Ed Bishop

Ed Bishop

  • Birthday: 1932-06-11
  • Deathday: 2005-06-08
  • Place of birth: Brooklyn - New York - USA
  • Also know as: Edward Bishop

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

Into Infinity

1975

As TV Announcer

Pets

1973

As Victor Stackman

Invasion: UFO

1980

As Cmdr. Ed Straker

UFO - Distruggete base Luna!

1971

As Comandante Edward Straker

Automania 2000

1964

As Narrator

Children and Cars

1970

As Narrator

The Candy Show

1989

As Geoffrey

Stainless Steel and the Star Spies

1981

As Stainless Steel (voice)

UFO - Allarme rosso... Attacco alla Terra!

1971

As Comandante Ed Straker

UFO - Prendeteli vivi

1972

As Comandante Edward Straker

Nudism: The Inside Story

1992

As Narrator (voice)

Big City

1963

As Narrator (as Edward Bishop)

Dylan: The Life and Death of a Poet

1978

As Prof. Goonmeyer

Broken Glass

1996

As Stanton Case

Turnaround

1987

As Gerald

Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted

2022

As Self (archive footage)

This Is Supermarionation

2014

As Captain Blue (voice)

Three Wishes for Jamie

1987

As Proddy

Chocky's Children

1985

As Dr. Deacon

Saturn 3

1980

As Harding

The Master of Ballantrae

1984

As Pinkerton

500!

2001

As Padre Jones

Wynne and Penkovsky

1985

As Alexander

Calliope

1994

As Lewis Belvedere

Death in Deep Water

1975

As Gang Boss (voice)

S.O.S. Titanic

1980

As Henry Harris

Silver Dream Racer

1980

As Al Peterson

Funny Man

1994

As Card Player

Brass Target

1978

As Col. Stewart

Battle Beneath the Earth

1967

As Lt. Cmdr. Vance Cassidy (as Edward Bishop)

The Fifth Missile

1986

As Adm. Stewart Cullinane

2001: A Space Odyssey

1968

As Aries-1B Lunar Shuttle Captain

The Bedford Incident

1965

As Lieutenant Hacker U.S.N. - Communications

The Serpent of Death

1990

As Grant

Nutcracker

1982

As Sam Dozier

Turnaround

1987

As

Madame Claude

1977

As Smith

Born to Ride

1991

As Dr. Tate

The Lonely Lady

1983

As Dr. Baker

The War Lover

1962

As Vogt

Restless Natives

1985

As Reporter

The Desperados

1969

As Army Captain (voice)

Testimony

1988

As American Commentator

London Is Drowning

1981

As American reporter

Rise and Fall of Idi Amin

1981

As Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

You Only Live Twice

1967

As Hawaii CapCom (uncredited)

Twilight's Last Gleaming

1977

As Maj. Fox

Diamonds Are Forever

1971

As Klaus Hergersheimer (uncredited)

The Mouse on the Moon

1963

As American Astronaut

Whoops Apocalypse

1986

As Wink Persiman (TV interviewer)

Threads

1984

As US President (voice) (uncredited)

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