Simon Callow

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor, author and director.
== Early life ==
Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman.[2] His father was of English and French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry.[3][4] He was brought up Roman Catholic.[3] Callow was educated at the London Oratory School and then went on to study at Queen's University Belfast ('Queen's') in Northern Ireland where he was active in the Northern Ireland civil-rights movement, before giving up his degree course to go into acting at the Drama Centre London.[citation needed][5]
== Career ==
Callow's immersion in the theatre began after he wrote a fan letter to Sir Laurence Olivier, the Artistic Director of the National Theatre, and received a response suggesting he join their box office staff. It was while watching actors rehearse that he realised he wanted to act.[6]
Callow made his stage debut in 1973, appearing in The Thrie Estates at the Assembly Rooms Theatre, Edinburgh. In the early 1970s he joined the Gay Sweatshop theatre company and performed in Martin Sherman's critically acclaimed Passing By.[7][8] In 1977 he took various parts in the Joint Stock Theatre Company's production of Epsom Downs and in 1979 he starred in Snoo Wilson's The Soul of the White Ant at the Soho Poly.[9]
Callow appeared as Verlaine in Total Eclipse (1982), Lord Foppington in The Relapse (1983) and the title role in Faust (1988) at the Lyric Hammersmith, where he also directed The Infernal Machine (with Maggie Smith) in 1986.[10] In 1985 he played Molina in The Kiss of the Spiderwoman at the Bush Theatre, London.[10] He created the role of Mozart in the premiere of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus at the National Theatre (1979), also appearing in the 1983 BBC radio production with its original cast.[10] He later wrote of having "discovered Mozart quite early: the operas, the symphonies, the concertos, the wind serenades were all very much part of my musical landscape when I was asked to play the part of the composer in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus; possibly this was one of the reasons I got the job."[11] He also appeared at the National Theatre as Orlando in As You Like It (1979) and Fulganzio in Galileo (1980).[10]
He made his first film appearance, as Schikaneder, in Amadeus in 1984 (having played Mozart in the original stage production). The following year, he appeared as the Reverend Mr. Beebe in A Room with a View, a role which was meant to be supporting but ended up driving much of the action in the film. His first television role was in Carry On Laughing episode "Orgy and Bess", in 1975, but it was apparently cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him a wider audience than his many critically acclaimed stage appearances.
At the same time, Callow was successful both as a director and as a writer. His Being An Actor (1984) was a critique of 'director dominated' theatre, in addition to containing autobiographical sections relating to his early career as an actor. At a time when subsidised theatre in the United Kingdom was under severe pressure from the Thatcher government, the work's original appearance caused a minor controversy. In 1992, he directed the play Shades by Sharman MacDonald and the musical My Fair Lady featuring costumes designed by Jasper Conran.[12] In 1995, he directed a stage version of the classic French film Les Enfants du Paradis for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). The production was not a success.
Among opera productions directed by Callow are a Così fan tutte in Lucerne, Die Fledermaus for Scottish Opera in 1988,[13] Il tritico for the Broomhill Trust, Kent in August 1995,[14] Menotti's The Consul at Holland Park Opera, London in 1999 and Le roi malgré lui by Chabrier at Grange Park Opera in 2003.[15] He also directed Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, London in 1991, with Wilhelmenia Fernandez in the title role.[16]
One of Callow's best-known books is Love Is Where It Falls, a poignant analysis of his eleven-year relationship with Peggy Ramsay (1980–91), a prominent British theatrical agent from the 1960s to the 1980s. He has also written extensively about Charles Dickens, whom he has played several times: in a one-man show, The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd; in the films Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale and Christmas Carol: The Movie; and on television several times including An Audience with Charles Dickens (BBC, 1996) and in "The Unquiet Dead", a 2005 episode of the BBC science-fictionseries Doctor Who. He returned to Doctor Who for the 2011 season finale, again taking the role of Dickens.[17]
Callow appeared with Saeed Jaffrey in 1994 British television series Little Napoleons. In 1996 Callow directed Cantabile in three musical pieces (Commuting, The Waiter's Revenge, Ricercare No. 4) composed by his friend Stephen Oliver. Ricercare No. 4 was commissioned by Callow especially for Cantabile. He voice-acted the sly and traitorous Wolfgang in Shoebox Zoo. In 2004, he appeared on a Comic Relief episode of Little Britain for charity causes. In 2006, he wrote a piece for the BBC1 programme This Week bemoaning the lack of characters in modern politics. He has starred as Count Fosco, the villain of Wilkie Collins's novel The Woman in White, in film (1997) and on stage (2005, in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in the West End).
In December 2004, he hosted the London Gay Men's Chorus Christmas Show, Make the Yuletide Gay at the Barbican Centre in London. He is currently one of the patrons of the Michael Chekhov Studio London. Callow narrated the audiobook of Robert Fagles' 2006 translation of Virgil's The Aeneid.
