Ansley O’Connor is a celebrity solicitor who specialises in personal injury claims and has represented many celebrities from Roger Lloyd Pack to Janis Joplin. Born in Ireland, the youngest of four children, he was brought up in England and has always said that his life was like that of his mother, who was a school teacher. He went on to study law at University College London, where he gained a degree in Law but decided that he would rather be a photographer first. After that, he joined a travelling circus and later became an actor and stage performer, before landing a role as a presenter for the BBC. Then he began playing the character of David Blaine in a series of self-performing street magic tours and went on to star in a feature film entitled Streetwise.
O’Connor’s acting career did not take off, however, and he began working as a freelance writer for various companies including Adidas, Nike, and Jaguar. He started presenting his column in the Financial Times magazine in 1994, before becoming a commentator for the same publication. He appeared on Celebrity Fight Club: America in the same year and also wrote a book entitled A Fine Fighter – How British Judges Save Television and Hip Hop! Though he no longer writes for the Financial Times, he continues to appear frequently on television shows, speaking on the BBC, in print publications, and via his website.
Ansley O’Connor is seventy years old, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that he might still have many projects in mind. However, he seems content to stick with his role as a commentator on television, even as he considers his other career options – writing, acting, and being a judge on TV’s quiz show, The Voice – to be more important parts of his life than his acting. He lives in southwest London, which he describes as “a place I’d love to visit”, though he admits that he does sometimes get requests to go to the country side. His most recent TV role was in the television movie World in Motion, in which he played the ageing grandfather of Joanna Marples, a star at the age of nine who became famous in her own right as a part of the show. Ansley O’Connor is due to appear on Broadway soon.