Christopher Eccleston

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Christopher Eccleston (pronounced /ˈɛkəlstən/; born 16 February 1964) is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2005 he became the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who.

Early life

Born into a working class family in the Langworthy area of Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire, Eccleston is the youngest of three boys. His brothers, Alan^[1] and Keith, are twins eight years his senior, born in 1956.^[2] The family lived in a small terraced house in Blodwell Street until the late 1960s, when they moved to nearby Little Hulton.^[3][4] Eccleston attended Joseph Eastham's High School, Little Hulton, where he became head boy^{[citation needed]} Growing up with a love of Granada and BBC1 television, his main ambition was to play football for his beloved Manchester United. However, at the age of 19, he found himself to be a much better actor than footballer, being inspired by television dramas such as Boys from the Blackstuff. Eccleston completed a two-year Performance Foundation Course at Salford Tech,^[5] before going on to train at the Hampstead-based Central School of Speech and Drama.^[6] As an actor, his early influences had been Ken Loach's "Kes" and Albert Finney's performance in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, but he soon found himself performing the classics, including the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov and Molière. At the age of 25, Eccleston made his professional stage debut in the Bristol Old Vic's production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Underemployed as an actor for some years after graduating school, Eccleston took a variety of odd jobs at a supermarket, on building sites and as an artist's model.

Career

1991–2005

Eccleston first came to public attention as Derek Bentley in the 1991 film Let Him Have It and an episode of Inspector Morse, "Second Time Around", also in 1991. However, it was a regular role in the television series Cracker (1993–94) that made him a recognisable figure in the UK. At around the same time he appeared in Agatha Christie's Poirot.

He appeared in the low-budget Danny Boyle 1994 film Shallow Grave, in which he co-starred with up-and-coming actor Ewan McGregor. The same year, he won the part of Nicky Hutchinson in the epic BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North, whose broadcast on BBC Two in 1996 helped make him a household name in the UK. Eccleston would share the screen in the show with Daniel Craig, the sixth and current actor to play James Bond.

His film career has since taken off with a variety of high-profile but not — except in one or two cases — major roles, including the title role in Jude (1996), Elizabeth (1998), eXistenZ (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), The Others (2001), 24 Hour Party People (2002) and another Danny Boyle film, the horror movie 28 Days Later (2002). He played a major role as the protagonist of Alex Cox's 2002 Revengers Tragedy, adapted from Thomas Middleton's play of the same name.^[7] He has starred alongside two major Hollywood actresses in smaller independent films, appearing opposite Renée Zellweger in A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Cameron Diaz in The Invisible Circus (2001). Despite starring in the car-heist movie Gone in 60 Seconds, he did not actually take his driving test until January 2004, and revealed on BBC's Top Gear that his licence restricts him to vehicles with automatic transmission.

He has appeared in a variety of television roles, racking up credits in British television dramas of recent years. These have included Hearts and Minds (1995) for Channel 4, Clocking Off (2000) and Flesh and Blood (2002) for the BBC and Hillsborough (1996), a modern version of Othello (2002), playing 'Ben Jago', (the Iago character) and the religious telefantasy epic The Second Coming (2003) for ITV, in which he played Steve Baxter, the son of God. He also finds time for the occasional light-hearted role, however, as his guest appearances in episodes of the comedy drama Linda Green (2001) and macabre sketch show The League of Gentlemen (2002) have shown. Eccleston's most high-profile stage role has been Hamlet in the 2002 production at his favourite theatre, Leeds' West Yorkshire Playhouse. March–April 2004 saw him return to the venue in a new play, Electricity.

Eccleston has been twice nominated in the Best Actor category at the British Academy Television Awards, the UK's premier television awards ceremony. His first nomination came in 1997 for Our Friends in the North, when he lost out to Nigel Hawthorne (for The Fragile Heart), and he was nominated again in 2004 for The Second Coming, this time being beaten by Bill Nighy (for State of Play). He did, however, triumph in the Best Actor categories at the 1997 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards, winning for Our Friends in the North. He won the RTS Best Actor award for a second time in 2003, this time for his performance in Flesh and Blood.