In July 2006, the London Oratory School Schola announced Callow as one of their new patrons. In November 2007 he threatened to resign the post over controversy surrounding the Terrence Higgins Trust (an AIDS charity of which Callow is also a patron). Other patrons of the Catholic choir are Princess Michael of Kent and the leading Scottish composer James MacMillan. He reprised his role as Wolfgang in Shoebox Zoo and voice-acted the wild and action-seeking Hunter as well.
In 2007, he portrayed the role of Pliny the Elder in CBBC's children's drama series, Roman Mysteries in the episodes The Secrets of Vesuvius.
From 11 July to 3 August 2008, Callow appeared at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada in There Reigns Love, a performance of the sonnets of William Shakespeare[18] and also in 2008, he appeared at the Edinburgh Festivalperforming "Dr Marigold" and "Mr Chops" by Charles Dickens, adapted and directed by Patrick Garland; repeating them from December 2009 to January 2010 at the Riverside Studios and on tour in 2011.
In February 2008, he played the psychiatrist in Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Peter Shaffer's Equus.
Between March and August 2009, he starred as Pozzo in Sean Mathias's production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett opposite Sir Ian McKellen(Estragon), Sir Patrick Stewart (Vladimir) and also Ronald Pickup (Lucky). The tour opened in Malvern before travelling to Milton Keynes, Brighton, Bath, Norwich, Edinburgh and Newcastle; its run at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket was extended due to demand.
In November 2009, "Mini Stories", a recording by the Caput Ensemble of Haflidi Hallgrimsson's settings of the surreal poetry of Daniil Kharms, featuring Callow as the narrator was released by Hyperion records.[19]
From June to November 2010, he appeared in a national tour of a new one-man play, Shakespeare: the Man from Stratford, written by Jonathan Bate, directed by Tom Cairns and produced by the Ambassador Theatre Group. The play was renamed Being Shakespeare for its West End debut at the Trafalgar Studioswhere it opened on 15 June 2011. It was revived at the same theatre in March 2012, prior to a run in New York City and Chicago. In March 2014, it returned to the West End, this time at the Harold Pinter Theatre.[20]
In October 2014, Callow appeared in a comedy sketch made for Channel 4's The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night to raise awareness of testicular cancer. The same year he played the recurring role of the fictional Duke of Sandringham in the Starz period TV series, Outlander.[21]
Callow has also written biographies of Oscar Wilde, Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. He is currently at work on the fourth volume of his life of Welles. He has also written an anthology of Shakespeare passages, Shakespeare on Love, and contributed to Cambridge's Actors on Shakespeare series. Callow was also the reader of The Twits and The Witches in the Puffin Roald Dahl Audio Books Collection (ISBN 978-0-140-92255-4) and has done audio versions of several abridged P.G. Wodehouse books that feature, among others, the fictional character Jeeves. They include Very Good, Jeeves and Aunts Aren't Gentlemen. A devotee of classical music, he has contributed articles to Gramophonemagazine.
Callow starred in 3-part original Gold comedy The Rebel in 2016.[22]
== Personal life ==
Callow was listed 28th in The Independent's 2007 listing of the most influential gay men and women in the UK.[23] In 1999, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting.[24] He was one of the first actors to declare his homosexuality publicly, doing so in his 1984 book Being An Actor.
