Michael Elphick
Birthday: Born in 1946-09-19 in Chichester, Sussex, England, UK
Deathday: 2002-09-07
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Michael John Elphick (19 September 1946 – 7 September 2002) was an English actor. Elphick was known in the UK for his trademark croaky voice and his work on British television, in particular his roles as the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series Boon and later Harry Slater in BBC's EastEnders. Elphick struggled with a highly publicised addiction to alcohol; at the height of his problem he admitted to consuming two litres of spirits a day, which contributed towards his death from a heart attack in 2002. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Elphick, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
Murder Most Horrid
Character: Bill Todd
A comedy that started in 1991 as a pilot, Murder Most Horrid stars Dawn French as various characters, as she embarks on a different mystery every episode. In one way or another she is involved with murder - either committing the crime herself or even getting bumped off herself!...
The Ghosts of Motley Hall
Character:
The Ghosts of Motley Hall is a British children's television series written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for Granada Television, and broadcast between 1976 and 1978 on the ITV network. The series relates the adventures of 5 ghosts who haunt Motley Hall. Each ghost is from a different era and all with the exception of Matt are unable to leave the confines of the building and Matt himself is unable to travel outside the grounds of the Hall. The only regu...
Three Up, Two Down
Character: Sam Tyler
Comedy series about Nick and Angie, a young married couple, Angie's snobbish mother Daphne, and Nick's cockney father Sam. Much of the humour arises from the fact that the mismatched Daphne and Sam are forced by circumstances to share the flat below that occupied by their children....
Shoestring
Character:
Shoestring was a BBC television show set in Bristol. It featured a private detective with his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 one hour-long episodes. Star Trevor Eve decided not to return to the role after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre roles, so the same production team changed the format to be based in Jersey and created Bergerac, also about a detective returning to wor...
Boon
Character: Ken Boon
Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon....
The Sweeney
Character: Jimmy Fleet
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter....
Private Schulz
Character: Private Gerhard Schulz
Private Schulz is a BBC television comedy drama serial set mostly in Germany, during and immediately after World War II. It stars Michael Elphick in the title role and Ian Richardson playing various parts. Other notable actors included Tony Caunter, Billie Whitelaw, Billy Murray and Mark Wingett. Over six one-hour episodes, it tells the story of a German fraudster and petty criminal who is forced against his will to serve in the SS. In a story based on the real, though unrealised, plot by the G...
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character:
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusivel...
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
Character: Gorenflot
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries was a British television series The series was an anthology of different tales. Each episode was introduced by Orson Welles, who was the only regular actor in the series. In the opening titles, Welles would be shown in silhouette as he walked through a hallway towards the camera, smoking a cigar and outfitted in a broad-brimmed hat and a huge cloak, the outfit itself being a nod to his having provided the voice of The Shadow in the radio program. When he actually ...
New Scotland Yard
Character:
New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network between 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day. The first three series ran from 1972 to 1973 and starred John Woodvine as Det. Chief Supt. Kingdom and John Carlisle as Det. Sgt. Ward. But the series, scheduled on a ...
Smiley's People
Character:
Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what happened. He begins to follow up the clues of his friends past days, discovering that the clues lead to a high person in the Russian Secret service, and a secret important enough to kill for....
Oxbridge Blues
Character: Curly Bonaventura
An anthology series of seven linked plays about the lives of people connected with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge....
Crown Court
Character: Simon Chase
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984....
Laurence Olivier Presents
Character: Michel
Laurence Olivier Presents is a British television series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978. The plays, with the exception of Hindle Wakes, all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on productions staged at the National Theatre during the period when Olivier was Artistic Director. In addition to distinguished English actors, the casts assembled for these productions included several Hollywood stars, such as Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward and Ma...
Super Gran
Character: Roly Roofless
Adapted from Forrest Wilson's books, the children's programme revolves around a grandmother with super powers and her arch nemesis, The Scunner Campbell....
Justice
Character: Peter Rodwell
Justice is a British drama television series which originally aired on ITV in 39 hour-long episodes between 8 August 1971 and 16 October 1974. Margaret Lockwood stars as Harriet Peterson a female barrister in the North of England. It was made by Yorkshire Television and was based loosely on Justice Is a Woman, an episode of ITV Playhouse broadcast in 1969 in which Lockwood had previously also played a barrister. The theme music was Crown Imperial by William Walton....
