Francis Wright (actor)

Francis Wright (born 1958) is an English voice actor, puppeteer, and television presenter. He also teaches public speaking and communication skills.

Early life

Wright was born in St John's Wood, the son of Dr Bedřich Bělohlávek and Joan Wright, and was registered under both names.[1] His father was a Czech bookseller working in London, while his mother was a journalist then working for the BBC as a publicity officer, and both were authors.[2] Wright was educated at Colet Court and St Paul's School, London, then studied drama, graduating with honours. He later noted “I decided to specialise in puppetry, which seemed to be a good way of never being typecast and/or doomed to a life mainly out of work.”[3]

Career

Wright's work on screen began with ITV Entertainment's The Munch Bunch. After that, he was a leading character in You and Me, a BBC Schools series, in which he played Dibs from 1981 until 1992.[4]

His first feature film was Dragonslayer (1981), and in the mid-1980s he worked as a puppeteer on Spitting Image.[4] He played Ludo's Eyebrows in Labyrinth (1986)[5] and created and voiced the Psammead for BBC Television in Five Children and It (1991),[6] returning to the role in The Return of the Psammead (1993) and The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997), for which he also created the puppet of the Phoenix, a character which was voiced by David Suchet.[7] In the 1990s he also worked on Mortimer and Arabel, Jay's World, Gophers!, and The Spooks of Bottle Bay, playing Sam the Seagull in Beachcomber Bay and created the March Hare for the star-studded Alice in Wonderland (1999).[4]

Wright played the Head in ITV's Art Attack (1990–2007), was Colin the bat and Lumpy in Grotbags (1991–1993), was both a writer and a performer for Bug Alert (1996–2000) and played Sweep in two series of the ITV children's show Sooty. He has also narrated two television series, B & B the Best for the BBC and Kitchen Showdown with Rosemary Shrager for ITV, and does voice-over work for commercials.[4]

Outside show business, Wright teaches public speaking and communication skills. He was an elocution teacher for American Princess (2005) and Australian Princess (2006) and was hired to teach Paul O'Grady to speak English.[4]

Notes
  1. “BELOHLAVEK Francis P A / BELOHLAVEK / Hampstead 5c 1373/S” and “WRIGHT Francis P A / WRIGHT / Hampstead 5c 1373/S” in General Index to Births in England and Wales, April–June, 1958
  2. Francis Wright, Marmaduke Stephenson and Others: some notes for a family history, at franciswright.wordpress.com, accessed 21 July 2020
  3. “Francis Wright: Biography” at franciswright.wordpress.com, accessed 21 July 2020
  4. Creatives: Puppeteer Francis Wright at braidman.com, accessed 21 July 2020
  5. Julian Garner, Father Nandru and the Wolves (Oberon Books, 2003), p. 123
  6. Anna Home, Into the Box of Delights: A History of Children's Television (BBC Books, 1993), p. 28
  7. Mark J. Docherty, Alistair D. McGown, The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclopedia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2003), p. 102
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