Early Kelsall studied at
Glasgow University and began acting with the
Scottish National Players before developing his acting career at the Westminster Theatre in London. Towards the end of 1931 he accepted an offer to take over the running of the BBC's Aberdeen radio station
2BD, which had become moribund, and re-invigorated it, putting on-air some of the best programmes in Scottish broadcasting, according to the BBC's then Scottish Regional Director, Melville Dinwiddie. In 1937 he was transferred to the new
BBC television service at Alexandra Palace, adapting a
J. M. Barrie one act play, "
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals", for release in December of that year. In all, Kelsall produced 19 shows for BBC television, ending in 1939 with
The Happy Hangman, a play by
Harold Brighouse. From 1943 he also adapted novels and plays for broadcast on BBC Radio's long-running drama strand
Saturday Night Theatre.
Acting His acting career began in a 1949 film called
Landfall, which starred
Michael Denison, and recounts the story of a pilot [Denison] who sinks a German U-boat, but which is believed by other officers to be a Royal Navy vessel. (The pilot is vindicated in the end of course !). Kelsall played
Lieutenant James, the commander of a coastal defence vessel. In 1951, a busy year for him, he moved up the
cast list to play another lieutenant (Crystal) in the film
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N., which featured
Gregory Peck and
Virginia Mayo as a
Royal Naval captain and a titled
Lady who become romantically involved whilst at sea in
Central America in 1807. The film was adapted by
Ivan Goff and
Ben Roberts from the Hornblower book "Beat To Quarters" by
C. S. Forester. In the same year, he appeared as the
Constable of France in the BBC TV "Sunday Night Theatre" production of
Shakespeare's
Henry V, and played the role of the medical officer of health in the short film
Surprise Attack, produced by the
Crown Film Unit and commissioned by the
Ministry of Health. That year he also played a
Detective Superintendent in the
Ealing Studios comedy film,
The Lavender Hill Mob, directed by
Charles Crichton, and starring
Alec Guinness and
Stanley Holloway.
Audrey Hepburn had a very small part, indeed it may have been her debut. He completed his year's work as a
ship's captain in the
espionage film,
High Treason, co-written and directed by
Roy Boulting. Kelsall then made an appearance as "MacCauley" in
Errol Flynn's 1953
Scottish swashbuckler,
The Master of Ballantrae, and, in the same year, played Commander Dawson in the
wartime POW movie,
Albert R.N., about the use of a
dummy to disguise the escape of a prisoner. From then until 1956, he made seven more films, before switching to television once more, appearing in "The Quarrel", episode 2 of the six-part BBC adaptation of
Robert Louis Stevenson's
Kidnapped, which starred
Patrick Troughton, and in which Kelsall played Cluny Macpherson (he would also go on to play a more prominent character, Prestongrange, in four of eleven episodes of the re-make of the same series by BBC television in 1963). Kelsall took time out in 1956 to write, adapting for TV a Marie Fawcett story,
Mister Betts Runs Away, in the
ATV series "
Lilli Palmer Theatre". He later did the same (in 1968 for
Scottish Television) with
D. K. Broster's
The Flight of the Heron. In 1957, he continued on the small screen for the BBC, taking the role of Regan in one episode ("No Place Like Home") of the popular television series
Dixon of Dock Green, which starred
Jack Warner as the
London '
bobby', George Dixon. Returning to the cinema in the same year,
The Barretts of Wimpole Street saw him play Dr. Ford-Waterlow, with Edward and Elizabeth Barrett portrayed by
John Gielgud and
Jennifer Jones. He was Dr. Robinson in the 1958 film
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, featuring
Robert Donat and
Ingrid Bergman, and then appeared regularly on television and in film throughout 1959, culminating with his part as Graham in the movie
The Battle of the Sexes opposite
Peter Sellers. In 1961, the
Children's Film Foundation made a low-budget film called
The Last Rhino, about a child who has to defend a wounded
rhino against his uncle (the
game warden) and the local Kenyan
tribesmen. Before its release, this film was entirely
voiced over by different actors to those who appeared in it, and Kelsall provided the audio presence for the
district commissioner, who had been visually played by Tony Blane.
Maurice Denham voiced the game warden. Kelsall was a member of the board of the
Edinburgh Gateway Company from 1953 and served as chairman from 1960 to 1965. During the 1960s, aside from his acting career, he was well known in Edinburgh as the man who ran the popular "Laigh Coffee House" in Hanover Street. Between 1961 and 1969, Kelsall switched mainly to the medium of television, securing roles in various BBC
anthology-style series, such as
Suspense and
Out of the Unknown, and other more mainstream sixties productions, including appearances in
The Saint and ''
Dr. Finlay's Casebook. In 1962, he appeared in an episode of The DuPont Show of the Week (NBC) entitled The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon'', an adaptation of
A. J. Cronin's novel, ''
Shannon's Way''. Kelsall took the part of
boarding house owner Petey Bowles in the 1968 film version of
Harold Pinter's
The Birthday Party, which starred
Robert Shaw. In 1970, he took the lead role as Andrew Flaxton in all 13 episodes of season 2 of
The Flaxton Boys, a
Yorkshire Television children's series set at Flaxton Hall in 1890. His last film was the 1970
Sammy Davis Jr., comedy sequel,
One More Time, in which Davis and
Peter Lawford play swinging
U.S. private investigators
Salt and Pepper, investigating the murder in England of the titled twin brother of Chris Pepper (Lawford). Kelsall played a
church minister. Kelsall continued to work until the year of his death in 1980. His appearances included such programmes as
The Persuaders!,
Doomwatch,
Coronation Street, and the BBC epic
Edward the Seventh, in which he played Sir James Clark. From 1973 to 1976, he portrayed Sheriff Derwent in 7 episodes of the BBC
Scottish drama series
Sutherland's Law, about a
Procurator Fiscal, played by
Iain Cuthbertson. After appearing as Tradul in 1977 in a BBC television adaptation of
Rosemary Sutcliff's
Roman saga,
The Eagle of the Ninth (starring
Patrick Malahide), Kelsall went into semi-retirement. He made one final contribution to television, taking the part of Sir Archie in BBC TV's adaptation of the
Henrik Ibsen novel,
Enemy of the People, which featured
Robert Urquhart, and which was broadcast ten days before Moultrie Kelsall died on 13 February 1980. ==Selected filmography==