Biography
George Victor Bishop (11 June 1932 – 8 June 2005), known professionally as Ed Bishop or sometimes Edward Bishop, was an American actor. He was known for playing Commander Ed Straker in UFO, Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and for voicing Philip Marlowe in a series of BBC Radio adaptations of the Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.
Bishop made his film acting debut as an ambulance driver in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 movie Lolita. He played an American astronaut going to the Moon in the film The Mouse on the Moon (1963) and also appeared in The Bedford Incident (1965) and Battle Beneath the Earth (1967). He had small speaking roles in the James Bond films You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971), but was not included in the film credits for either. He appeared in a second Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which he played the Captain of the Aries 1B Moon shuttle. The role initially featured dialogue but this was later cut from his scenes.
Bishop appeared in various film and television projects created by producer Gerry Anderson. He provided narration, in addition to the voice of Captain Blue, for Anderson's Supermarionation puppet series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967), and appeared in Anderson's science-fiction film Doppelgänger (1969). Perhaps his most prominent screen role was that of Commander Ed Straker in Anderson's science-fiction series UFO (1970–71). Bishop's dark hair was initially dyed blond for the role, though he eventually wore a blond wig instead.
In later years, he appeared in films such as Twilight's Last Gleaming, Saturn 3, Silver Dream Racer, and The Lords of Discipline. He provided vocal work for the 1974 animated TV series of Star Trek, and appeared as Lieutenant Colonel Harrity in the final episode of the British World War II prisoner-of-war drama Colditz. In the 1980s, he made several appearances on The Kenny Everett Television Show, Whoops Apocalypse (he also appeared in the subsequent film), and had a role in the children's television series Chocky's Children.
He continued to act on film, TV and radio, usually in British and European productions, and was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions. He and fellow Anderson actor Shane Rimmer (a Canadian actor who often worked in the UK) joked about how frequently their professional paths crossed and termed themselves "Rent-a-yank". They appeared together as NASA operatives in the opening of You Only Live Twice and as United States Navy sailors in The Bedford Incident, as well as the 1983 film of the Harold Robbins novel The Lonely Lady. In 1989, Bishop was reunited with Rimmer and another Anderson actor, Matt Zimmerman, in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet. He and Rimmer also toured together in theatre shows, including Death of a Salesman in the 1990s, and they both appeared in the BBC drama-documentary Hiroshima (2005), one of Bishop's last TV projects.
Filmography
all 99
Movies 65
TV Shows 34
self 6
Voice 6
Narrator 5
This Is Supermarionation (2014)
500! (2001)
Broken Glass (1996)
Funny Man (1994)
Calliope (1994)
Highlander: The Series (1992)
Nudism: The Inside Story (1992)
Born to Ride (1991)
Testimony (1988)
Turnaround (1987)
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987)
Carrott Confidential (1987)
Whoops Apocalypse (1986)
The Fifth Missile (1986)
Restless Natives (1985)
Wynne and Penkovsky (1985)
Chocky's Children (1985)
Wynne and Penkovsky (1985)
Threads (1984)
The Master of Ballantrae (1984)
The Lonely Lady (1983)
The Mad Death (1983)
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983)
Nutcracker (1982)
Whoops Apocalypse (1982)
London Is Drowning (1981)
Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (1981)
Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981)
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (1981)
Stainless Steel and the Star Spies (1981)
The Space Movie (1980)
Silver Dream Racer (1980)
S.O.S. Titanic (1980)
Saturn 3 (1980)
Captain Scarlet vs. The Mysterons (1980)
Children of the Gods (1979)
Brass Target (1978)
Dylan: The Life and Death of a Poet (1978)
The Professionals (1977)
The Day After Tomorrow (1975)
Into Infinity (1975)
Death in Deep Water (1975)
Quiller (1975)
UFO - Contatto radar... stanno atterrando! (1974)
Pets (1973)
Star Trek (1973)
Thriller (1973)
Colditz (1972)
The Protectors (1972)
UFO - Prendeteli vivi (1972)
UFO... annientare S.H.A.D.O. Stop. Uccidete Straker... (1972)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Invasion: UFO (1971)
UFO - Allarme rosso... Attacco alla Terra! (1971)
UFO - Distruggete base Luna! (1971)
UFO (1970)
Doppelgänger (1969)
The Desperados (1969)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The Portrait of a Lady (1968)
Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
Automania 2000 (1964)
The Mouse on the Moon (1963)
Big City (1963)
The Saint (1962)
Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
The Divided Union: The Story of the American Civil War
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
The Divided Union
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1932-06-11
Deathday2005-06-08 (72 years old)
Birth PlaceBrooklyn, United States
CitizenshipsUnited States
Also Known AsEdward Bishop , George Victor Bishop
AwardsFulbright Program, Fulbright Scholarship
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