David Copperfield
Character: Barkis
The tale of David Copperfield from his birth and idyllic upbringing through hardship and adventure leading to his eventual discovery of his vocation as a novelist. On his journey David encounters a gallery of Dickens' most memorable characters, including Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, Steerforth, and others....
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Character: Magowan
Seven British construction workers escape Britain's ever growing dole queues and travel to Germany to work on a site in Dusseldorf. We follow their trials and tribulations of working away from home and away from the women they left behind....
Masada
Character: Vettius
A Roman general leads the epic 1st-century siege of Masada, the mountain fortress where more than 900 Jews made a heroic stand against 5,000 Roman soldiers....
Play for Today
Character: Peter
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
The Comic Strip Presents...
Character: Collins
The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents... which was labelled as an example of alternative comedy. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and others....
The Professionals
Character: Sergeant Garbett
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contenti...
This Year Next Year
Character: Jack Shaw
Public relations consultant Harry Shaw has to face the challenge of starting afresh in his mid-forties. Disillusioned with the values of city life, he returns to his father's farm in Yorkshire to think over his future....
Movie Credits
The Elephant Man
Character: Night Porter
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London....
Quadrophenia
Character: Father
Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene....
Pig Bin
Character: Policeman
"Sling me in here? Nobody slings the King of the Kop anywhere. Not even the pigs." In a police special incidents room, a young soccer supporter meets his hero....
Gorky Park
Character: Pasha
Police Inspector Renko tries to solve the case of three bodies found in Moscow's Gorky Park but finds his attempts to solve the crime impeded by his superiors. Working on his own, Renko seeks out more information and stumbles across a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the government....
The Element of Crime
Character: Fisher
Fisher, an ex-detective, decides to take one final case when a mysterious serial killer claims the lives of several young girls. Fisher, unable to find the culprit, turns to Osbourne, a writer who was once respected for his contributions to the field of criminology. Fisher begins to use Osbourne's technique, which involves empathizing with serial killers; however, as the detective becomes increasingly engrossed in this method, things take a disturbing turn....
Little Dorrit
Character: Mr. Merdle
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts....
Withnail & I
Character: Jake
Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain....
I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle
Character: Inspector Cleaver
When a motorbike gang kills an occultist, the evil spirit he was summoning inhabits a damaged bike. The bike is then bought and restored, but reveals its true nature when it tries to exact vengance on the gang, and anyone else who gets in its way....
Krull
Character: Rhun (voice) (uncredited)
A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet....
Hamlet
Character: Captain
Tony Richardson's Hamlet is based on his own stage production. Filmed entirely within the Roundhouse in London (a disused train shed), it is shot almost entirely in close up, focusing the attention on faces and language rather than action....
Bird Fancier
Character: Joe Desmond
There's big money in pigeon racing if you've got a fast flyer, and Joe Desmond's blue-pied hen is a natural winner. But Joe's lucky streak with the birds has gone on a bit too long for the comfort of his competitors. It's time someone else had a turn. Mal Middleton's comedy was filmed on location in his home town of Sheffield....
Privates on Parade
Character: Sergeant Major Reg Drummond
It is 1947, the year of the communist rebellion in Malaya and the British army's SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South East Asia) are called to the Malayan Jungle to entertain the troops. The eccentric, bible-bashing Major Giles Flack (John Cleese) is in command of the unit. Flack is accompanied by an ageing, theatrical drama queen, Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) who hopes to entertain the troops with his flamboyant impressions, but the bored troops find other ways to enjoy themselves....
The Buttercup Chain
Character: The Driver
Born to twin sisters on the same day in London, France and Margaret are more like brother and sister than cousins. The close relationship between the cousins is suspended when Margaret is sent abroad for schooling. Now a young woman, Margaret returns to London and resumes her intimate connection with France....
The Nearly Man
Character: Ron Hibbert
A middle class man finds life as a Labour MP challenging....
The Betrayal
Character: Tom
A seductive and ruthless spy in the service of Germany steals state secrets- including the formula for poison gas-from England and France during World War I. British intelligence, in turn, tries to hunt her down....
