Michael Simkins
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| Michael Simkins | |
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Simkins at a 2007 book signing
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| Born | 4 February 1957 Greenford, Middlesex, England, UK |
| Occupation | actor, author |
| Spouse(s) | Julia Deakin |
Michael Simkins (born 4 February 1957) is an English actor.
Life and career
Simkins was born in Greenford, Middlesex, in February 1957, and moved to Brighton, Sussex when he was four after his parents bought a sweet shop. He attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and while still at school performed works by Gilbert and Sullivan in a group called the Wandering Minstrels, which he co-founded in the 1970s.
Simkins graduated from RADA in the late-1970s in the same year as Timothy Spall and is now an Associate Member of RADA.
He is married to the actress Julia Deakin.
Acting
Simkins has starred in film and television (including the character of Hugh Reid in Foyle's War) as well as West End theatre productions including Mamma Mia! and Chicago. In 1996, Simkins played Paul in the Sondheim Musical Company directed by Sam Mendes. Simkins played the character Billy Flynn in the London production of Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre for several extended periods. He also played the role of Sam Carmichael in the stage version of Mamma Mia!. Other West End credits include Burn This, The Scarlet Pimpernel, A View from the Bridge, Look Look, Henceforward, Richard III, Donkey's Years, The Old Masters and Mary Stuart. His most recent stage role was Sir Humphrey Appleby in the west end production of Yes Prime Minister. He appeared in Oh What A Lovely War at The Theatre Royal, Stratford East in March 2014. In 2014 and through to the Summer season he toured and appeared in Noël Coward's Hay Fever with Felicity Kendal at The Duke Of Yorks Theatre London. After a short tour of Australia, the production transferred to the Duke Of Yorks Theatre in St Martin's Lane in the spring of 2015.
Michael played Dr Lionel Mead in the TV series Doctors. He has also appeared in A Touch Of Cloth and ITV's police dramas Above Suspicion and The Bill. Films include Topsy-Turvy as Frederick Bovill, V For Vendetta and The Iron Lady. In 2013, he appeared in the BBC series EastEnders.
In addition he is a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 programmes such as "Today", BH, Front Row and Quote Unquote. He also writes for the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Mail on Sunday, and has a regular column in The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi. In 2010 he achieved a lifetime ambition by starring in a Gilbert & Sullivan spectacular for Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night.
Books
His autobiography, What's My Motivation, published in March 2004, describes the highs and lows of a jobbing actor. This work came out of a series of weekly articles published in The Guardian. It was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and featured in 2012 in Radio 4's 'A Good Read.'
In 2007 Simkins published Fatty Batter, a book about his lifelong obsession with cricket. The book tells how, from his earliest awkward days as a fat boy growing up in Brighton to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates still chasing the sweet spot, cricket offered him a shelter from life's irksome realities and a place in which to quietly dream. The book was shortlisted for the Costa Book of the Year prize and has sold well in excess of 80,000 copies.
In 2009 he wrote Detour De France: An Englishman in Search of a Continental Education, after he decided to take a break from his day-job as an actor to spend three months discovering his very own Gallic fantasy. His fourth book, published in 2011 and titled The Last Flannelled Fool, tells of a journey to rediscover the lost soul of English cricket. His most recent book, published in July 2013, is a survivor's handbook for acting and actors. The Rules Of Acting, which like his previous books has been serialised in The Daily Mail, has just been shortlisted for the 2014 Sheridan Morley prize for Theatre Biography, sponsored by The Bookseller.
In 2015 he adapted the Sunday Times best-seller 'Dear Lupin' for the stage. After a short and successful tour starring James and Jack Fox, the show transferred to London's Apollo Theatre for an eight week run in August, receiving strong critical acclaim.
Bibliography
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