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Joss Ackland 1928 - 2023

Joss Ackland of United Kingdom was born on February 29, 1928 in North Kensington, Greater London County, England. He was married to Rosemary Kirkcaldy on August 18, 1951 in Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross County, Scotland, and they were together until Rosemary's death on July 25, 2002 in Devon County. He had children Paul Ackland, Kirsty Ackland, Samantha Ackland, Penelope Ackland, Melanie Ackland, Toby Ackland, and Antonia Ackland. Joss Ackland died at age 95 years old on November 19, 2023 in Clovelly, Devon County.

Joss Ackland

United Kingdom

February 29, 1928

North Kensington, Greater London County, England, W10, United Kingdom

November 19, 2023

Clovelly, Devon County, England, EX39, United Kingdom

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Joss Ackland Joss Ackland (1928 - 2023)

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Joss Ackland's History: 1928 - 2023

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02/29

1928

Birthday

February 29, 1928

Birthdate

North Kensington, Greater London County, England W10, United Kingdom

Birthplace

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Professional Career

Joss Ackland Biography Born February 29, 1928 · North Kensington, London, England, UK Died November 19, 2023 Birth name Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland Height 6′ (1.83 m) Mini Bio Joss Ackland, the distinguished English actor who has appeared in over 100 movies, scores of plays and a plethora of television programs in his six-decade career, was born Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland on February 29, 1928, in North Kensington, London. After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, the 17-year-old Ackland made his professional stage debut in "The Hasty Heart" in 1945. Although he first appeared on film in John Boulting's and Roy Boulting's Oscar-winning thriller Seven Days to Noon (1950) in an uncredited bit role, he made his credited debut in a supporting role in Vernon Sewell's Ghost Ship (1952). He would not again grace the big screen until the end of the decade. Instead, Ackland spent the latter half of the 1940s and the first half of the 1950s honing his craft in regional theatrical companies. In 1955 he left the English stage behind and moved to Africa to manage a tea plantation, an experience that likely informed his heralded performance 20 years later in White Mischief (1987). In his two years in Africa he wrote plays and did service as a radio disc jockey. Upon his return to England in 1957, he joined the Old Vic company. From 1962-64 he served as associate director of the Mermaid Theatre. Subsequently, his stage acting career primarily was in London's commercial West End theater, where he made a name for himself in musicals. He was distinguished as Captain Hook in the musical version of "Peter Pan" and as Juan Peron in "Evita." In the theater he was a memorable Falstaff in William Shakespeare's "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2" and as Captain Shotover in George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House." In the 1960s Ackland began appearing more regularly in films, and his career as a movie character actor picked up rapidly in the 1970s and began to flourish in the 1980s. It has shown little sign of abating in the 21st century, even though he's well into his 70s. In addition to his performance in "White Mischief", among his more notable turns as an actor before the camera came in the BBC-TV production of Shadowlands (1986), in which he played 'C.S. Lewis', and in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) as the ruthless South African heavy, Arjen Rudd. He was the father of seven children, whom he listed as his "hobby" in a 1981 interview. On December 31, 2000, Joss Ackland was named a Commander of the British Empire on the New Year's Honours List for his 50 years of service to the English stage, cinema and television. Family Spouse Rosemary Kirkcaldy(August 18, 1951 - July 25, 2002) (her death, 7 children) Parents Sydney Norman Ackland Ruth Ackland Relatives Polly Dooley (grandchild) Trademarks Deep distinctive voice Frequently cast as Russian dignitaries or bureaucrats Trivia Has five daughters (Melanie Ackland, Antonia Ackland, Penelope Ackland, Samantha Ackland and Kirsty Ackland) and one son (Toby Ackland). His eldest son, Paul Ackland, worked as a builder and passed away from a heroin overdose (1982). He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to drama.
11/19

2023

Death

November 19, 2023

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Clovelly, Devon County, England EX39, United Kingdom
Death location

