Happy Birthday actor Bill Paterson, born on June 3rd 1945 in Glasgow.
After a three year stint as a struggling apprentice quantity surveyor he escaped to do a teaching course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His first professional appearance was with Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre in their 1967 production of Brecht’s ‘Arturo Ui’ which also launched the career of Leonard Rossiter.
From 1970 – 72 he was with the Citizen’s Theatre for Youth as actor and assistant director and at the 1972 Edinburgh Festival he appeared in the now historic ‘Great Northern Welly Boot Show’ written by and featuring Billy Connolly.
He then became a founding member of John McGrath’s 7:84 Theatre Company and toured extensively throughout Scotland, Ireland and Europe with such shows as ‘The Cheviot’, and ‘The Stag and the Black Oil’ He made his first appearance in London in 1976 with the company.
As well as his theatre work Bill has made a successful career on Television, from the 70’s right through to nowadays, his most notable in my opinion were, Smiley’s People, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, The Singing Detective and Traffik, as well as big screen roles in The Killing Fields and Comfort and Joy.
More recently Paterson has been seen in the sitcom, Fleabag, The Rebel, with Simon Callow, and of course the very successful Outlander as the recurring character Ned Gowan and has portrayed Douglas Henshall’s father in the excellent Shetland.
Bill was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Film & Television accolade at the 2015 BAFTA Scotland Awards.
