Robin Ramsay (actor)

Ramsay studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1957. He worked in England briefly before returning to Australia in 1958.

Ramsay is father of Robina Ramsay, an internationally ranked dressage rider,^[1] and actress Tamasin Ramsay.^{[citation needed]}

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

After returning to Australia, Ramsay joined the fledgling Union Theatre Company in Melbourne.^[2] He starred in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, produced for the first Adelaide Festival in 1960.

He has played roles in theatre locally starting from 1957^[3] and then went to the United States in 1961 and joined the Theatre Company of Boston. He then toured the country in The National Repertory Theatre, with Eva Le Gallienne and Faye Emerson.

In 1964, he took over the role of Fagin in the hit musical Oliver! on Broadway,^[2] a role he played for a further two years in New York, followed by a record-breaking national tour. He shared the bill with The Beatles, singing a song from the musical in a subsequently memorable edition of The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1966, Ramsay recreated his role of Fagin for a West End revival of Oliver!.^[2]

Returning to Australia, Ramsay's role as Charlie Cousens in Bellbird, Australia's first successful television soap opera, garnered him considerable public notice. A regular character on the show from August 1967, Ramsay left in May 1968 to take the role of Fagin in a New York stage production of Oliver!.^[2]

Ramsay suggested that his character be killed-off, and the show's producers agreed and had Charlie fall off a wheat silo to his death.^[2] The scene has been described as "one of the most-watched and best-remembered moments in Australian TV history",^[4] and fans wrote letters protesting about his death and even sent flowers to his funeral.

He appeared in the TV movie Wicked City.

Ramsay returned to the theatre playing the controversial priest Daniel Berrigan in the Trial of the Catonsville Nine in Sydney. He went on to play Pontius Pilate in Jim Sharman's original production of Jesus Christ Superstar.^[4] He was in the first production at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1972: playing MacHeath in The Threepenny Opera. Ramsay spent the next few years as a leading actor with the Sydney Theatre Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company, and working in film and television. He has twice won the Melbourne Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He was in Medea, the opening production of the Melbourne Arts Centre, playing opposite Zoe Caldwell.

In 1976, he starred as George Szabo in the Old Tote Theatre Company production of The Wolf by Ferene Molnar.^[2] In 1977, with Rodney Fisher, he developed his first solo show, drawn from the writings of Henry Lawson, The Bastard From The Bush.^[5] This refocusing on Lawson as a sophisticated short-story writer and diarist, rather than as a 'bush poet', radically altered Australia's view of their favourite icon. The play toured to Riverside Studios in London, and played extended seasons at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre and the Victorian Arts Centre. The production won the Australian Arts Award

In the early 1980s Ramsay was commissioned to create a new solo show celebrating the life and times of Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel Prize-winning poet: titled Borderland. The invitation came from the Indian High Commission in Canberra. The play was performed in Australia, then toured to more than 60 countries, in tandem with The Bastard from the Bush.

Ramsay then formed his own chamber theatre company, "Open Secret", and continued touring internationally, developing new productions, notably Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales from Here and There and incorporating local musicians into the company's presentations. His new solo play The Accidental Mystic, high times on the Indian ashram trail, written by his wife Barbara Bossert, opened at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in 1995, after seasons in Sydney and the Edinburgh Festival. The play toured to London and throughout India. Ramsay was nominated for a Melbourne Critics Circle Best Actor Award for his performance.

In 1994 he toured the Tokyo International Theatre Festival with the Playbox Theatre.

In 2008, he produced and directed the feature film Tao of the Traveller, a spiritual adventure film which won a Best Film Award at the South African International Film Festival in 2008, and was selected for screening at several festivals in 2009, including the British Film Festival in Los Angeles, Egypt International Film Festival, Thailand International Film Festival, and Swansea Bay International Film Festival. In 2008 the film was also invited to the Fallbrook Film Festival in California, and won awards in the Research and Experimental categories at the Accolade Film Festival.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	The Box	Bruce Madigan
1976	Mad Dog Morgan	Roget
	Oz	Glynn the Good Fairy	Feature film
1980	Bedfellows
1982	Running on Empty	Dad
	Oliver Twist	Voice	Animated film
1985	A Street to Die	Tom
1987	Dear Cardholder	Hec Harris
1991	Requiem		Short film
1996	Cosi	Minister for Health
2015	Force of Destiny	Surgeon

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	Till Death Do Us Part		TV movie
1960	No Picnic Tomorrow	Tony	TV movie
1967	Love and War	Mercutio	Miniseries, 1 episode
1967–1968	Bellbird	Charlie Cousens	Main cast
1969	The Cheerful Cuckold	Tony Champion	TV movie
1970	Music on 2	Percy Grainger	1 episode
1972	Jesus Christ Superstar	Pontius Pilate	TV movie
	How Could You Believe Me When I Said I'd Be Your Valet When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?	Truffalino	TV movie
1973	Ryan	Mario	1 episode
1974	This Love Affair		1 episode
1975	Behind the Legend	Marcus Clarke	1 episode
	Shannon's Mob	Andrew Blake
1976	Tandarra	Dexter	Miniseries, 1 episode
1978	Tickled Pink	Richard	1 episode
	Chopper Squad	Murray	1 episode
1981	The Willow Bend Mystery	Adrian	5 episodes
1981	The Mesmerist		TV movie
1983	Silent Reach	Father Bridges	Miniseries, 2 episodes
1984	Carson's Law	Jeremy Forbes	2 episodes
1984	Special Squad	Massini	1 episode
1984	Conferenceville		TV movie
1986	Return to Eden	Sheik Amahl	TV series
1988	The Flying Doctors	Lloyd Greenway	1 episode
	Dadah Is Death	Wilf Barlow	Miniseries
1990	Embassy	Alex	1 episode
1994	The Damnation of Harvey McHugh	Father Nillson
1995	Mercury	Simon Hayes	Miniseries, 1 episode