Although Nicolas Michael Angelis was born on the 29th of April 1944 in Paddington, London, the family lived, and he grew up, in Dingle, Liverpool with his brother Paul the sons of a Greek immigrant Evangelos Angelis and English mother Margaret (née McCulla) who died when he was only a few years old.. He said, "I didn’t live far from where Ringo [Starr] was, about five or six streets away”, and he followed in his brother's footsteps in becoming an actor. His natural talent saw him accepted by Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he appeared in a student production of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' in April 1971. Following graduation, he acted with repertory theatre companies in England and Scotland, notably the Liverpool Everyman, but his future lay in London. However he says, "I left Liverpool in 1972 – in those days you had to be in London to go for auditions, it was as simple as that. If you didn’t go down you didn’t get anywhere. Eventually I got sick of taking trains there and back and managed to get somewhere to live down in London." He lived in several areas of London, including Chelsea, where he became a drinking partner of George Best and slept on the couch of another aspiring thespian, Helen Worth, who was shortly to land the long-running role of Gail in 'Coronation Street'. Their relationship blossomed and they lived together before getting married in 1991. He had married for the first time in the 1960s, but it did not last long, as they divorced in 1971. Gradually he began to secure work in programmes such as 'Z-Cars', 'Thirty Minute Theatre', 'Hazell', 'Crown Court' and in 6 episodes of 'Coronation Street' as local villain Franny Slater (1972). In 1975, his first major TV role was filmed back in his home city when he was cast in Carla Lane’s 'The Liver Birds', playing an obsessive rabbit lover, Lucien. "It’s me rabbits!" became a popular catchphrase in school playgrounds. Carla later said: "Michael was able to bring much of his own compassion to the lines given to him. He knew exactly when to make you laugh and to make you cry." She has also described Michael as "my favourite Scouser." Michael appeared in two other Carla Lane sitcoms, 'I Woke Up One Morning' (1985-86) as Max, one of four recovering alcoholics undergoing psychotherapy in a hospital ward, and 'Luv' (1993-94), starring as Harold Craven, a working-class millionaire who finds that money is not everything as he showers it on his wife Terese, played by actress Sue Johnston, and their three adopted children.
Having
appeared in 11 episodes of the series 'World's End' (1981) it was his
role as Chrissie Todd in 'Boys from the Blackstuff' that showed off the
full range of his talent. He had appeared in the original television
drama 'The Black Stuff' (1980), though it was actually filmed in 1978.
It brought a new meaning to the phrase 'road movie', following a small
group of Liverpudlian road layers to a job near Middlesborough. When it
finally did make it onto TV, the BBC commissioned a series. Alan
Bleasdale’s series of five plays, focusing on a different character each
week, captured perfectly the Thatcher-era zeitgeist, the tragedy of
human life where men and their families were reduced to simply
surviving.
He starred in Alan Bleasdale’s 1985 black comedy film
'No Surrender' as the new manager of a Liverpool club whose previous
boss had maliciously booked a forthcoming event for two groups of senior
citizens – one Catholic, one Protestant. (Bleasdale regarded his
performances as 'real' and 'truthful'.). On the West End stage, he acted
as one of the working-class social climbers in the Liverpool playwright
Willy Russell’s comedy 'One for the Road' (Lyric Theatre,1987). Back on
television, he played Martin Niarchos, the poet friend of Michael
Palin’s teacher, in the political drama 'GBH' (1991) and a detective in
'Melissa' (1997), the writer’s reworking of a Francis Durbridge TV
murder-mystery. His other small-screen roles included the club owner
Irwin in the revenge killing mini-series The Marksman (1987); Merlin in
the children’s fantasy 'Wail of the Banshee' (1992) and Arnie, alongside
Russ Abbot in his first straight acting role, in 'September Song'
(1993-95). Although he had an easy-going charm about him he could also
play menacing – he was a brutal jail kingpin in the series 'The Jump'
(1998) and was Mickey Startup, a Liverpool club owner and white slave
trafficker, in the third series of 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' (2020), though
he played it with more than a hint of humour – “Get out, find him and
kill him – and then bring him here and I’ll kill him again.” Along the
way he also landed roles in 'Casualty' (1993) and 'Playing The Field'
(2000).
However, it was a voice role that gained him
worldwide recognition. In 1991, he took over from Ringo Starr as the
narrator of all the characters in Thomas and Friends. He had that same
slightly downbeat, world-weary quality in his Liverpudlian lilt, even
when saying something upbeat. He provided voices on Thomas and Friends
in more than 300 instalments over 20 years as his role ran through to
2012, including three spin-off video games. He was able to switch
effortlessly between drama and comedy, and appeared in many programmes
not set in Liverpool, but in 2012 he returned to Liverpool yet again, in
4 episodes of the TV drama, 'Good Cop', playing the pivotal role of a
dying father Robert Rocksavage, the bed-ridden father of Warren Brown’s
title character seeking revenge on the murderers of a police colleague.
His
marriage to Helen Worth also ended in divorce in 2001, following his much-publicised affair with the woman who would
become his second wife, Welsh model Jennifer Khalastchi, whom he married
in 2003. He and Helen Worth remained friends. Michael died of a heart attack on the 30th of May 2020 at
his home in Berkshire aged 76. He did not have children and is survived
by his third wife, Jennifer. His elder brother, Paul, also an actor, died in 2009.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-eileen.html
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