Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Goldsmiths alumnus Colin Welland has died aged 81.

The Goldsmiths graduate and Honorary Fellow won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1982 for Chariots of Fire and a BAFTA for his role in Ken Loach’s Kes.

His Oscars celebration roar that “The British are coming!” is one of the great Academy Award moments.

Colin studied Education at Goldsmiths in 1957, and after a career as an art teacher in Lancashire, he started pursuing his long-held passion for acting. In 1969 he made his big-screen debut as encouraging schoolteacher Mr Farthing in Ken Loach’s critically acclaimed Kes, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Collin’s family said the writer and actor had died peacefully in his sleep after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. In a statement they said: “Colin will be desperately missed by his family and friends.”

The family added: "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."

Colin started writing for the stage and screen alongside his acting work. His first feature film script was for the 1979 period drama Yanks, which was followed a few years later by Chariots of Fire, ranked 19th in the BFI’s list of top 100 British films.

He was also awarded the Best TV Playwright in Britain accolade several times. Talking about his plays in an interview with Desert Island Discs, he explained that “they usually champion the individual against the system – one man’s effort to break through what is usually expected of them”.

Colin was awarded a Goldsmiths Honorary Fellowship in 2000.