Bill Paterson is a Scottish actor who has appeared in many films, plays and television series.

He was born on June 3, 1945 in Glasgow, Scotland. As a young man, Paterson spent three years as a quantity surveyor's apprentice, before joining the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He made his professional acting debut in 1967, appearing alongside Leonard Rossiter in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre.

In 1970, Paterson joined the Citizen's Theatre for Youth. He remained there as an actor and assistant director until 1972, when he left to appear with Billy Connolly in The Great Northern Welly Boot Show at the Edinburgh Festival. (Paterson would work with Connolly again, some years later, when he performed in Connolly's play An Me Wi' a Bad Leg Tae.)

Paterson spent much of the 1970s in John McGrath's 7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company, of which he was a founding member, touring the UK and Europe with plays such as The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Oil. He made his London debut in 1976 with the company.

After this, Paterson's career began to centre more on television than the theatre. His first appearances included the 1978 BAFTA award winning drama Licking Hitler, and playing King James in the UK television serial Life of Shakespeare the same year.

However, Paterson did not totally neglect the theatre, and in 1982 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier award for his performance as Schweyk in another Brecht play, Schweyk in the Second World War at the National Theatre. He has continued to perform in many plays over the years.

The early 1980s also saw Paterson starting to appear in films, including The Killing Fields, Comfort and Joy and A Private Function (all 1984). Other film credits include The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1987), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Sir Ian McKellen's Richard III (1995) and Bright Young Things (2003).

Bill Paterson's television credits include Smiley's People (1982) The Singing Detective (1986), Traffik (1988) and The Whistleblower (2001). He has also provided voice-over narration for many documentaries.

A lot of his most recent work has been for the BBC, starring as Dr. Douglas Monaghan in the supernatural drama series Sea of Souls, and providing the voice of the Storyteller in the children's serial Shoebox Zoo.

He is married to Hildegard Bechtler, a theatre and opera designer. He has two children (a son and daughter) and lives in London.

External Links

• Official site
• Bill Paterson's entry on the IMBD