The Fix
Character: Peter Campling
The story of the British betting scandal of 1964, uncovered by journalist Mike Gabbert which saw a number of British professional footballers were jailed and banned from football for life for conspiring to fix the results of matches. Prominent among those jailed and banned were the Sheffield Wednesday F.C. stars Peter Swan, Tony Kay and David Layne....
C.Q.
Character: Norman
Life changes dramatically for radio amateur Norman when he gets in touch with a round-the-world yachtsman who introduces him to a different life - and a taste of fame....
Memed My Hawk
Character: Jabbar
In 1920s Turkey, a young peasant is smitten with a beautiful young girl, who has been promised in marriage to the fat, dullard cousin of the province's powerful and corrupt governor. When an assassination attempt is made against the official, the young man flees his village and joins up with a group of outlaws fighting against the wealthy and powerful landowners who control the lives of the locals and make life miserable for them. The outlaws' successes prompt the governor to call in the Turkish...
Curse of the Pink Panther
Character: Valencia Police Chief
Inspector Clouseau disappears, and the Surete wants the world's second best detective to look for him. However, Clouseau's enemy, Dreyfus, rigs the Surete's computer to select, instead, the world's WORST detective, NYPD Sgt. Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh obtusely bungles his way past assassins and corrupt officials as though he were Clouseau's American cousin....
See No Evil
Character: Gypsy Tom
In the English countryside, Sarah Rexton, recently blinded in a horse riding accident, moves in with her uncle's family and gallantly adjusts to her new condition, unaware that a killer stalks them....
Arthur's Hallowed Ground
Character: Len
Arthur is the groundsman. He's a perfectionist who has lovingly tended the cricket pitch for 45 years. Now he is given a new assistant....
Red Shift
Character: Thomas Venables
Three men at three different times in history come to Mow Top hill in search of sanctuary from their troubles. A Roman soldier, a medieval rebel and a 1970s young man. Somehow they seem linked through an energy within the hill and an axe. Is history doomed to repeat itself or can loving another person free them?...
The Knowledge
Character: Gordon Weller
Four men attempt "The Knowledge" examination to qualify as London taxi drivers....
The Krays
Character: George - Prisoner
The Krays is a film based on the lives and crimes of the British gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray, twins who are often referred to as The Krays and were active in London in the 1960s....
Blue Remembered Hills
Character: Peter
On an idyllic summer afternoon in the summer of 1943, a group of children play in the West Country hills, fields and forests. With no adults around, they indulge in spontaneous games and horseplay - sometimes echoing the distant war, at other times revealing their own insecurities and petty vindictiveness....
Black Island
Character: Jack Daker
Joe and Michael, 13-year-old Brits, become separated from their class outing, stranded on a small island, and captured by armed men....
Cry of the Banshee
Character: Burke
In seventeenth century England Lord Whitman wages unending war on what he sees as the ever-present scourge of witchcraft, and many local villagers have suffered at his hands. But one victim uses her occult powers to curse his family, enlisting unknowing help from one of the household....
The First Great Train Robbery
Character: Burgess
In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train....
Where's Jack?
Character: Hogarth
Based on the adventures of Jack Sheppard, the thief and jail-breaker who became a folk hero in 1720s London....
Three Men in a Boat
Character: 2nd Porter
One hot June day, three friends decide there is nothing they would like to do more than to get away from London. A boating holiday with lots of fresh air and exercise would be just the very thing, or so their doctors tell them. So, after debating the merits of hotel or camp beds and what to pack, they set off on their voyage - a trip up the Thames from Henley to Oxford - but very quickly find themselves ill-equipped for the trials of riverbank life....
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil
Character: Ernst Röhm
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl, a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A."....
Buddy's Song
Character: Des
Buddy is an aspiring teenager who is a very good musician and has pressure to go further than his Dad's teddy boy rocker days......
Pirates
Character: Sentry
The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog....
Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Character: Michel
One Saturday evening Rosa Priore is preparing a magnificent Sunday lunch for her family and their friends. By Sunday afternoon her life and marriage are in ruins....
