Ian Raymond Ogilvy was born on 30 September 1943 in Woking, Surrey, England, the son of Francis Fairfield Ogilvy - brother of the advertising executive David Ogilvy - and the actress Aileen Raymond. He was educated at Sunningdale School and Eton College before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Ogilvy built a long and varied acting career, co-starring with Boris Karloff in The Sorcerers (1967) and with Vincent Price in Witchfinder General (1968), and appearing in Upstairs, Downstairs and I, Claudius. He is best known for taking over the role of Simon Templar from Roger Moore in the television series Return of the Saint (1978-79), and later worked extensively in American television, including guest roles in Murder, She Wrote, Babylon 5 and Agatha Christie's Marple, alongside a strong parallel career as a novelist and playwright. His memoir, Once a Saint: An Actor's Memoir, was published in 2016.
For many years this record listed Ogilvy's connection to Wales as having attended Rydal School in Colwyn Bay. Careful checking could not confirm this: Ogilvy's own memoir and his standard biographical sources consistently list his schooling as Sunningdale and Eton, and Rydal Penrhos School's own published roll of notable former pupils - which does include other actors such as William Roache and Linus Roache - does not include his name.
We have chosen to keep this page rather than remove it, in case a reader can point us to a genuine source confirming a Welsh connection for Ian Ogilvy. As things stand, based on the available evidence, we cannot verify one.