Julian Fellowes

Julian Fellowes Biography

Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Early life and education

Fellowes was born in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest son of Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes (by his wife Olwen née Stuart-Jones),

His childhood home was in Wetherby Place, South Kensington, and afterwards at Chiddingly in East Sussex, where he lived from August 1959 until November 1988 and where his parents are buried. The house in Chiddingly, which had been owned by a whodunnit writer called Clifford Kitchin was within reach of London where his father, who had been a diplomat, worked for Shell. Fellowes has described his father as one "of that last generation of men who lived in a pat of butter without knowing it. My mother put him on a train on Monday mornings and drove up to London in the afternoon. At the flat she'd be waiting in a snappy little cocktail dress with a delicious dinner and drink. Lovely, really." A decided influence to arise from this place was the friendship that developed with another family in the village - the Kingsleys. David Kingsley was head of British Lion Films, the company responsible for many Peter Sellers comedies. Sometimes "glamorous figures" would visit the Kingsleys' house. Fellowes has said that he thinks he "learnt from David Kingsley that you could actually make a living in the film business."

Fellowes was educated at several private schools in Britain: first at Wetherby School (Wetherby Place, South Kensington, London), then at St. Philip's, a Roman Catholic pre-preparatory school, also in Wetherby Place - (Fellowes is 'a cradle Catholic') - and finally at the Catholic public school Ampleforth College. He read English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating with the degree of MA, and where he was a member of Footlights. He studied further at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (London).

Career

Television

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 the much older British actor Christopher Hewitt.

After returning to Britain, 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 "2nd 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 portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent for the second time (the first was in the 1982 film The Scarlet Pimpernel) in the 1996 adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Regiment & Major Dunnett in Sharpe's Rifles. 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 broadcast on BBC Four from 2006 to 2007. He created the hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey for ITV1 in 2010. He also wrote a new Titanic mini-series that was shown on ITV1 in March/April 2012.

Films

Fellowes wrote the script for Gosford Park which won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen in 2002. In late 2005, Fellowes made his directorial début with the film Separate Lies, for which he won the award for Best Directorial Début from the National Board of Review. In 2009, Momentum Pictures and Sony Pictures released The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, for which Fellowes wrote the original screenplay. 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 greatest commercial success was The Tourist which grossed US$278 million worldwide, for which he co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher McQuarrie and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Fellowes has continued his acting career while writing; for example, he unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Master of Lake-town in the 2012-2014 The Hobbit series. Films Fellowes has appeared in include Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, Damage, Place Vendôme, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Tomorrow Never Dies.

Novels

Fellowes' 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 Débutante Season of 1968, comparing the world then to the world of 2008. He also wrote, under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville, several romantic novels in the 1970s.

Theatre

As an actor, Fellowes appeared in several West End productions, including Samuel Taylor's A Touch of Spring, Alan Ayckbourn's Joking Apart and a revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter. As a writer, Fellowes penned the script to the West End musical Mary Poppins, produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Disney, which opened on Broadway in December 2006.

Writing credits

List of television, film and theatre credits
Title	Year	Medium	Notes
Gosford Park	2001	Film	Won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Mary Poppins	2004	Theatre	Adapted from the novels by P. L. Travers and the 1964 film directed by Robert Stevenson; screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi
Vanity Fair	2004	Film	Screenplay; based upon the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
Julian Fellowes Investigates	2004	Television	Writer and Creator; Also Actor
Piccadilly Jim	2004	Film	Screenplay based on the novel by P G Wodehouse
Separate Lies	2005	Film	Screenplay; based upon the novel by Nigel Balchin; Also Director
The Young Victoria	2009	Film	Original Screenplay
From Time to Time	2009	Film	Written by Fellowes, based upon the novel by Lucy M. Boston; Also Director
The Tourist	2010	Film	Screenplay polish
Downton Abbey	2010 - 2013 (Seasons One to Four)	Television	Creator, Executive Producer & Writer (Co-written episodes four and six of Season One with Shelagh Stephenson and Tina Pepler respectively)
Titanic	2012	Television	Writer of the four-part ITV1 produced miniseries.
Romeo and Juliet	2013	Film	Screenplay; adapted from the play by William Shakespeare; Announced
Crooked House	2013	Film	Script; Adaptation of the novel by Agatha Christie
Gypsy	2013	Film	Screenplay and Script; Remake of the classic musical starring Barbra Streisand

Parliament

On 12 January 2011, Fellowes was elevated to the Peerage by being created Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, of West Stafford in the County of Dorset, and was introduced in the House of Lords the following day, where he sits on the Conservative benches.

Fellowes' other interests

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. He recently opened the Dorset office of south-west adoption charity, Families for Children. He also sits on the Arts and Media Honours Committee.

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.

Family

On 28 April 1990, Fellowes married Emma Joy Kitchener LVO (born 1963; a Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent),

They have one son, Hon Peregrine Charles Morant Kitchener-Fellowes (born 1991). The family resides in Dorset and on 15 October 1998 they changed their surname from Fellowes to Kitchener-Fellowes.

Fellowes was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Dorset in 2009. He is also lord of the manor of Tattershall in Lincolnshire and President of the Society of Dorset Men.

His wife, Lady Fellowes of West Stafford, is story editor for Downton Abbey and works with charities.

Arms

Styles and titles

Mr Julian Fellowes (1949"1998)
Mr Julian Kitchener-Fellowes (1998"2009)
Mr Julian Kitchener-Fellowes DL (2009"2011)
The Rt Hon Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL (2011"present)