Biography for
Michael Elphick (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 September 1946, Chichester, Sussex, England, UK

Date of Death

7 September 2002, Willesden, London, England, UK (heart attack)

Mini Biography

Michael Elphick was a fantastic and very popular actor. He will be best remembered for his role as Ken Boon in the hit series "Boon" (1986). He died tragically at the early age of 55. He had been in ill-health for some years, caused by a long-running battle with alcohol, which was exacerbated by the early death of his partner of many years.

Best remembered for 'Boon', his career was no one-hit wonder. Elphick had been working in television for the past 33 years and his many excellent performances included Dennis Potter's "Play for Today: Blue Remembered Hills (#9.14)" (1979), as the bully, Peter; The Knowledge (1979) (TV), when he played a would-be London cab driver driven almost to despair by the sadistic examiner (played by Nigel Hawthorne); "Private Schulz" (1981), "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (1983) and "Three Up, Two Down" (1985).

His film career was arguably less successful, but none-the-less featured a rich and varied vein of characterisations.

His final roles proved to be the film Dead in the Water (2002), in which he unfortunately had quite a small role, and millions saw his final television role, in "EastEnders" (1985), where he excelled in a very different role, showing just what a fine actor he was.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Colin Peppiatt (colinpeppiatt@hotmail.com)

Trivia

Daughter, Kate (b. 1976)

Lived with Julia Alexander from 1963 until her death in 1996. They had a daughter, Kate, with whom Elphick lived until his own death.

Friend of actor/writer/director Bruce Robinson. They were at London's Central School of Speech and Drama together. He appeared in Withnail & I (1987) without fee.

Played two characters with almost identical names: Harry Salter in "Harry" (1993) and Harry Slater in "EastEnders" (1985).

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z