Simon Callow

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Simon Philip Hugh Callow, CBE (born June 15, 1949) is an English stage, film and television actor. He has also written biographies of Orson Welles and Charles Laughton.

In 1999, he was awarded the CBE for his services to acting.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Selected filmography 2.1 Filmography 2.2 Television 3 External links

Biography

Callow was born in Streatham, London, England to Neil Francis Callow (British) and Yvonne Mary Guise (French) and was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of his mother. He studied at the Queen's University of Belfast before giving up his degree course to go into acting at the Drama Centre, London.

He was already a successful stage actor before making his film debut in a minor role in Amadeus in 1984 (having played Mozart in the original stage production at the Royal National Theatre).

By his thirties, Callow was playing character and often comic parts. 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, he was successful both as a director and as a writer — mostly of works about acting.

One of Callow's best-known works is Love Is Where It Falls, a poignant analysis of his eleven-year relationship with Peggy Ramsay, a prominent theatrical agent. He has also written extensively about Charles Dickens, whom he has played in a one-man show on stage, The Mystery of Charles Dickens and reading from Dickens' work, and on television several times, including in The Unquiet Dead, a 2005 episode of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who.

His first TV role was in Carry On Laughing episode Orgy and Bess, in 1975, but it was apparently cut from the final print. He appeared with Saeed Jaffrey in 1994 British television series Little Napoleons. 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 West End).

Callow narrated the audio book of Robert Fagles' 2006 translation of Virgil's The Aeneid.

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 is also one of the most prominent gay actors in Britain.

Selected filmography

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2006	Sabina	Eugene Bleuler
2005	The Civilization of Maxwell Bright	Mr. Wroth
	Rag Tale	Fat Boy
2004	The Phantom of the Opera	Andre
	George and the Dragon	King Edgar
2003	Bright Young Things	King of Anatolia
2002	Merci Docteur Rey	Bob	Merchant Ivory Film
	Thunderpants	Sir John Osgood
2001	No Man's Land	Soft
1999	Junk
	Around the World in 80 Days	Phileas Fogg (voice)
1998	Shakespeare in Love	Sir Edmund Tilney
	Bedrooms and Hallways	Keith
	The Scarlet Tunic	Captain Fairfax
1996	James and the Giant Peach	Grasshopper (voice)
1995	Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls	Vincent Cadby
	Jefferson in Paris	Richard Cosway	Merchant Ivory Film
	Victory	Zangiacomo
	England, My England	Charles II
1994	Street Fighter	A.N. Official
	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Gareth
1992	Soft Top Hard Shoulder	Eddie Cherdowski
1991	Howards End	Music and Meaning Lecturer (cameo)	Merchant Ivory Film
1991	The Ballad of the Sad Cafe	director only	Merchant Ivory Film
1990	Mr. & Mrs. Bridge	Dr. Alex Sauer	Merchant Ivory Film
	Postcards from the Edge	Simon Asquith
1988	Manifesto	Police Chief Hunt
1987	Maurice	Mr. Ducie	Merchant Ivory Film
1985	A Room with a View	The Reverend Mr. Beebe	Merchant Ivory Film
	The Good Father	Mark Varda
1984	Amadeus	Emanuel Schikaneder/Papageno

Television

• Chance in a Million (1984)
• Dead Head (1986)
• Little Napoleons (1994)
• Angels in America (2003)
• Shoebox Zoo (2004) (voice)
• Doctor Who - The Unquiet Dead (2005) (as Charles Dickens)
• Rome (2005)

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