Valentine Pelka

Pelka was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire, to a Polish engineer father (Tadeusz Pelka) and an Irish actress (Alma Herley). She is the niece of actor Randal Herley, and her maternal grandparents were WWI veteran and ophthalmologist Randal Herley^[2] and Irish singer Annie (née Mahon) Herley.^[3][4][5] He attended St Michael's College, Leeds (now part of Mount St Mary's Catholic High School, Leeds). His sister, Kazia, is also an actress, who starred in Brookside, Heartbeat and The Bill, among other television programmes.^[6]

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Pelka studied English at university, where he developed an interest in drama through extracurricular involvement in various university stage productions, before subsequently training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he honed skills in stage combat and horse riding, which later came in useful in his frequent portrayals of historical and action-orientated characters.^[7] Pelka began his career as a professional actor in 1983 on stage with the Oedipus Trilogy as a member of the chorus. Later the same year he apeared as Curio in Twelfth Night and Scarus in Anthony and Cleopatra.^[8] He continued to play a number supporting roles including the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the touring production of Bloody Poetry,^[9]. By the late 1980's he took on lead roles including Nechaev in Dead Men Roman in Winter in the Morning and Samuel Gerridge in Caste repectively.^[7]

In 1984, he transferred to television, his early screen roles were mainly historical characters including Boguslaw Banas in Pope John Paul II, Efrem Sakharov in Sakharov and Shammah in King David (1985). He gained further prominence in the recurring role as the rebel leader Roland in the first series Crossbow (UK, William Tell) in 1987.^[10] Pelka has featured in a number of supporting roles in various television series including Lytton's Diary, Robin of Sherwood, If Tomorrow Comes, Rockliffe's Folly, Boon, Campion, The Bill, Peak Practice, Ivanhoe, Life Force, Prime Suspect, Hustle and Ultimate Force. In 1995, he appeared with his sister in an episode of Heartbeat where he played Danny, a pirate radio D.J. in the episode "Sitting Off on the Dock of the Bay".^[11]

Despite his television and film work taking precedence by the 1990's, on stage he featured in a succession of acclaimed performances, include a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1992-93 where he appeared in Romeo and Juliet, A Women Killed with Kindness and the title role in Hamlet.^[8]

He guest-starred in the 1990 TV series Zorro in the episode "All that Glitters" which preceded his starring role as the military governor, Colonel Montoya, in the 2000 syndicated TV series Queen of Swords, the part of Montoya was written for Pelka by executive producer David Abramowitz who in October 1999 offered him the part subject to approval by the other show producers.^[12] Between 1996-98, Pelka appeared in Highlander: The Series as Kronos, an enemy of Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) and former acolyte of Methos (Peter Wingfield) in the episodes "Comes a Horseman", "Revelations 6:8", "Archangel" and "Not To Be". In 1999 he appeared in the sequel series, in a guest starring role in Highlander: The Raven as Andre Korda, an immortal who is a criminal and once trained the main character Amanda. The episodes were 'The French Connection' and 'A Matter of Time'.^[1]

The same year, Pelka appeared in the British TV soap opera Family Affairs as Simon Thornton. His sister, Kazia, was also a leading player in Family Affairs; however, that was after he had appeared in the soap opera.^[13] Of the feature films in which Pelka has performed, the best-known was Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist.^[14] His supporting comedic role in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) was performed mute.^[15] In 2004, he appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as John Lennon in Sandy Marshall's biopic And in the End, which he later reprised in 2013 at the Jeremy Street Theatre in London.^[16]