Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL (born 17 August 1949) is an

English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, and a Conservative peer of the House of Lords.
He is primarily known as the author of several Sunday Times best-seller novels; for the screenplay
for the film Gosford Park, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2002; and
as the creator, writer and executive producer of the multiple award-winning ITV series Downton
Abbey (2010–2015).

Contents

1 Early life and education

2 Career

2.1 Television

2.2 Films

2.3 Novels

2.4 Theatre

2.5 Writing credits

2.6 Parliament

2.7 Other interests

3 Family

3.1 Arms

4 Styles and titles

5 See also

6 References

7 Further reading

8 External links

Early life and education

Fellowes was born in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest son of Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes, and his
British wife, Olwen Mary (née Stuart-Jones).[1] His father was a diplomat and Arabist who
campaigned to have Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, restored to his throne during World War II.
[1] His great grandfather was John Wrightson, a pioneer in agricultural education and the founder of
Downton Agricultural College.[2]

Fellowes has three older brothers: Nicholas Peregrine James, actor and writer David Andrew, and
playwright Roderick Oliver.[3] The siblings' childhood home was at Wetherby Place, South
Kensington,[4] and afterwards at Chiddingly, East Sussex, where Fellowes lived from August 1959
until November 1988, and where his parents are buried.

The house in Chiddingly, which had been owned by the whodunit writer Clifford Kitchin, was within
easy reach of London where his father, who had been a diplomat, worked for Shell. Fellowes has
described his father as one "of that last generation of men who lived in a pat of butter without
knowing it. My mother put him on a train on Monday mornings and drove up to London in the
afternoon. At the flat she'd be waiting in a snappy little cocktail dress with a delicious dinner and
drink. Lovely, really."

The friendship his family developed with another family in the village, the Kingsleys, influenced
Fellowes. David Kingsley was head of British Lion Films, the company responsible for many Peter
Sellers comedies. Sometimes "glamorous figures" would visit the Kingsleys' house. Fellowes said that
he thinks he "learnt from David Kingsley that you could actually make a living in the film
business."[5]

Fellowes was educated at several private schools in Britain including Wetherby School, St Philip's
School (a Catholic boys school in South Kensington) and Ampleforth College, which his father had
preferred over Eton in spite of its lower academic and social distinction.[citation needed] He read
English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was a member of Footlights. He
graduated with a 2:1.[6] He studied further at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in
London.[citation needed]

Career

Television

Fellowes moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and played a number of small roles on television for the next
two years, including a role in Tales of the Unexpected. He believed that his breakthrough had come
when he was considered to replace Hervé Villechaize as the butler on the television series Fantasy
Island, but the role went to actor Christopher Hewett instead.[7] He was unable to get an audition
for the Disney film Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) in Los Angeles, but was offered the role
when he was visiting England. When he asked the film's director why he was not able to get an
interview in Los Angeles, he was told that they felt the best actors were in Britain.[8]

After this, Fellowes decided to move back to England to further his career, and in 1991, he played
Neville Marsham in Danny Boyle's For the Greater Good and Dr. Jobling in the 1994 BBC adaptation
of Martin Chuzzlewit. Other notable acting roles included the role of Claud Seabrook in the
acclaimed 1996 BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North and the 2nd Duke of Richmond in the BBC
drama serial Aristocrats. He portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent for the second time (the first
was in the film The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 film) ''The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)) in the 1996
adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Regiment, and Major Dunnett in Sharpe's Rifles. He
also played the part of Kilwillie on Monarch of the Glen. He appeared as the leader of the
Hullabaloos in the television adaptation of Arthur Ransome's Coot Club, called Swallows and
Amazons Forever!.

Aside from acting, he launched a new series on BBC One in 2004, Julian Fellowes Investigates: A
Most Mysterious Murder, which he wrote and introduced onscreen. He was the presenter of Never
Mind the Full Stops, a panel-based game show broadcast on BBC Four from 2006 to 2007. He
created the hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey for ITV1 in
2010.[9] He wrote a new Titanic miniseries that was shown on ITV1 in March–April 2012.[10]

In April 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Fellowes was at work on a new period drama
series for NBC television, to be set in late 19th-century New York City, entitled The Gilded Age.[11]
Fellowes suggested that a younger version of Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess character from his
Downton Abbey drama might appear in the new series, saying: "Robert Crawley would be in his early
teens, Cora would be a child. A young Violet [the Dowager Countess] could make an
appearance."[11] As the title suggests, the series would be set during the time of America's so-called
Gilded Age – the industrial boom era in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries –
and portray the upper echelons of New York's high society during that period.[11]

Production and writing for The Gilded Age was updated in January 2016 indicating that filming would
start at the end of 2016. As reported in RadioTimes: "NBC's The Gilded Age is set to start shooting
later this year, Fellowes tells RadioTimes.com. Asked whether he'd written the script yet, Fellowes
replied, 'No I haven't, no. I'm doing that this year', before adding: 'And then hopefully shooting at
the end of the year.'"[12]

In April 2016, it was announced that Fellowes would be the producer of The Gilded Age when it was
reported that Fellowes is "about to begin writing The Gilded Age for NBC, a sort of American
Downton about fortunes made and lost in late 19th century New York, which he will also
produce."[13]

On 4 June 2016, Fellowes was asked by The Los Angeles Times, "Where does The Gilded Age stand?"
Fellowes replied,