Streetwise
Character: Narrator
This film looks at the tough training regime undertaken by London's black cab drivers as they prepare for one of the hardest examinations they will ever take. It takes years to get to grips with the intricate road network and tangle of streets that weave their way through the heart of the capital and 70 per cent of applicants fail to finish. With repeat appearances at the Public Carriage Office to take the examination, it's a bumpy road to the coveted green badge....
Let Him Have It
Character: Prison Officer Jack
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment....
Which Side Are You On?
Character: Narrator (voice)
The documentary features the British miners and their family experiences told through songs, poems, pictures and words....
The Odd Job
Character: Raymonde
Arthur Harris is a happily married man who returns from his job to discover that his wife, Fiona, is leaving him. Devastated he gets really drunk and tries to commit suicide. After a few setbacks and while he is trying to electrocute himself with a lamp, the door bell rings. An odd man in a leather coat asks if there are any odd jobs that he can perform. Arthur hires the man to kill him. The next day his wife returns, but the man he hired is still trying to kill him......
The Ballad of Kid Divine: The Cockney Cowboy
Character: Dr. Nathaniel Bonner
The Ballad of Kid Divine: The Cockney Cowboy is a very funny spaghetti western-Peckinpah-Leone pastiche that sees Michael Elphick's charlatan elixir seller, Neil Morrissey and Martin Clunes as the notorious and the not so notorious Irish bounty hunters all in pursuit of Kid Divine (Jesse Birdsall) a baby faced killer with a $25,000 price tag on his head....
Richard III
Character: 2nd Murderer
A murderous lust for the British throne sees Richard III descend into madness. Though the setting is transposed to the 1930s, England is torn by civil war, split between the rivaling houses of York and Lancaster. Richard aspires to a fascist dictatorship, but must first remove the obstacles to his ascension—among them his brother, his nephews and his brother's wife. When the Duke of Buckingham deserts him, Richard's plans are compromised....
Much Ado About Nothing
Character: Dogberry
Benedick and Beatrice fight their merry war of words. But when Beatrice's friend, Hero, is humiliatingly jilted by Benedick's best friend, Claudio, Benedick has to choose which side he's on. But unknown to all, Claudio's been tricked by the bastard Don John, and (unfortunately), it's up to Dogberry and Verges to solve the case....
The Supergrass
Character: Constable Collins
While taking a holiday in the country with his mother, Dennis hits on a scheme to impress a girl so that she'll go away on a trip with him as his girlfriend. Although he fails to gain any interest from the girl, the police take a great interest in his story. From this point on, Dennis digs a deeper hole for himself at every turn...
Ordeal by Innocence
Character: Inspector Huish
Dr. Arthur Calgary visits the Argyle family to return an address book lost some time ago by Jack Argyle, only to find out that Jack has been executed for the murder of his mother. Calgary can prove that Jack was innocent. In spite of opposition from a hostile family, he is determined to solve the crime....
O Lucky Man!
Character: Man at Stag Party
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism....
Valhalla
Character: Udgaardsloki (voice)
Two children in the Viking age find their way into the magical world of Norse mythology....
Treasure Island
Character: Billy Bones
Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribbean island. Unfortunately, a large number of Flint's old pirate crew are aboard the ship, including Long Jane Silver....
The One and Only Phyllis Dixey
Character: Wallace Parnell
Aspiring dancer Phyllis Dixey makes her name as a stripper....
Last Summer
Character: Oscar
A 1976 play concerning an unemployed school leaver becomes involved with professional car thieves. Part of the ITV Playhouse strand....
Hanging Around
Character: Hank
How do you kill time when you're 15 years old, have no money and live in a dull London suburb? Rod, Kip and Mul may be short of cash, but not ideas....
Play Things
Character: Frank
A young man volunteers to work with a children's play group in a deprived London area. Adapted by Peter Prince from his own novel....
Pocketful of Dreams
Character: Charlie
At the moment money is scarce and times are hard for everyone -even villains like Charlie and Denny are feeling the pinch. But their luck could change when a chance encounter with a film crew provides them with an eccentric method of getting their hands on a lot of loot....
Chains
Character: Eddie
Eddie's 40th birthday party reunites friends not seen since the old days of ton-up bikes and early rock and roll. It could be a chance to relive those 'good times', if the others can only match Eddie's enthusiasm....