John Simm

For the professional footballer of the 1950s, see Johnny Simm.

John Simm
John Simm at the European premiere of The Dark Knight
Born	10 July 1970 (1970-07-10)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Kate Magowan (m. 2004–present)

John Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television dramas such as The Lakes, Cracker, State of Play, Crime and Punishment, Clocking Off and Sex Traffic and films such as Human Traffic, Wonderland and 24 Hour Party People. As a stage actor, he is an Olivier award nominee, and in 2010, he played Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre.

Early life

Simm was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. The eldest of three, he grew up in Nelson, Lancashire. The family lived in a series of places around the northwest, including Manchester, Colne, Burnley and Blackpool. His father, Ronald Simm, was a musician and from the age of 12, Simm joined his father on stage in the working men’s clubs singing and playing the guitar.

In 1986 Simm enroled at the Blackpool and The Fylde College in Lytham St. Annes for three years and starred in Guys and Dolls and West Side Story at Blackpool's Grand Theatre. However, he soon decided that musical theatre didn't interest him, so he joined an amateur dramatic group and honed his skills in his spare time, playing the title roles in Billy Liar and Amadeus. He then moved to London to train at the Drama Centre London at the age of 19, where he studied the Stanislavski School of acting, and graduated in 1992.

Career

Independently of his acting, throughout the 1990s, Simm was a founding member, songwriter and guitarist with the rock band Magic Alex (named after the Beatles self-styled electronics wizard "Magic Alex" Mardas). The group played support on two British tours with Echo & the Bunnymen. Plus, Simm plays guitar on the album Slideling, by his friend Echo & the Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch. Simm also played lead guitar on a few of McCulloch's solo live shows, including one at Wembley arena as main support to Coldplay. Magic Alex released one album, Dated and Sexist, before splitting in 2005.

Simm made his professional acting debut in 1992 with the role of Joby Johnson in an episode of the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey (there had been an earlier part in the BBC drama Between the Lines where Simm was in one scene as PC Witty, but the scene was cut). There then followed a variety of roles during which time he honed his craft in front of the camera, including a psycho in The Bill, a lovestruck schoolboy in Heartbeat, and a drugged up burglar in The Locksmith. He also made two series of the BBC sitcom Men of the World, playing the lead role of Kendle Bains opposite David Threlfall. His next project saw him take the role of Gary Kingston, a deluded murderer, in Chiller.

In 1995, Simm played the troubled teenager Bill Preece in the "Best Boys" episodes of the acclaimed ITV police drama, Cracker, opposite Robbie Coltrane. This is considered his breakthrough role. The series was created by Jimmy McGovern but Simm's episode was written by producer Paul Abbott. He also made his feature film debut in Boston Kickout beating Dennis Hopper to the Best Actor award at the Valencia Film Festival.

In 1996, he made his professional stage debut in the Simon Bent play Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre, directed by Paul Miller.

In 1997, he won the lead role of Danny Kavanagh in the first series of The Lakes, a BBC series written by Jimmy McGovern. In 1999, he starred in the second series of The Lakes as well as appearing as Jip in the award-winning cult clubbing film Human Traffic and Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed Wonderland.

In 2000, he starred in the opening episode of the BBC drama Clocking Off, written by Paul Abbott, with whom he would work again in 2002, when he starred as 'Cal McCaffrey' in the multi award-winning political thriller series State of Play. Both these series also feature Philip Glenister, with whom he would later star in Life on Mars and Mad Dogs. Simm also played the lead role of loan shark John Parlour in Tony Marchant's Never Never for Channel 4.

In 2001, he played Oz in a Caleb Lindsay film, Understanding Jane.

In 2002, Simm featured in another Michael Winterbottom film, 24 Hour Party People, as New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. At a live concert in Finsbury Park that same year, Simm sang the Joy Division song "Digital" onstage with New Order (a few years later, he would be chosen by the band to induct Joy Division/New Order into the rock and roll hall of fame). It was also this year that he played Raskolnikov in the BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment adapted by Tony Marchant. Marchant also wrote The Knight's Tale, one of a series of modern reworkings of The Canterbury Tales, in which Simm played Ace opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Keeley Hawes. Later that year Simm starred opposite Christina Ricci and John Hurt in the film Miranda.

In 2004, he played the researcher and charity investigator Daniel Appleton in the BAFTA award-winning Channel 4 drama Sex Traffic. This hard-hitting two-parter followed the plight of two young Moldovan sisters sold into sexual slavery. After reuniting with Shaun Parkes in Howard Davies' production of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, in which he played Dr Bruce Flaherty opposite Brian Cox, Simm starred as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler in the 2006 BBC series Life on Mars playing a police officer apparently sent back in time to 1973. The show won the Pioneer Audience Award for Best Programme at the 2007 BAFTA TV Awards, Simm was nominated but lost out on the award for Best Actor. He decided to leave after series two (2007), stating that he felt he had taken the role as far as he could.

His next project, in March 2007, was The Yellow House for Channel 4, a biographical drama produced by Talkback Thames, based on the book of the same name by Martin Gayford about the turbulent relationship of artists Vincent van Gogh (Simm) and Paul Gauguin (John Lynch).

In the same year, Simm also returned to the theatre as the title character in Paul Miller's acclaimed Bush Theatre staging of Simon Bent's version of Elling, a comedy about two men just out of psychiatric hospital adjusting to 'normal life' and to each other. Following positive press reviews and an extended, sell-out run, the production was transferred to the Trafalgar Studios 1 in July 2007 and Simm was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance.

