Robert Lindsay (actor)

For other people with the same name, see Robert Lindsay (disambiguation).

Robert Lindsay
Born	Robert Lindsay Stevenson 13 December 1949 (1949-12-13) Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Spouse	Cheryl Hall (1974–1980, divorced) Rosemarie Ford (2006–present)

Robert Lindsay (born 13 December 1949) is an English actor who is best known for his television work, especially his roles of Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Michael Murray in G.B.H., Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family which had a run on television screens from 2000-2011.

Early life

Lindsay was born Robert Lindsay Stevenson in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, to Norman and Joyce Stevenson. After leaving Gladstone Boys' School, Lindsay enrolled in the drama department of Clarendon College in Nottingham, intending to become a drama teacher. However, friends at Nottingham Playhouse encouraged him to apply to Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and in 1968 he was accepted there with the aid of a government grant. After graduation he worked as dialect coach for a repertory company in Essex, and then joined a regional theatre group.

Lindsay first came to prominence as the cockney layabout Jakey Smith in the ITV comedy series Get Some In!, and he appeared in the fourth series of the BBC sitcom The Good Life. He was then given the starring role as incompetent revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith. He followed this with roles in a number of the BBC Television Shakespeare productions, including Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and as Edmund in King Lear opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in 1983.

Stage career

Lindsay enjoyed a successful stage career, especially during the 1980s and '90s. Highlights of his theatrical career include:

• the role of Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester in King Lear opposite Laurence Olivier
• the role of Bill Snibson in the hugely acclaimed 1984 London revival of Me and My Girl (for which Lindsay won an Olivier Award) which subsequently transferred to Broadway, earning him a Tony Award (against competition that included Colm Wilkinson, Roger Allam and Terrence Mann in Les Mis in both cases).
• the role of the titular Becket opposite Derek Jacobi as King Henry II in 1996 (for which he won another Olivier Award)
• the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed London revival of Oliver! at the Palladium. Lindsay won a third Olivier for this performance.
• a starring role in The Entertainer at the Old Vic in 2007
• in 2010 he returned to his native Derby to star in the title role of Derby Live's production of Onassis before its transfer to London's West End.
• In November 2011 he starred as Henry in The Lion in Winter at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, also starring Joanna Lumley as Eleanor, directed by Trevor Nunn.

1970s–1990s

Lindsay became famous in the UK for his role as incompetent revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith. Earlier, a young Lindsay appeared in The Good Life in the 1977 series 4 episode entitled Our Speaker Today. Lindsay's success on Broadway and in the West End led to the starring role in the film Bert Rigby, You're a Fool, although it was not a commercial success. However, he continued to enjoy success on television, and in 1991 played the leading role in Alan Bleasdale's dark comedy serial G.B.H., for which he won a BAFTA for his performance. He was also in Bleasdale's Jake's Progress (Channel 4, 1995) the story of a couple (Robert Lindsay and Julie Walters) struggling to cope with a 'difficult' child (Barclay Wright). He also starred in the surreal Channel 4 sitcom Nightingales, and appeared in the films Fierce Creatures and Divorcing Jack. In 1998 he was cast in the recurring role of Captain Pellew in the ITV mini-series Hornblower, based on the novels of C. S. Forester. He was also the original choice for the lead role in the drama Cracker, but turned the part down as he did not want to become too associated with heavyweight, darker drama characters.^{[citation needed]} He later appeared as Fagin in the 1999 ITV Oliver Twist miniseries.

2000s

Lindsay has become familiar to a new generation of viewers as Ben Harper in the popular BBC sitcom My Family, which ran from 2000 until 2011. Zoe Wanamaker plays his on-screen wife Susan.

In October 2005 he starred in an ITV drama series Jericho, about a Scotland Yard detective investigating murder and kidnapping in London's Soho in the 1950s. In January and February 2006, he appeared as Sneath in two loosely linked Stephen Poliakoff dramas, Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter, shown on BBC One. He was the only actor to appear in both productions.

He has also portrayed Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Channel 4 satires A Very Social Secretary and The Trial of Tony Blair. In 2003 he appeared in an episode in Absolutely Fabulous, and also narrated the BBC documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.

Lindsay appeared in the 8th Ricky Gervais Video Podcast, where Gervais announced that Lindsay would be in the second series of Extras. He appeared in the last episode of the second series playing an egotistical, pushy version of himself. He also appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon, as the tennis club manager who hires Peter Colt. In 2009 he played the protagonist, Maddox, from the Radio 4 comedy Electric Ink by Alistair Beaton.

Lindsay stars in British Sitcom Spy which debuted in October 2011, it's aired on Sky 1. He is to return to the cast in 2012 for a second series.

Lindsay sings the recorded version of Derby County F.C.'s song "Steve Bloomer's Watchin'", played and sung by the fans at the beginning of every home game, and usually at the start of the second half and after a good win.

Personal life

In 1974 Lindsay married Cheryl Hall, who later appeared alongside him in Citizen Smith.^{[citation needed]} They divorced in 1980,^{[citation needed]} when he started a long-term relationship with actress Diana Weston, with whom he has a daughter, Sydney Laura Stevenson (born at Hammersmith, London, 2 April 1988),^{[citation needed]} who co-starred with him in three episodes of My Family. Since acting as Admiral Pellew in the Hornblower series, Lindsay has become good friends with the real Pellew family.^{[citation needed]}

He then left Weston for actress/presenter Rosemarie Ford. The couple have two sons, both born in Hillingdon, London: Samuel Lindsay Stevenson (born 18 November 1999) and James Lindsay Stevenson (born 8 April 2003). The couple married on 31 December 2006.

Lindsay researched his family tree in the third series of Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired on 13 September 2006. He travelled to his hometown and to Turkey, where his grandfather Raymond Dunmore had taken part in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I. Lindsay has been a life-long supporter of Derby County F.C., a fact which he stated in a short section for CBBC's Newsround entitled 'My Team'.

Politics

Lindsay is known for his left-wing politics. He usually describes himself as a staunch socialist, and has marched in the past in support of miners. However he was an outspoken critic about Prime Minister Tony Blair's decisions to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying he was "furious" and now feels disillusioned with mainstream politics: "You see those images of Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon, don't you? And I suspect somewhere, when he goes home at night and the kids are in bed, he must go, Jesus, what have I done?"

External links

• Official website
• Robert Lindsay at the Internet Broadway Database
• Robert Lindsay at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography on BBC site
• Robert Lindsay on Who Do You Think You Are?