Danny John-Jules
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Danny John-Jules | |
|---|---|
 John-Jules at Play.com Live 2008 | |
| Born | Daniel John-Jules |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, Singer and Dancer |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Website | http://www.dannyjohn-jules.com/ |
Daniel "Danny" John-Jules (born 16 September 1960) is a British actor, singer and dancer.
Early life
He was born in London and attended Rutherford comprehensive school, Penfold Street, Marylebone, from 1972 to 1977.
Career
Dance and song
Before his television and film work, Danny John-Jules was a dancer in many productions at West End theatres. He was a member of the original cast of Starlight Express, playing a boxcar called Rocky I. In 1993, he released a song from Red Dwarf, "Tongue Tied", as a single, which got into the top 20 and featured his co stars Craig Charles and Chris Barrie. They played dancers and backup singers. Both mentioned how talented a singer he was. He is a tenor singer.
Television
John-Jules is best known for his portrayal of the Cat, and Cat's geeky alter ego Duane Dibbley, in the British comedy series Red Dwarf. He originally obtained the part of the Cat by turning up half an hour late for his audition, dressed in his father's old zoot suit. Jules was unaware that he was late and hence did not appear at all concerned with his tardiness. The producers immediately decided he was cool enough to be "The Cat". Craig Charles said of Danny at a Red Dwarf convention that he was a lot like the Cat in that he had a lot of clothes. He said, "Danny John-Jules could change his clothes every 4 seconds for a year and he still wouldn't run out of clothes."
His first acknowledged television and film roles were in Roy Minton's critically acclaimed "Scum" where he played one of the inmates. The TV version which was part of the Play for Today strand was banned prior to broadcast.
He has also played the parts of Barrington in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, Byron Lucifer in The Tomorrow People and Milton Wordsworth, the original presenter of The Story Makers on CBeebies.
Since 1999, he had several guest appearances as himself in shows such as Comedy Connections, Casualty, RI:SE and Night Fever.
He also appeared in at least one episode of CBBC's sitcom, Kerching! playing Trevor, Michael's father and appeared as Lenny Bicknall in series 1 and 2 M.I.High also on CBBC,this was a very big performance. He also appeared in The Crouches.
On 8 November 2009, Danny made a brief appearance during BBC Two's coverage of 2009 Valencian Moto GP.
Film
In film, he supplied the voice for two characters in Labyrinth, then appeared in the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Blade II. He has also appeared uncredited in the 1979 British film Scum, playing a look-out during a fight scene. He is currently filming The Tournament produced by Shakabuku Films. He also appeared in the 2008 British films The Grind and Sucker Punch.
Danny also played one of the dancers in the 1984 movie "The Great Muppet Caper". He is among the dancers in the posh restaurant where Kermit and Miss Piggy are dancing.
Other work
John-Jules also provided his voice for the character of Gex in the UK and European release of Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko. For several years in the late 1990s he appeared in the annual Christmas pantomime at Aldershot's Prince's Hall theatre, playing his Cat character.
A little known fact about Danny is that he was one of the first Hip Hop DJs in the UK to play "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. He travelled back and forth to NY, in the early 80s, buying and checking out clubs like The Disco Fever and CB GB's.[citation needed] He started his own DJ Crew "Sir Jules and the Knights of the turntable," which had a regular spot at Gossips club in London's West End.
Another little-known fact is that Danny was the dancer from the crowd in the WHAM! video for The Edge Of Heaven. He gets up partway through the instrumental section and dances alongside George Michael[1]
He also danced on The Lena Zavaroni Tv Series in 1981, and made a tribute to her website: http://www.lenazavaroni.net/dannyjohnjulestribute.htm
Assault charge
On 15 February 2008, John-Jules was arrested on suspicion of assault with a Samurai sword. It was claimed by the Daily Mirror that he threatened two bin men with the sword during an apparent argument.[2] He was found guilty of two counts of battery in relation to the case on 24 October 2008 and was sentenced on 13 November to 120 hours of community service.[3][4]
References
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy14ywPAnLQ from 3:08
- ^ "Red Dwarf star arrested for brandishing samurai sword at binmen". Daily Mirror. 2008-02-16.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Red Dwarf star guilty of 'bin rage'". The Press Association. 2008-10-24.
- ^ Red Dwarf actor's attack sentence
External links
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Template:Myspace
- Danny John-Jules on Twitter
- Danny John-Jules Interview at www.sci-fi-online.com