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Obituary

Joss Ackland, Busy, Versatile Actor on Stage and Screen, Dies at 95 He was a villain in “Lethal Weapon 2,” C.S. Lewis on TV in “Shadowlands” and Falstaff onstage in “Henry IV” — and had a cameo in a Pet Shop Boys video. A black-and-white photo of Joss Ackland, who is slightly smiling in a dark brimmed hat and an overcoat. Joss Ackland in 1985. “My quality is variation,” he said in 2006. “I’m a hit- and-run actor. I get to do a lot of villains, but that’s because I’m English.”Credit...United News/Popperfoto, via Getty Images A black-and-white photo of Joss Ackland, who is slightly smiling in a dark brimmed hat and an overcoat. Clay Risen By Clay Risen Nov. 22, 2023 Joss Ackland, a self-described workaholic actor who appeared in more than 130 movies, TV shows and radio programs, most notably — for American audiences, at least — as a villainous South African diplomat in “Lethal Weapon 2,” died on Sunday at his home in Clovelly, a village in southwestern England. He was 95. His agent, Paul Pearson, confirmed the death. He was a renowned character actor onscreen, having held memorable supporting roles in movies like the Cold War thriller “The Hunt for Red October” (1990) and the hockey comedy “The Mighty Ducks” (1992). He also earned a British Academy Film Awards nomination for “White Mischief” (1987), a drama set in colonial Kenya. But Mr. Ackland’s true home was the London stage. He was among the actors who provided the firm foundation of English theater during the postwar years, ranking alongside Ian Holm, Maggie Smith and Claire Bloom. Many in that generation, like Mr. Ackland, later found success in Hollywood. A bear of a man with a gravelly voice and a gregarious, opinionated presence onstage and off, Mr. Ackland was prolific and versatile. He played Falstaff, Shakespeare’s great comic character in “Henry IV, Part 1” and Henry IV, Part 2”; the writer C.S. Lewis in the British TV version of “Shadowlands”; and Juan Perón in the original London cast of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Evita” (1978), opposite Elaine Paige in the title role. “I don’t think I’ve made any role my own,” he told The Evening Standard in 2006. “My quality is variation. I’m a hit- and-run actor. I get to do a lot of villains, but that’s because I’m English.” Image A black-and-white photo of Mr. Ackland wearing a striped double-breasted suit and a sneer while standing beside Elaine Page in a patterned, wide-collared dress. She is looking up, her hair pulled tight. Mr. Ackland was Juan Perón in the original London cast of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Evita” (1978), opposite Elaine Paige in the title role.Credit...Donald Cooper/Alamy A black-and-white photo of Mr. Ackland wearing a striped double-breasted suit and a sneer while standing beside Elaine Page in a patterned, wide-collared dress. She is looking up, her hair pulled tight. Mr. Ackland could be self-disparaging about his willingness to take work wherever it became available, a predilection driven less by money than a need to be constantly on the move. Sign up for the Movies Update Newsletter A weekly roundup of movie reviews, news, stars and awards-season analysis. Get it sent to your inbox. He came to regret many of his nontheatrical roles, like those in the comedy “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” (1991) and a meaty cameo in the video for the song “Always on My Mind” by the English pop band the Pet Shop Boys. “I do an awful lot of c***, but if it’s not immoral, I don’t mind,” he told The Guardian in 2001. “I’m a workaholic. Sometimes it’s a form of masochism.” He was even ambivalent about his role in “Lethal Weapon 2” (1989) as Arjen Rudd, the oily, racist South African who battles two Los Angeles police detectives, Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). Rudd, a consul-general dealing drugs on the side, gets away with murder by claiming diplomatic immunity, even at the point where he appears to kill Riggs — just before Murtaugh shoots him in the head. “It’s just been revoked,” Murtaugh says, a punchline that became a catchphrase of the late 1980s, much to Mr. Ackland’s chagrin. “Not a day goes by without someone across the street going ‘diplomatic immunity,’” he said in a BBC interview in 2013. “It drives you up the wall.” Image Mr. Ackland stands next to the white smokestack of a big ship and fires a handgun at a target below him while wearing a mean look on his face. Mr. Ackland as the “Lethal Weapon 2” villain Arjen Rudd, the oily, racist South African who battles two Los Angeles police detectives.Credit...Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Mr. Ackland stands next to the white smokestack of a big ship and fires a handgun at a target below him while wearing a mean look on his face. Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland was born on Feb. 29, 1928 — a leap day — in the North Kensington neighborhood of London. His father, Sydney Ackland, was a journalist from Ireland whose serial philandering kept him largely out of his son’s life, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Ruth Izod, a maid. He gravitated to acting as a child, inspired, he later said, by the mysterious smoke and fog of Depression-era London. “To be in the fog was to be in an adventure where the imagination could stretch itself, allowing me to be anywhere in the world,” he told The Independent in 1997. “Houses and streets would disappear, and a lamppost would faintly emerge from the gloom and become a pirate ship.” He attended the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, paying his way by cleaning barracks for U.S. Army troops stationed there during World War II. He graduated in 1945, the same year he started acting professionally. Mr. Ackland spent decades performing in repertory and small-town theater. In 1951, he traveled to Pitlochry, a small town in the Scottish Highlands, to appear in J.M. Barrie’s play “Mary Rose.” Among his fellow actors was Rosemary Kirkcaldy. Though she was engaged at the time, the two fell in love and married later that year. With a growing family — the couple eventually had seven children — Mr. Ackland despaired of making a career in acting. In 1955, he and his wife, with two infants in tow, moved to East Africa, where he spent six months running a tea plantation in Malawi. But the stage beckoned, and they spent two years in South Africa picking up acting work. The country’s intrusive apartheid regime disgusted them; at one point the police raided their home looking for subversive material and left with a copy of the novel “Black Beauty,” the tale of a horse by Anna Sewell, which investigators thought might be anti-apartheid. Editors’ Picks You Know About the Birds and the Bees, but Guess What These Bats Do 2023 Holiday Gift Guide A Fish That Fishes for Other Fish Lives Its Life Upside Down After returning to Britain, the couple restarted their careers, even as their family was growing rapidly. One evening in 1963, when Mr. Ackland was performing as the lead in Bertolt Brecht’s “Life of Galileo,” a fire broke out in their London home. Ms. Kirkcaldy, pregnant with their sixth child, managed to get the other five out of the house but broke her back when she leaped from an upper floor. Doctors said she would miscarry and never walk again; instead, she delivered a healthy child and was on her feet again within 18 months. Ms. Kirkcaldy was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1999 and died in 2002. Mr. Ackland is survived by his daughters Kirsty Baring and Sammy, Penny, Melanie and Toni Ackland; his son Toby; 34 grandchildren; and 30 great-grandchildren. Another son, Paul, died in 1982. Image In a close-up photo, a seated Mr. Ackland has short white hair and a white curled mustache and goatee while dressed in a military uniform and holding a sheet of paper in front of him. Mr. Ackland in the role of King George V of Britain in a London stage production of “The King’s Speech” in 2012.Credit...Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage, via Getty Images In a close-up photo, a seated Mr. Ackland has short white hair and a white curled mustache and goatee while dressed in a military uniform and holding a sheet of paper in front of him. After his wife’s death, Mr. Ackland developed stage fright and stayed away from theater for 12 years, he said. During that time, he edited her diaries, a project she had encouraged him to pursue, and published them in 2009 as “My Better Half and Me: A Love Affair That Lasted Fifty Years.” He returned to the theater in 2012 to play King George V in David Seidler’s play “The King’s Speech” (later adapted as a movie). By then, he had soured on the turns that his profession had taken toward instant stardom and pyrotechnic productions. “They give them all these car chases, the villain dying twice, and they play down to the audience,” Mr. Ackland told Strand magazine in 2002. “But I believe you should never give people what they want. Give them something a little more than what they want and that way they grow up.”

