English actor, Ronald Edmund Magill (21 April 1920 – 6 September 2007) was in an orphanage as a child.Ronald Magill was born in Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire, England. Ronald’s parents were both teachers. At the age of 9, Ronald’s father died and the child was sent to live in Birmingham, in an orphanage. He visited his mother in Ireland during school holidays. After the war, Magill took on a variety of performing roles until he settled in at the Nottingham Playhouse where for 9 years he worked as both artistic director and actor. He is best remembered for playing Amos Brearly in the British soap opera Emmerdale from the first episode in 1972 to 1991, and appeared again in this role in 1994 and 1995.