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Dateline: 27th February, 2004

Russell Hunter

Scottish actor Russell Hunter, probably best known for playing Lonely in the sixties/seventies TV series Callan with Edward Woodward, died yesterday at the age of 79 after a long battle with chronic lymphatic leukaemia.

He appeared in the first Edinburgh Fringe in 1947 in O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars and went on to help launch the first Royal Lyceum rep company in 1965 with Una McLean (whom he was to marry many years later in 1991), Brian Cox and Eileen McCallum.

He had had a heart attack some years ago and had triple bypass surgery. Scottie Anderson, the moderator of the SCOTS-NITS email discussion group, remembered the occasion:

Whilst tech rehearsing at the Kings one day for We are the Hibees, I observed Russell having difficulties with his chest. On consulting the director I quietly slipped on stage and pulled him aside into the stage door booth. He was clearly in the first stages of a heart attack, a condition for which he had a history. I suggested this to him and organised for an ambulance to take him to hospital. Perturbed that his performance had been interrupted, his response was "Stop yir fussing. I'll have a wee sit doon and a smoke then we can carry on." He was most upset at not being allowed to continue.

Steve Small, Head of Education at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, remembers:

The last time I saw Russell was at the opening night of A Life In The Theatre at the Lyceum. He looked frankly bloody awful. I went upon to him shook his hand and asked how he was. He replied, "Well I'm still above ground but only just!"

He was born Russell Ellis in Glasgow and worked in the shipyards on Clydebank before becoming first an amateur and then a professional actor. He appeared in Guy Masterson's award-winning 12 Angry Men at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, 56 years after his first appearance on the Fringe.

His last film was American Cousins, released last year, in which he played the owner of a Glasgow Italian chip shop in which some American mafiosi on the run took refuge, a part he desribed as the biggest he had ever played.

He was due to appear at the Perth Theatre in April in The Kerry Matchmaker with his wife.

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©Peter Lathan 2004