Bill Treacher Biography
William Charles Treacher was an English actor who was born on June 4, 1930 and passed away on November 5, 2022. He gained the most notoriety for his performance as Arthur Fowler in the British soap opera EastEnders, which aired on BBC One from 1985 until 1996. He was the first actor to be cast in the character.
Early life
Treacher was raised on York Road, Waltham Cross, and spent the majority of his boyhood in the East End of London. Treacher was born in Romford, and he grew up there. He attended the Kings Road JMI School, which was located in Waltham Cross, and afterwards worked as a porter at the Waltham Cross station. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he took a job with P&O as a steward and used the money he made there to pay for his tuition at a theatrical school.
Career
Theatre
After completing his studies at the illustrious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his debut on the West End in 1963 at The Vaudeville Theatre in the comedy “Shout for Life.” After that, he had several successful roles on the West End. N
Television
After that, Treacher went on to pursue a career in television drama, appearing in a number of iconic television shows from the 1970s such as Grange Hill, Dad’s Army, Bless This House, Minder, The Sweeney, The Professionals, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, and The Agatha Christie Hour.
EastEnders
Treacher was the first actor to be cast in the BBC soap opera EastEnders in late 1984. He appeared in the first episode on February 19, 1985, as Arthur Fowler, a part that he portrayed for the following 11 years. Treacher was the first actor to be cast in EastEnders. Tony Holland and Julia Smith, the characters’ co-creators, had written the character’s backstory with Treacher in mind. Treacher stated in 2015 that he was initially reluctant to sign up for the show because it meant long hours and a sizeable commute from his family home in Suffolk but that he relented due to the possibility of a steady income. He said that he was initially reluctant to sign up for the show because it meant long hours and a sizeable commute from his family home in Suffolk. As a result of his performance in the role, he was showered with praise, particularly for the way he portrayed the character’s mental decline and the inevitable disintegration of his neurological system. The character also went through a string of unfortunate events, including two stints in prison, a never-ending battle with unemployment, his daughter Michelle’s (Susan Tully) pregnancy at the age of 16, his son Mark’s (Todd Carty) diagnosis with HIV, and a midlife crisis in which he had an affair with Christine Hewitt (Elizabeth Power), which nearly caused his marriage to Pauline to end. Susan Tully played Michelle, and Todd Carty played Mark. Susan Tu (Wendy Richard).
By 1995, Treacher had submitted a request to be removed from the series, describing his reasons as follows: “By the time I was done, even listening to the opening theme music made me feel queasy. I felt depressed.” In addition, he mentioned in an interview for a BBC program from 2003 that he conducted with former stars of the show that he felt driven to quit as he got older. He said that the strain of working on the show for an exhausting schedule and for long hours was having an effect on his health, and that his doctors had warned him that if he did not quit his job and take some time off soon, the stress would eventually kill him.
Other television appearances
Throughout the 1970s, Treacher had a number of guest-starring appearances on various television shows. In the episode “Selected Target” of the hard-hitting police drama “The Sweeney,” as a sailor in the episode “Menace from the Deep” of “Dad’s Army,” and in 1975 as Arnold in an episode of the comedy series “Bless This House,” the episode entitled “The Phantom Pools Winner.”
Treacher appeared in an episode of the ITV police drama The Bill as a guest star in the year 2006. In December of 2007, he also had a role in an episode of Casualty, playing the role of a security guard.
Films
Since that time, Treacher has acted in a number of movies, the most notable of which being Pop Pirates (1984), The Musketeer (2001), Tale of the Mummy (1998), and George and the Dragon (2004).
Radio
Treacher was also an accomplished radio actor, and he has appeared in a BBC Radio 4 Play of the day titled “Bringing Eddie Home” by John Peacock. This play is based on a true story of an Eastend couple named Edna and Jack Wallace who fought to get their son’s body brought home from Aden, and the fight that followed for the rights of British service personnel. Treacher played the role of a soldier in the play, and he was portrayed by John Pea In the play, Treacher portrayed an older version of Jack Wallace, and it also featured former cast members of the soap opera EastEnders such as Tilly Vosburgh, Edna Doré, Todd Carty, and Joe Absolom.
Advertisements
Treacher had an appearance in a commercial for the Austin Allegro automobile that was broadcast on British television in 1973. After that, in 1983, he made another appearance on British television, this time as a grocer in an advertisement for Colgate toothpaste. In 1984, he appeared in a television commercial for Foster’s Lager in Great Britain playing the role of a Beefeater in the Tower of London to Paul Hogan’s tourist.
Personal life and death
Jamie, who is also an actor, and Sophie, who works as a production assistant, are Treacher and Katherine Kessey’s children. Treacher was married to Katherine Kessey, an actress from Australia, and the couple had two children together. They made their home in Suffolk.
Treacher disclosed to the public in 2015 that he was afflicted with ataxia, a degenerative condition that makes it difficult to walk and affects one’s balance. Treacher stated that as a direct result of this, he was forced to permanently retire and that he is occasionally had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility. He claimed that he does not watch EastEnders anymore and described the show as “a load of old garbage these days.”
Treacher passed away on November 5th, 2022, in the county of Suffolk at the age of 92. The Treacher family acknowledged in a statement that accompanied the news of his passing that Treacher’s health had been failing for some time. Gillian Taylforth, Adam Woodyatt, and Letitia Dean, three of his former co-stars in EastEnders, have paid homage to the actor.
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