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Joss Ackland lived 20 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 95.

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5 Memories, Stories & Photos about Joss

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.8k+ favorites

11/19/2023

Joss Ackland

With his CBE.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.8k+ favorites

11/19/2023

Joss Ackland

Author of two autobiographies.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

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11/19/2023

Joss Ackland

His hobby was painting.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

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11/19/2023

Joss Ackland

In his 80's

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Amanda S. Stevenson

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11/19/2023

Joss Ackland

In his 40's.

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Joss Ackland's Family Tree & Friends

Joss Ackland's Family Tree

Parent

Joss Ackland Feb 29, 1928 - Nov 19, 2023

Partner

Child

Sibling

Marriage

Rosemary Kirkcaldy

Joss Ackland

August 18, 1951

Marriage date

Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross, Scotland United Kingdom

Marriage location

Rosemary's Death

Cause of Separation

July 25, 2002

Rosemary's death date

Devon, England United Kingdom

Separation location

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Joss Ackland Feb 29, 1928 - Nov 19, 2023

Rosemary Kirkcaldy Jan 15, 1928 - Jul 25, 2002

Child

Paul Ackland 1952 - Oct 7, 1982

Samantha Ackland

Melanie Ackland

Antonia Ackland

Kirsty Ackland

Penelope Ackland

Toby Ackland

Friendships

Joss' Friends

2 Followers & Sources

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Other Biographies

Other Ackland Family Biographies

Ackland, Howard (Aug 9, 1912 - Sep 5, 1998) Ackland, Neil (Nov 22, 1902 - Jun 1984) Ackland, Ruth (Sep 13, 1901 - Sep 7, 2002) Ackland, Kathleen (Jun 20, 1905 - Dec 1980) Ackland, Mollie (Feb 22, 1910 - Feb 1977) Ackland, Frank (Nov 1, 1914 - Jan 23, 2001) Ackland, Patricia (Jun 3, 1917 - Oct 22, 1998) Ackland, William (Oct 24, 1882 - Nov 1962) Ackland, James (Oct 18, 1884 - Jan 1967) Ackland, Libby (Apr 4, 1913 - Jan 1986)

Ackland, Frank (Mar 26, 1891 - Aug 1962) Ackland, Mamie (Feb 15, 1894 - May 10, 1994) Ackland, Beatrice (Jul 21, 1892 - Mar 17, 1989) Ackland, Edward (Nov 8, 1906 - Jan 12, 1990) Ackland, Virginia (Apr 13, 1910 - Nov 9, 2002) Ackland, Wilbert (Jun 25, 1908 - Jun 19, 2001) Ackland, Dorothy (Apr 20, 1918 - Jan 1994) Ackland, Albert (Mar 4, 1899 - Dec 1986) Ackland, Gordon (Oct 14, 1916 - Jan 1971) Ackland, Alexander (Jan 7, 1891 - Sep 1967)

About the AncientFaces Community

Joss Ackland 1928 - 2023

Joss Ackland's History: 1928 - 2023

Birthday

Professional Career

Death

Obituary

5 Memories, Stories & Photos about Joss

Joss Ackland's Family Tree & Friends

Joss Ackland's Family Tree

Rosemary Kirkcaldy

Joss Ackland

Joss' Friends

Other Ackland Family Biographies