He married Sebastian Fox in June 2016.[25][26]
In an interview, Callow stated:
In August 2014, Callow was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[28]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1984	Amadeus 	Emanuel Schikaneder/ Papageno 	
1985	The Good Father 	Mark Varda 	
1985	A Room with a View 	The Reverend Mr. Beebe 	Nominated – BAFTA Film Awardfor Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1987	Maurice 	Mr. Ducie 	
1981	Manifesto 	Police Chief 	
1990	Postcards from the Edge 	Simon Asquith 	
1990	Mr. & Mrs. Bridge 	Dr. Alex Sauer 	
1991	The Ballad of the Sad Cafe 	 	Director
Nominated – Golden Berlin Bear
1991	Howards End 	Music and Meaning Lecturer 	Cameo
1992	Soft Top Hard Shoulder 	Eddie Cherdowski 	
1994	Four Weddings and a Funeral 	Gareth 	Nominated – BAFTA Film Awardfor Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1994	Street Fighter 	A.N. Official 	
1995	England, My England 	Charles II 	
1995	Victory 	Zangiacomo 	
1995	Jefferson in Paris 	Richard Cosway 	
1995	Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 	Vincent Cadby 	
1996	James and the Giant Peach 	Mr. Grasshopper 	Voice
1998	The Scarlet Tunic 	Captain Fairfax 	
1998	Bedrooms and Hallways 	Keith 	
1998	Shakespeare in Love 	Sir Edmund Tilney 	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1999	Around the World in 80 Days 	Phileas Fogg 	Voice
1999	Junk 	 	
2001	No Man's Land 	Colonel Soft 	
2001	Christmas Carol: The Movie 	Ebenezer Scrooge 	
2002	Thunderpants 	Sir John Osgood 	
2002	Merci Docteur Rey 	Bob 	
2003	Bright Young Things 	King of Anatolia 	
2004	George and the Dragon 	King Edgar 	
2004	The Phantom of the Opera 	Andre 	
2005	Rag Tale 	Fat Boy Rourke 	
2005	The Civilization of Maxwell Bright 	Mr. Wroth 	
2005	Bob the Butler 	Mr. Butler 	
2006	Sabina 	Eugene Bleuler 	
2007	Chemical Wedding 	Professor Haddo / Aleister Crowley	
2007	Arn - The Knight Templar 	Father Henry 	
2011	No Ordinary Trifle 	Guy Witherspoon 	
2012	Acts of Godfrey 	Godfrey 	
2014	Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles	Himself 	
2016	Golden Years 	Royston 	
2016	Viceroy's House 	Cyril Radcliffe 	
2016	Mindhorn 	Himself 	Cameo
2017	Hampstead 	The Judge 	
2017	Victoria & Abdul 	Giacomo Puccini 	
2017	The Man Who Invented Christmas 	John Leech 	
2018	Blue Iguana 	Uncle Martin 	
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1975 	Get Some In! 	Wally 	
1976 	The Sweeney 	Detective Sergeant 	
1981
1981 	The Man of DestinyW.H.Auden Monologue 	Napoleon
W.H.Auden 	
1984 	Chance in a Million 	Tom Chance 	
1986 	Dead Head 	Hugo Silver 	
1986 	David Copperfield 	Mr Micawber 	
1987 	Inspector Morse 	Theodore Kemp 	Episode: "The Wolvercote Tongue"
1990 	Old Flames 	Nathaniel Quass 	
1993 	Femme Fatale 	Vicar Ronnie 	
1994 	Little Napoleons 	Edward Feathers 	
1996 	An Audience With Charles Dickens 	Charles Dickens 	
1995 	El pasajero clandestino 	Major Owens 	
1997 	The Woman in White 	Count Fosco 	
1998 	Trial & Retribution II 	Rupert Halliday 	
2000 	The Mystery of Charles Dickens 	Charles Dickens 	Television film
2001 	Don't Eat the Neighbours 	Fox & Bear 	
2002 	NOVA: Galileo's Battle for the Heavens	Galileo 	Documentary
2003 	Angels in America 	Prior Walter ancestor 2 	Miniseries
2004 	Shoebox Zoo 	Wolfgang the Wolf
Hunter the Horse	
2004 	Agatha Christie's Marple 	Colonel Terence Melchett 	Episode: "The Body in the Library"
2005 	Rome 	Publius Servilius 	
2005, 2011	Doctor Who 	Charles Dickens 	Episodes: "The Unquiet Dead", "The Wedding of River Song"
2006 	Midsomer Murders 	Dr. Richard Wellow 	Episode: "Dead Letters"
2006 	Classical Destinations 	Narrator[29] 	
2007 	Roman Mysteries 	Pliny the Elder 	Episodes: "The Secrets of Vesuvius"
2007 	The Company 	Elihu 	
2007 	How Gay Sex Changed the World 	Himself[30] 	
2007 	Trick or Treat 	Himself 	1 episode
2008 	The Mr. Men Show 	Narrator 	
2009 	Lewis 	Vernon Oxe 	Episode: "Counter Culture Blues"
2009 	The Sarah Jane Adventures 	Tree Blathereen 	Voice
Episode: "The Gift"
2011 	This is Jinsy 	Threcker 	Episode: "Nameworm"
2011 	Popstar to Operastar 	Himself 	
2011 	Jamie's Dream School 	Himself 	
2013 	Agatha Christie's Poirot 	Dr. Heinrich Lutz 	Episode: "The Labours of Hercules"
2014–2016 	Outlander 	The Duke of Sandringham 	5 episodes in seasons 1 and 2
2014 	Plebs 	Victor 	Episode: "The Candidate"
2014 	The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night 	Himself 	
2015 	Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway 	Guest in The End of The Show Show	Season 12, episode 2
2016 	Galavant 	Edwin the Fortuneteller 	Episode "World's Best Kiss"
2016 	The Rebel 	Henry Palmer 	Lead character
2017 	Midsomer Murders 	Vernon De Harthog 	Episode: "The Curse of the Ninth"
2018 	Death in Paradise 	Larry South 	Series 7, episode 3
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