aristocrats.
In 1991, he played Neville Marsham in For the Greater Good, again for the BBC, directed by Danny Boyle. He has twice notably portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent in the 1982 television version of The Scarlet Pimpernel and the 1996 adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Regiment. He launched a new series on BBC One in 2004, Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder, which he wrote and introduced onscreen. He was the presenter of Never mind the full stops, a panel-based gameshow transmitted on BBC Four from 2006 to 2007. He created Downton Abbey on Britain's television channel ITV1 in 2010, a hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama renewed by ITV1 for broadcast as a second series in 2011.[6]. He has written a new Titanic mini-series that is being produced by ITV1 and to be aired in April 2012. [7]
As an actor, Fellowes has appeared in several films, including Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, Damage, Place Vendôme, and Tomorrow Never Dies. As a screenwriter, he wrote the script for Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen in 2002. In late 2005, Fellowes made his directorial debut with the film Separate Lies, for which he won the award for Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review.
2009 saw the release of The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, for which he wrote the original script. Other screenwriting credits include Vanity Fair, The Tourist and From Time to Time, which he also directed, and which won Best Picture at the Chicago Children's Film Festival, the Youth Jury Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, Best Picture at the Fiuggi Family Festival in Rome and the Young Jury Award at Cinemagic in Belfast.
His novel Snobs was published in 2004. It focused on the social nuances of the upper class and concerned the marriage of an upper-middle class girl to a peer. Snobs was a Sunday Times Best Seller. In 2009 he published the novel, Past Imperfect, also a Sunday Times Best Seller. It deals with the Debutante Season of 1968, comparing the world then to the world of 2008.
As an actor, he appeared in several West End productions, including Samuel Taylor's A Touch of Spring, Alan Ayckbourn's Joking Apart and a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter. As a writer, Fellowes penned the script to the current West End musical Mary Poppins, produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Disney, which opened on Broadway in December 2006.
| Medium | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Theatre | Mary Poppins | Adapted from the novels by P. L. Travers and the 1964 film directed by Robert Stevenson; screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi |
| Film | Gosford Park | Won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay |
| Film | The Importance of Being Earnest | Screenplay; based upon the play by Oscar Wilde |
| Film | Vanity Fair | Screenplay; based upon the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray |
| Film | Separate Lies | Screenplay; based upon the novel by Nigel Balchin; Also Director |
| Film | The Young Victoria | Original Screenplay |
| Film | The Tourist | Screenplay polish |
| Film | From Time to Time | Written by Fellowes & Lucy M. Boston; Also Director |
| Television | Julian Fellowes Investigates | Writer and Creator; Also Actor |
| Television | Downton Abbey | Creator & Executive Producer Writer: *Series One, Episode One *Series One, Episode Two *Series One, Episode Three *Series One, Episode Four (Written by Fellowes & Shelagh Stephenson) *Series One, Episode Five *Series One, Episode Six (Written by Fellowes & Tina Pepler) *Series One, Episode Seven *Series Two, Episode One *Series Two, Episode Two *Series Two, Episode Three *Series Two, Episode Four *Series Two, Episode Five *Series Two, Episode Six *Series Two, Episode Seven *Series Two, Episode Eight *Series Two, Christmas Special |
| Television | Titanic | Writer of the four-part ITV1 produced mini-series. |
| Film | Romeo and Juliet | Screenplay; adapted from the play by William Shakespeare; Announced |
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/titanic_coming_to_tv_9dQgZos98Zm2SNSv4Duo4H
In 2011, Fellowes was ennobled as a life peer of the House of Lords with the name, style and title of Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, of West Stafford in the County of Dorset.[8] He took up his seat on 13 January 2011.[9] He sits on the Conservative government benches, as a long-term supporter of and substantial contributor to the party.[10]
Fellowes is the Chairman of the RNIB appeal for Talking Books. He is a Vice President of the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, Patron of the South West branch of Age UK, Patron of Changing Faces, of Living Paintings, of the Rainbow Trust, and of Breast Cancer Haven, as well as supporting charities concerned with the care of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and other causes.
Fellowes is on the Appeal Council for the National Memorial Arboretum and he is also the Patron of Moviola, an initiative to facilitate rural cinema screenings in the West Country.[11]
On 28 April 1990, Fellowes married Emma Joy Kitchener, LVO (born 1963; a Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent)[12], the great-grandniece of Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener.
They have one son, The Hon. Peregrine Charles Morant Kitchener-Fellowes (born 1991). The family resides in Dorset.[13] On behalf of themselves and their son they changed their surname to Kitchener-Fellowes on 15 October 1998.[14][15]
Fellowes was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Dorset in 2009.[16] He is also Lord of the Manor of Tattershall in Lincolnshire.[17]
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