In July 2004 a poll of industry experts, conducted by Radio Times magazine, voted Eccleston the 19th Most Powerful Person in Television Drama.

Doctor Who (2005)

On 20 March 2004, it was announced that Eccleston was to play the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the revival of the legendary BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, which began transmission on 26 March 2005. He was considered by many fans to be well suited to the role and praised for his ability to switch seamlessly between being humorous and playful to deadly serious.

On 30 March 2005, the BBC released a statement, ostensibly from Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave the role after just one series, because he feared becoming typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that Eccleston's "statement" was falsely attributed and released without his consent. The BBC admitted that they had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly that he only intended to do one series. The statement had been made after journalists made queries to the press office.^[8]

On 11 June 2005, during a BBC radio interview, when asked if he had enjoyed working on Doctor Who, Eccleston responded by saying, "Mixed, but that's a long story." Eccleston's reasons for leaving the role continue to be debated in Britain's newspapers: on 4 October 2005 Alan Davies told The Daily Telegraph that Eccleston had been "overworked" by the BBC, and had left the role because he was "exhausted".^[9] Ten days later, Eccleston told The Daily Mirror this was not true, and expressed some irritation at Davies for his comments.^[10]

On 7 November 2008, at the National Theatre to promote his book The Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies said that Eccleston's contract was for a single year because it was uncertain whether the show would continue beyond a single revival series. In retrospect, he says, it has been an enormous success, but at the time there were doubts within the BBC.

Eccleston was voted "Most Popular Actor" at the 2005 National Television Awards for his portrayal of the Doctor.

Eccleston was very touched by the response he received from children for his role as the Ninth Doctor. He said "In all the 20 years I've been acting, I've never enjoyed a response so much as the one I've had from children and I'm carrying that in my heart forever..."^[11]

Post-Doctor Who

On 30 October 2005, Eccleston appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Navin Chowdhry, Bruno Langley, David Warner, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel. Eccleston sat on the 2nd Amazonas International Film Festival Film Jury in November 2005. The director Norman Jewison was chairman of the Jury.^[12]

In December 2005, Eccleston traveled to Indonesia's Aceh province for the BBC Breakfast news programme, examining how survivors of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami were rebuilding their lives.^[13]

In May 2006, Eccleston appeared as the narrator in a production of Romeo and Juliet at The Lowry theatre in his home city of Salford. The theatre company with which he performed, Celebrity Pig (of which he is patron), is made up of learning disabled actors.

In August 2006, Eccleston filmed New Orleans, Mon Amour with Elisabeth Moss. The film was directed by Michael Almereyda, and shot in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, it is currently in post-production and scheduled for a 2008 release. Late in 2006 he starred in Perfect Parents, an ITV drama written and directed by Joe Ahearne, who had directed him in Doctor Who.^[14]

Eccleston joined the cast of the NBC TV series Heroes in the episode "Godsend", which was broadcast on 22 January 2007. Eccleston played a character named Claude who has the power of invisibility, and helps Peter Petrelli with his powers.^[15]

Eccleston appeared as The Rider in a film adaptation of Susan Cooper's novel The Dark Is Rising, which opened in the U.S. on 5 October 2007.

