Oscar-winning writer and actor Colin Welland has died aged 81, his family has announced.
Welland, a Lancashire-born father-of-four who acted in everything from Kes to Z Cars, won his Academy Award for the screenplay of Chariots of Fire in 1981, famously waving his statue and announcing in his acceptance speech: "The British are coming!"
His family said in a statement that he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years but died peacefully in his sleep.
In a statement released via his literary agent Anthony Jones, his family said: "Colin will be desperately missed by his family and friends.
"Alzheimer's is a cruel illness and there have been difficult times but in the end Colin died peacefully in his sleep.
"We are proud of Colin's many achievements during his life but most of all he will be missed as a loving and generous friend, husband, father and granddad."
Welland, who died last night, is survived by his wife Patricia, four children and six grandchildren.
Chariots of Fire told the story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.
On winning the award for Best Original Screenplay for the film at the Academy Awards in 1982, Welland warned the American audience: "The British are coming!" - a famous quotation attributed to US revolutionary war hero Paul Revere.
His writing credits also include Yanks (1979), which starred Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Gere, and the screenplay for Twice in a Lifetime (1985).
Aswell as screenwriting, Welland had an acting career, appearing as PC David Graham in BBC series Z-Cars and as a villain in The Sweeney. He also starred the films Kes in 1969 and Sweeney! in 1977.
Born Colin Williams in Lancashire, he considered Liverpool his home town.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article