Biography for
Julian Fellowes More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

17 August 1949, Cairo, Egypt

Birth Name

Julian Alexander Fellowes

Spouse

Emma Kitchener-Fellowes

(1990 - present) 1 child

Trivia

Based Maggie Smith's Gosford Park character on his great aunt.

Fellowes proposed to his wife Emma 20 minutes after first meeting her. She is lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent. Emma is a great-great-niece of (General) Lord Kitchener. She is also a vegetarian.

Father of Peregrine Kitchener-Fellowes, born 1991.

His ancestors include Sir James Fellowes, Physician to the Forces during the reign of Britain's George III, and Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes who served with Lord Nelson.

Was on University Challenge representing Magdalene College, Cambridge when aged 19. He had a bad bout of 'flu whilst recording the show, having a temperature of 103 degrees, but his mother insisted he should still take part in the programme making.

In the 1970s, wrote romantic novels under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville.

will conduct a scriptwriting Masterclass at the Cinemagic World Screen Festival for Young People 2002 in Belfast, N.Ireland

Is an avid follower of TV soap "Coronation Street" (1960).

Lives in Dorset, England, close to the cottage once owned by writer Thomas Hardy. His estate includes a manor house built in 1633 and a newer portion built in 1840, all on 50 acres.

His two dogs are named Meg and Humbug

Uncle of Jessica Fellowes.

Youngest brother of four including David Fellowes and Rory Fellowes.

Was once a member of the Cambridge footlights comedy group. Other members through the years include Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, 'John Cleese', Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Eric Idle.

He played Winston Churchill in both The Treaty (1992) (TV) and "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992).

Personal Quotes

"I feel as if I'm in 'A Star Is Born and any moment Norman Maine will come up and whack me in the mouth." Upon receiving the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2002

I was rather a lazy student. My interests were Drama and taking girls to parties. However, they locked the college gates at 11 o'clock, and if you were out later than that, the girls would take off their party dresses, climb over the gates and then re-assemble themselves on the other side. A rather charming sight!

What I dislike about movie culture is that it often presents a parable of our problems - but the issues are all straightforward and the people are either nice or they're not. In real life, everyone falls between those perimeters, but not many American films operate in that gray area.

When you make your first film, there is a hell of a lot to think about, and you've got to have a gut understanding of your material. It's not enough to say, 'I've met people like this.' You've got to know them inside out. So with Separate Lies I placed my characters in a class that I understand, but it doesn't mean that this is a film about class. It's about being trapped, about the consequences of our choices, and about lying.

We live in an era of tremendous dishonesty where people, even nice people, will say things they know are not true because they want to be perceived as someone who thinks they are true. But I think this is dangerous. I think personal dishonesty in a society is as dangerous as it is in an individual. For most of us the biggest journey in life, and certainly the toughest journey, is towards self-knowledge.

There are limits to what any of us can achieve in life. If I wanted to be a catwalk model, I would be in trouble. But the greatest limit of all is when we do not know ourselves and when we do not admit that truth about ourselves to ourselves, and that buggers up our life.

I have an absolutely phobic horror of controlled relationships. I despise controllers. And when I see that slightly patronizing relationship going on in front of me, as you often do in our industry, where the man who quite deliberately takes a partner who is less sophisticated, younger, from a less advantaged background or whatever, and he is becoming a kind of Higgins to her Eliza, I just want to punch him. I really hate it.

The wonderful thing about King Oscar is he makes all things possible, although a lot of the time you do keep thinking, 'Moi?'

We have this funny, ambivalent feeling about success and about achievement, so that all we usually get is some actress standing up in an evening dress and bovver boots telling you that winning doesn't matter. We can't give ourselves to these things and they're only fun if you give yourself to it. Whether you're doing a job or making love, you've got to let go of the side, and the Americans just do.

(Advice from his upper-class father): If you have the misfortune to be born into a generation which must earn its living, you might as well do something amusing.

I think I'm more fearful of the future now. I always feel that there's some giant hand about to lean in and snatch it all away from me, saying, 'That wasn't meant for you.' Emma has this completely different quality of living in the present. It's just been very helpful to me to live with someone who doesn't think, Oh, my God, what if it all stops tomorrow? Of course it's absurd to live your life dreading some unspecified disaster.