Simon Callow

Simon Callow
Callow at Old Street tube station, London, 24 October 2009
Born	Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (1949-06-15) 15 June 1949 Streatham, London, England, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Theatre director, actor, writer, musician

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor, musician, writer and theatre director.

Early years

Callow was born in Streatham, London, England, UK, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of English and French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. He was brought up Roman Catholic. Callow attended 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 (1960s), before giving up his degree course to go into acting at the Drama Centre London.^{[citation needed]}

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.

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. 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.

He made his first film appearance, as Schikaneder, in Amadeus in 1984 (having played Mozart in the original stage production at the Royal National Theatre in 1979). 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. In 1995 he directed a stage version of the classic French film Les Enfants du Paradis for the RSC. The production was not a success. Callow has also directed opera productions.

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 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-fiction series Doctor Who. He returned to Doctor Who for the 2011 season finale, again taking the role of Dickens.

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 audio book 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.

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 and also in 2008, he appeared at the Edinburgh Festival performing "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.

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 Studios where it opened on 15 June 2011. It was revived at the same theatre in March 2012, prior to a run in New York and Chicago.

Callow has also written biographies of Oscar Wilde, Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. He is currently at work on the third 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 Gramophone magazine.

Personal life

Callow is one of the most prominent gay actors in Britain, listed 28th in the Independent's 2007 listing of the most influential gay men and women in the UK. In 1999 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting.^{[citation needed]} For some time Callow lived with director Daniel Kramer. They shared a house in Camden, North London, but have now ended their relationship. He was one of the first actors publicly to declare his homosexuality, doing so in his 1984 book Being An Actor. (In another he revealed his platonic relationship with the theatrical agent Peggy Ramsay who was 40 years his senior.)

'I'm not really an activist, although I am aware that there are some political acts one can do that actually make a difference and I think my coming out as a gay man was probably one of the most valuable things I've done in my life. I don't think any actor had done so voluntarily and I think it helped to change the culture.'

— Simon Callow: Laughter in the dark, interview The Independent 2004

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Character	Production
1984	Amadeus	Emanuel Schikaneder/Papageno
1985	The Good Father	Mark Varda
	A Room with a View	The Reverend Mr. Beebe	Merchant Ivory Nominated - BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1987	Maurice	Mr. Ducie	Merchant Ivory
1988	Manifesto	Police Chief Hunt
1990	Postcards from the Edge	Simon Asquith
	Mr. & Mrs. Bridge	Dr. Alex Sauer	Merchant Ivory
1991	The Ballad of the Sad Cafe	Director only	Merchant Ivory, film entered into Berlin Nominated - Golden Berlin Bear
1991	Howards End	Music and Meaning Lecturer (cameo)	Merchant Ivory
1992	Soft Top Hard Shoulder	Eddie Cherdowski
1994	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Gareth	Nominated - BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
	Street Fighter	A.N. Official
1995	England, My England	Charles II
	Victory	Zangiacomo
	Jefferson in Paris	Richard Cosway	Merchant Ivory
	Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls	Vincent Cadby
1996	James and the Giant Peach	Grasshopper (voice)
1998	The Scarlet Tunic	Captain Fairfax
	Bedrooms and Hallways	Keith
	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)
	Junk
2000	The Mystery of Charles Dickens		TV film
2001	No Man's Land	Soft
2001	Christmas Carol: The Movie	Ebenezer Scrooge
2002	Thunderpants	Sir John Osgood
	Merci Docteur Rey	Bob
2003	Bright Young Things	King of Anatolia
2004	George and the Dragon	King Edgar
	The Phantom of the Opera	Andre
2005	Rag Tale	Fat Boy
	The Civilization of Maxwell Bright	Mr. Wroth
	Bob the Butler	Mr. Butler
2006	Sabina	Eugene Bleuler
2007	Chemical Wedding	Professor Haddo/Aleister Crowley
	Arn - The Knight Templar	Father Henry
2011	No Ordinary Trifle	Guy Witherspoon
2012	Acts of Godfrey	Godfrey

Television

Date	Title	Character	Broadcaster
2011	This is Jinsy - "Nameworm"	Fritz Chimney	BBC
2011	Doctor Who - "The Wedding of River Song"	Charles Dickens	BBC
2011	Popstar to Operastar	Himself	ITV
2011	Jamie's Dream School	Himself	Channel 4
2009	Lewis - "Counter Culture Blues"	Vernon Oxe	ITV
2009	The Sarah Jane Adventures - "The Gift"	Tree Blathereen (voice)	CBBC
2008	The Mr. Men Show	Narrator	Five
2007	The Company	Elihu	TNT
2007	How Gay Sex Changed the World	Himself	Channel 4
2007	Trick or Treat - Episode 4	Himself	Channel 4
2006	Midsomer Murders - "Dead Letters"	Doctor Richard Wellow	ITV
2006	Classical Destinations	Narrator	Sky Arts
2005	Rome	Publius Servilius	BBC
2005	Doctor Who - "The Unquiet Dead"	Charles Dickens	BBC
2004	Shoebox Zoo	Wolfgang the Wolf/Hunter the Horse	BBC Scotland
2003	Angels in America	Prior Walter Ancestor No.2	Avenue Pictures Productions
2001	Don't Eat The Neighbours	Fox & Bear	CITV
1998	Trial & Retribution II	Rupert Halliday	La Plante Productions
1996	An Audience With Charles Dickens 1996, Ambassador Theatre, London	Charles Dickens	BBC
1994	Little Napoleons	Edward Feathers	Channel 4
1993	Femme Fatale	Vicar Ronnie	BBC
1990	Old Flames	Nathaniel Quass	BBC
1987	Inspector Morse - "The Wolvercote Tongue"	Theodore Kemp	ITV
1986	Dead Head	Hugo Silver	BBC
1986	David Copperfield	Mr Micawber	BBC
1984	Chance in a Million	Tom Chance	Channel 4
1981	The Man of Destiny	Napoleon	BBC
1976	The Sweeney	Detective Sergeant	Thames Television
1975	Get Some In!	Wally	Thames Television

Bibliography

• Callow, Simon (1986) [1984], Being an actor, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 978-0-312-07276-6 
• Callow, Simon (1997), Charles Laughton : a difficult actor, Fromm International Pub, ISBN 978-0-88064-180-7 
• Callow, Simon (2003), Shooting the actor, Picador, ISBN 978-0-312-42244-8 
• Callow, Simon (1991), Acting in Restoration comedy, The Applause acting series, Applause Theatre Books, ISBN 978-1-55783-119-4 
• Callow, Simon (1995), Orson Welles : the road to Xanadu, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-03852-2 
• Callow, Simon (2007), Love is where it falls, Nick Hern, ISBN 1-85459-976-3 
• Callow, Simon (2000), The night of the hunter, BFI film classics., BFI Publishing, ISBN 978-0-85170-822-5 
• Callow, Simon (2003), Dickens' Christmas : a Victorian celebration, Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 978-0-8109-4534-0 
• Callow, Simon (2006), Orson Welles : hello Americans, Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-224-03853-9 

External links

• Simon Callow at the Internet Broadway Database
• Simon Callow at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Callow's - MusicalTalk discussing his role as Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the Richmond Theatre, Christmas 2008.
• Simon Callow - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org, September 2006
• Simon Callow on BBC1's This Week
• theartsdesk Q&A: Simon Callow (2 October 2010)