Louis Selwyn

Louis Selwyn

Louis Selwyn (born in London, 25th December 1954) is an English actor. He is known for his early roles in 'The Three Musketeers' and onstage at The Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as later appearing in the series 'The Strauss Family', as Josef Strauss, and later as Jofre Borgia in 'The Borgias', both for the BBC. He went on to play Mick Jagger in 'Let the Good Stones Roll' at The Ambassadors Theatre in the West End. Louis has since worked as a producer on four feature-length films including 'Evil Never Dies' in which he also starred as 'Gordon'.

Stage

Louis Selwyn began his stage work, as a child actor, with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 in a production of 'Henry V, Part 2' alongside Malcolm McDowell, Sir Patrick Stewart OBE, Sir Ian Holm CBE and Frances de la Tour. He was known to the cast and crew as 'Little Louis'. He went on to take another part immediately after the show closed, again at the RSC, this time on 'Twelfth Night' alongside Dame Diana Rigg under the directorship of Clifford Williams.

In his early twenties, Selwyn appeared in the West End at The Ambassadors Theatre as Mick Jagger in a production of Rayner Bourton's 'Let The Good Stones Roll'.

1979 saw Selwyn drawn to The Royal National Theatre, appearing at The Olivier Theatre on four separate productions. He played William in 'As You Like It', alongside Dermot Crowley and Oz Clarke, followed by a role as Messenger in 'Richard III' alongside Michael Beint and Mary Wimbush. The next production that year was 'Amadeus', appearing alongside Felicity Kendal and Simon Callow. The final production at The Olivier Theatre in December of 1979 was Henrik Ibsen's 'The Wild Duck' alongside Sir Ralph Richardson.

Television

Selwyn began his television career, as a child actor, in 1967 playing King Louis in 13 episodes of the series 'The Further Adventure of the Musketeers' for the BBC, followed by further BBC parts that year on 'Not in front of the children', 'Merry Go Round' and 'A Hundred Years of Humphrey Hastings'. In 1968 Selwyn played Roger Perry in a two part story on Season 6 of the 'Z Cars' series.

In 1969 he again took a role with the BBC in 'The First Lady' with Thora Hird, followed by an appearance on ITV's Sunday Night Theatre and later, in 1970 on ITV's Sunday Night Drama.

'The Strauss Family', in 1972, saw Louis as Josef Strauss in three episodes of the TV miniseries alongside Barbara Ferris and Jane Seymour.

Selwyn played Jabir in 'QB VII', a 1974 mini series starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Leslie Caron and Anthony Quayle. The series was considered a television milestone, based on the book by Leon Uris. This same year, Louis played Martin Downdes, the son of Bet Lynch whom she gave up for adoption, in Coronation Street. He would appear twice before the character was tragically killed, never having introduced himself to his mother.