39 Facts About Julian Fellowes

1.

Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, was born on 17 August 1949 and is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, and a Conservative peer of the House of Lords.

2.

Julian Fellowes is primarily known as the author of several Sunday Times bestseller 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.

3.

Julian Fellowes's father was a diplomat and Arabist who campaigned to have Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, restored to his throne during World War II.

4.

Julian Fellowes's great-grandfather was John Wrightson, a pioneer in agricultural education and the founder of Downton Agricultural College.

5.

Julian Fellowes has three older brothers: Nicholas Peregrine James, actor; writer David Andrew; and playwright Roderick Oliver.

6.

The siblings' childhood home was at Wetherby Place, South Kensington, and afterwards at Chiddingly, East Sussex, where Julian Fellowes lived from August 1959 until November 1988, and where his parents are buried.

7.

Julian Fellowes was educated at several private schools in Britain, including Wetherby School, St Philip's School and Ampleforth College, which his father had preferred over Eton.

8.

Julian Fellowes read English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was a member of Footlights.

9.

Julian Fellowes studied further at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

10.

Julian 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.

11.

Julian Fellowes believed that his breakthrough had come when he was considered to replace Herve Villechaize as the assistant on the television series Fantasy Island, but the role went to actor Christopher Hewett instead.

12.

Julian Fellowes was unable to get an audition for the Disney film Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend in Los Angeles, but was offered the role when he was visiting England.

13.

Julian Fellowes portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent twice: first in the film The Scarlet Pimpernel and the second in the 1996 adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel Sharpe's Regiment, as well as playing Major Dunnett in Sharpe's Rifles.

14.

Julian Fellowes played the part of Kilwillie on Monarch of the Glen.

15.

Julian Fellowes was the presenter of Never Mind the Full Stops, a panel game show broadcast on BBC Four from 2006 to 2007.

16.

Julian Fellowes created the hugely successful and critically acclaimed period drama Downton Abbey for ITV1 in 2010.

17.

Julian Fellowes won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding writing and a Broadcasting Press Guild award for writing Downton Abbey.

18.

Julian Fellowes wrote an adaptation of the novel Doctor Thorne by one of his favorite writers, Anthony Trollope.

19.

Julian Fellowes wrote the script for Gosford Park, which won the Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen in 2002.

20.

Julian Fellowes won a Writers Guild of America award for it.

21.

In late 2005, Julian Fellowes made his directorial debut with the film Separate Lies, for which he won the award for Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review.

22.

In 2009, Momentum Pictures and Sony Pictures released The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, for which Julian Fellowes wrote the original screenplay.

23.

Julian Fellowes was the screenwriter and one of the producers for Downton Abbey, which was released in September 2019, and its sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era.

24.

Julian Fellowes wrote several romantic novels in the 1970s, under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville.

25.

Julian Fellowes has appeared in several West End productions, including Samuel Taylor's A Touch of Spring, Alan Ayckbourn's Joking Apart and a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter.

26.

Julian Fellowes appeared at the National Theatre in The Futurists, written by Dusty Hughes.

27.

Julian Fellowes wrote the book for the musical School of Rock which opened at The Winter Garden on Broadway in December 2015.

28.

On 13 January 2011, Julian Fellowes was elevated to the peerage, being created Baron Julian Fellowes of West Stafford, of West Stafford in the County of Dorset, and on the same day was introduced in the House of Lords, where he sits on the Conservative Benches.

29.

Julian Fellowes is Chairman of the RNIB appeal for Talking Books.

30.

Julian Fellowes recently opened the Dorset office of the southwest adoption charity, Families for Children.

31.

On May 19,2022, Julian Fellowes was awarded The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence.

32.

Julian Fellowes sits on the Appeal Council for the National Memorial Arboretum and is a Patron of Moviola, an initiative aimed at facilitating rural cinema screenings in the West Country.

33.

Julian Fellowes sits on the Arts and Media Honours Committee.

34.

Julian Fellowes is a great-great-niece of Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener.

35.

Julian Fellowes proposed to her only 20 minutes after meeting her at a party, "having spent 19 minutes getting up the nerve".

36.

Julian Fellowes publicly expressed his dissatisfaction that the proposals to change the rules of royal succession were not extended to hereditary peerages, which had they been would have allowed his wife to succeed her uncle as Countess Kitchener in her own right.

37.

Lord Julian Fellowes was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset in 2009.

38.

Julian Fellowes is Lord of the manor of Tattershall in Lincolnshire and president of the Society of Dorset Men.

39.

Julian Fellowes's wife was story editor for Downton Abbey and works with charities, including the Nursing Memorial Appeal.