Eccleston appeared on the BBC Four World Cinema Award show in February 2008, arguing the merits of five international hits such as The Lives of Others and Pan's Labyrinth with Jonathan Ross and Archie Panjabi. He also appeared as the villainous Destro in the live-action G.I. Joe film: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.^[16]

Eccleston also appeared in an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program as the title character in a show within the show about a cult favourite science fiction hero, possibly in reference to his stint as The Doctor in Doctor Who. In November 2009, Eccleston was reported to have been cast as John Lennon in a BBC production called John Lennon - Naked ^[17]

Personal life

Although describing his mother as "very religious, a churchgoer" who would "often encourage me to go… but never forced it upon me", Eccleston is an atheist.^[18] A lifelong supporter of Manchester United,^[19] he is a regular marathon runner and usually enters a number of races each year.^[2] Eccleston is 188 cm tall and unmarried, but was in a relationship with the actress Siwan Morris which ended in 2005.^[20] In September 2007, as part of their £9.5m build scheme, Salford's Pendleton College named their new 260-seat theatre 'The Eccleston Theatre' after him.^[21]

Charity work

Eccleston is an avid charity worker and became a Mencap charity ambassador on 28 April 2005.^[22] He is also a celebrity supporter of the British Red Cross^[23]

Notable roles

Film

Television

Radio and narration

• Room of Leaves (Frank) (1998)
• Pig Paradise (Jack) (1998)
• Some Fantastic Place (Narrator) (2001)
• Bayeux Tapestry (Harold) (2001)
• The Importance of Being Morrissey (Narrator) (2002)
• Iliad (Achilles) (2002)
• Cromwell - Warts and All (Narrator) (2003)
• Life Half Spent (Roger) (2004)
• Crossing the Dark Sea (Squaddie) (2005)
• Sacred Nation (Narrator) (2005)
• Born to be Different (Narrator) (2005)
• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Brian) (2005)
• E=mc² (Narrator) (2005)
• Dubai Dreams (Narrator) (2005)
• Wanted: New Mum and Dad (Narrator) (2005)
• Children in Need (Narrator) (2005)
• This Sceptred Isle (Various Characters) (2005)
• The 1970s: That Was The Decade That was (Narrator) (2006)
• The Devil's Christmas (Narrator) (2008)
• Wounded (Narrator) (2009)

Theatre

• A Streetcar Named Desire (Pablo Gonzallez) (1988)- Bristol Old Vic
• Woyzeck (Woyzeck) - Birmingham Rep
• The Wonder - Gate Theatre
• Dona Rosita, The Spinster - Bristol Old Vic
• Bent (1990) - National Theatre
• Abingdon Square (1990) - National Theatre/Shared Experience
• Aide-Memoire (1990) - Royal Court Theatre
• Encounters - National Theatre Studio
• Waiting At The Water's Edge (Will) (1993) - Bush Theatre
• Miss Julie (Jean) (2000) - Haymarket Theatre
• Hamlet (Hamlet) (2002) - West Yorkshire Playhouse
• Electricity (Jakey) (2004) - West Yorkshire Playhouse
• A Doll's House (Neil Kelman) (2009) - Donmar Warehouse

Awards

Film & television: awards and nominations

• 1997 - Nominated - Golden Satellite Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for Jude
• 1997 - Won Broadcasting Press Guild Award Best Actor for Our Friends in the North
• 1997 - Nominated BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor for Our Friends in the North
• 2003 - Won Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor for Flesh and Blood
• 2004 - Nominated BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor for The Second Coming
• 2005 - Won TV Quick and TV Choice Award for Best Actor for Doctor Who
• 2005 - Won National Television Awards Most Popular Actor for Doctor Who
• 2005 - Nominated Broadcasting Press Guild Award Best Actor for Doctor Who
• 2006 - Nominated BAFTA Cymru Best Actor Award for Doctor Who
• 2007 - Nominated twice SyFy Genre Awards Best Special Guest/Television for 'Claude' in Heroes

References and notes

External links

• Christopher Eccleston at the Internet Movie Database
• Christopher Eccleston at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The Guardian Unlimited Interview - Home Truths (15 January 2000)
• The Independent Interview - You've got to laugh (2 November 2002)
• BBC Drama Faces: Christopher Eccleston
• Fantastic!: Christopher Eccleston Article at Kasterborous.com
• BBC - Doctor Who - Ninth Doctor Desktop Wallpaper
• Virginia's Christopher Eccleston Website