Eric proved himself to be a shady wheeler-dealer from the first time he set foot in Emmerdale. The years certainly haven't changed his deviousness or his smarm!
You know me, always up to something
Significant Others Debbie Wilson; Caroline Bates
Marriages Eileen Pollack; Elizabeth Feldman; Dee de la Cruz; Gloria Weaver
Jobs Hotten Market manager; Hotten Market auctioneer; private antiques dealer; Home Farm Estate Manager; Wine bar owner; antiques dealer; general shady businessman
1986 Employed as the new manager of Hotten Market and tells everyone he's an ex-army officer.
1987 Sacked from Hotten Market for fiddling the books and threatens colleague Sandie Merrick, who ratted on him. Tries to burgle Marian Wilks.
1988 Blackmails Nick Bates to get his hands on some of the money Nick had stolen in a Post Office raid. Nick shops him for stealing antique fireplaces, but there’s not enough evidence to send him down.
1990 Fleeced by scheming fiancée Debbie Wilson, who makes off with cash and antiques.
1992 Marries fish and game manager Elizabeth Feldmann in October but fails to mention he’s still married to a woman called Eileen!
1993 Business rival Steve Marchant tampers with his brakes but he's rescued from the burning car. Wife Elizabeth discovers a cheque fraud scam and threatens to expose him but dies when a plane crashes on the village.
1994 Wife Eileen turns up and tries to blackmail him over his bigamy. Step-son Michael accuses him of murdering his mum Elizabeth to prevent her revealing all about the fraud.
1997 Meets Filipino Dee on a trip to the Philippines and they marry in May.
1998 Dee leaves him and returns abroad after he discovers she’s been having an affair with younger man Will Cairns.
2001 Exploits vulnerable widow Gloria Weaver and drives her to the edge but they later become a couple. Gloria walks out with his cash when he refuses to marry her but he misses her.
2002 Bumps into Gloria at a business awards and impulsively proposes. Runs for mayor. Gloria encourages him to sleep with councillor Glynis Hardy the night before their wedding to win the campaign. Woos Glynis again to gain her support when he tries to become an MP. Glynis calls his bluff and Gloria runs for election instead and wins.
2003 Left lonely while Gloria takes her seat in London. Manipulated by the devious Steph Stokes who splits up his marriage. An upset Gloria goes missing and is presumed dead.
2004 Assumes Gloria has committed suicide but she’s alive and well on a tropical island and has cleaned out all his accounts!
2005 Val Blackstock gets her claws into him and moves in.
2006 Reelected as mayor. David Metcalfe arrives and claims that Pollard is his father. Pollard has a DNA test done but it's negative.
2007 The test was faulty and a new test proves positive. David secretly embezzles Pollard's funds in revenge for money Pollard once took from David's mum.
Chris was born in Aldershot, Hampshire on May 19 1948 and his father was in the Indian Army. He joined the National Theatre Company in London when he was 15 and was auditioned by stage legend Sir Laurence Olivier. He later worked with the likes of Peter O'Toole, Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith.
His first film was To Sir With Love alongside Sidney Poitier, when he was 19, and he also appeared in movies The Charge Of The Light Brigade and Zulu Dawn. He then spent four years in Rome living with an Italian actress.
Work was sparse when he returned to England and he ended up doing other jobs from cleaning to running an antiques business and restaurant. Chris later moved to South Africa and met his wife, Caroline Hunt. The couple married in 1979, returning to Britain in 1980.
Caroline ran a shop in Devon, while Chris did day trips for tourists around the Devon coast on his boat. He finally returned to the stage with a role alongside Peter O'Toole in Macbeth, which was quickly followed by his first appearance in Emmerdale as Eric Pollard.
He appeared sporadically in the show for the next three years, before being given a permanent role in 1989. Chris's other TV work has included Tucker's Luck and The Tomorrow People.
Chris has two children, Ben and Rebecca, with Caroline. He is the opposite of his penny-pinching screen character and has raised huge amounts of money for charity over the years.