In 2007, Simm was chosen by Russell T Davies to play the Master, the nemesis of The Doctor in the long-running BBC series Doctor Who. He appeared in the final three episodes of series three: "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords". He reprised that role in the 2009 "The End of Time" two-part special.

In 2008, Simm played Edward Sexby in The Devil's Whore, a four-part English Civil War epic for Channel 4, written by Peter Flannery. Shot on location in South Africa, the drama also features Dominic West as Oliver Cromwell and Andrea Riseborough in the title role. He performed at The Royal Variety Performance with Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and starred in the film Skellig, with Tim Roth and Kelly Macdonald, broadcast on Sky1 in April 2009.

Simm is involved in an ongoing project with director Michael Winterbottom, the working title is Seven Days, and it's being filmed in real time over five years.

He returned to the west end stage in Autumn of 2009 to critical acclaim, starring opposite Ian Hart, Lucy Cohu and Kerry Fox in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues, at the Duke of York's theatre.

In September 2010 John Simm played Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible The production was a sellout and broke box office records for the Theatre.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011 Simm co-starred in Mad Dogs on Sky1 directed by Adrian Shergold. Simm plays Baxter in a project that reunited him with Philip Glenister and Marc Warren along with Max Beesley and Ben Chaplin. Mad Dogs became a critical and ratings success and received a BAFTA nomination for best Drama serial, a second and third series was commissioned. .

Broadcast on BBC One from 1–3 May 2011, Simm starred In Exile with Jim Broadbent playing his father. Simm takes the lead role of "Tom Rondstadt". Exile is a 3 part drama set in Manchester and the north west, produced by Abbottvision and written by Danny Brocklehurst, from an idea by Paul Abott.

Mad Dogs 2 was shot in Mallorca and Ibiza June/July/Aug 2011, and is scheduled to appear on Sky 1 in January 2012, the same time as Mad Dogs 3 is being shot in Cape Town, South Africa. He will return to the Crucible Theatre in 2012 to play 'Jerry' in Harold Pinter's Betrayal.

Personal life

Simm married actress Kate Magowan in April 2004 in the Forest of Dean, they have a son and daughter.

Simm is a passionate supporter of Manchester United.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Rumpole of the Bailey	Joby Jonson	Series 7, Episode 4, "Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson"
1993	Oasis	Posh Robert	Episodes 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10
	Heartbeat	Richard Francis	Series 2, Episode 9, "Wall of Silence"
	The Bill	Paul Jeffries	Season 9, Episode 95, "Blind Spot"
	Men of the World	Kendle Bains	Series 1 & 2, 12 episodes
1994	A Pinch of Snuff	Clint Heppelwhite
	Meat	Cecil
1995	Chiller	Gary Kingston	Series 1, Episode 3, "Here Comes the Mirror Man"
1995	'Cracker'	Bill Nash	Series 3, Episode 2, "Best Boys"
1997	The Locksmith	Paul
1997–1999	The Lakes	Danny Kavanagh	Series 1 & 2, 14 episodes
2000	Forgive and Forget	Theo
	Clocking Off	Stuart Leach	Series 1, Episode 1, "The Leaches' Story"
	Meet Ricky Gervais	Himself	Episode 6
	Never Never	John Parlour
2001	Spaced	Stephen Edwards	Series 2, Episode 1, "Back"
2002	Magic Hour	Alex
	Crime & Punishment	Raskolnikov
	White Teeth	Mr. Hero (cameo)
2003	State of Play	Cal McCaffrey	6 episodes
	Canterbury Tales	Ace	The Knight's Tale
2004	The All Star Comedy Show	Various Roles
	London	Friedrich Engels
	Imperium: Nerone	Caligula
	Sex Traffic	Daniel Appleton
2005	Blue/Orange	Dr. Bruce Flaherty
2006–2007	Life on Mars	Sam Tyler	Nominated - BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
2007	The Yellow House	Vincent Van Gogh
2007, 2009-10	Doctor Who	The Master	Episodes: "Utopia" "The Sound of Drums" "Last of the Time Lords" "The End of Time" Parts 1 and 2
2008	The Devil's Whore	Edward Sexby
2009	Skellig	Dave
2010	Moving On	Moose/Mike	Series 2, episode 4, "Malaise"
2011	Mad Dogs	Baxter	4 Episodes
	Exile	Tom Ronstadt	3 Episodes
2012	Mad Dogs 2	Baxter	4 Episodes

Film

Year	Title	Role
1995	Boston Kickout	Phil
1999	Human Traffic	Jip
	Wonderland	Eddie
2001	Understanding Jane	Oz
2002	24 Hour Party People	Bernard
	Miranda	Frank
2008	Skellig	Dave
2008	Tuesday
2012	Seven Days

Theatre

• Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre, London, 1996.
• Elling at Bush Theatre, London, 27 April 2007 – 26 May 2007, and at Trafalgar Studios 1, London, 6 July 2007 – 6 October 2007.
• Speaking in Tongues at Duke of York's Theatre, London, 18 September 2009 – 12 December 2009.
• Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 16 September 2010 – 23 October 2010,

External links

• John Simm at the Internet Movie Database
• The Man Who Fell to Earth, Sunday Telegraph interview 5 August 2007