Colin Salmon

Colin Salmon (born 6 December 1962) is an English actor known for playing the fictional character Charles Robinson in three James Bond films.

Biography

Personal life

Salmon was born in Bethnal Green, London, England, the son of Sylvia Ivy Brudenell Salmon, a nurse.^[1] He grew up in Luton and attended Ramridge Primary School and Ashcroft High School. He supports Luton Town Football Club. Salmon married Fiona Hawthorne in 1988; the two have four children: Sasha, Rudi, Eden and Ben.

Career

Music

On leaving school, Salmon became the drummer in the punk rock band The Friction, which he formed along with three friends from Ashcroft High School.^[2] The band released a 7-inch EP, a live cassette, and a cassette-EP, and performed regularly around Luton in 1979 and 1980.^[2] Salmon also briefly worked with another band, the Tee Vees.^[2]Colin Salmon plays Trumpet and has his own jazz quartet playing at venues such as The Dorchester Grill Room and at events such as The Cheltenham Jazz Festival (UK)

Acting

Salmon is known to be tall and aristocratic-looking (his height is 6'4"), and also for his strong and calm voice, and his striking looks.

He is best known for his role as Charles Robinson, a fictional character in the James Bond films, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.

He made his feature debut in 1992 as Sgt. Robert Oswald in the British mini-series Prime Suspect 2, which gave him much acclaim among British audiences. Salmon also played Note Makoti in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and David Tyrel in the Sky One UK television series Hex . He appears as himself in the sixth episode of the BBC Three comedy, Little Miss Jocelyn.

In 2006 he appeared in eighth series of ITV drama Bad Girls as Senior Medical Officer Dr. Rowan Dunlop. He played Dr. Moon in two episodes (Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead) of the fourth series of the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who.^[3] He has also recorded the role of Kerr Avon in the new audio series of Blake's 7.

Salmon has worked twice with director Paul W. S. Anderson; appearing in the films Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator, in both of which Salmon's character meets a grisly end (in fact, a very similar end in both; both characters are sliced into small, crisscrossed chunks). Salmon also played Oonu, squad leader of the Skybax in the 2002 mini-series Dinotopia. His other film credits include Captives (1994), The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998), Fanny and Elvis (1999), Mind Games (2001)(TV) , and My Kingdom (2001).

In the 2009 film Clubbed, a film about night club bouncers in Coventry in the 1980s, Salmon plays one the main characters, Louis.

In 2009 Salmon appeared in the UK version of popular American drama Law & Order. He guest starred in the episodes "Buried" and "Community Service" as barrister Doug Green.

Salmon is a Governor of Apple Computer's notschool.net program^[4] and he was a guest call taker for the phone lines of the donations to The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday.

Salmon was rumored to have been considered to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond and David Tennant as Doctor Who, but the roles went to other actors (Daniel Craig and Matt Smith, respectively). Had they been offered to Salmon, he would have been the first black actor to portray either role (although he did play Bond in series two of The Omid Djalili Show). He stars in the UK Thriller Exam under the direction from Stuart Hazeldine.^[5]

Football

Colin is a life long Luton Town fan and he described their 30 points deduction as "distasteful". He pointed out that if it had been a Premier League side then it wouldn't have happened; when he was asked this he said "In a word, no. I don't think they would have." He added, "I'll always have a real place in my heart for Luton Town and they deserve better than this."^[6]

Filmography

• Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) as Powell
• Merlin (2009) as Aglain
• Clubbed (2009) as Louis
• Punisher: War Zone (2008) as Agent Paul Budiansky
• The Bank Job (2008) as Hakim Jamal
• Doctor Who (2008) as Doctor Moon in two episodes
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007) as Mitchell
• Bad Girls (2006) as Dr. Rowan Dunlop
• Match Point (2005) as Ian
• Hex (2004–2005) as David Tyrel
• Trial & Retribution VIII (2004) as Colin Thorpe
• Alien vs. Predator (2004) as Maxwell Stafford
• Freeze Frame (2004) as Detective Mountjoy
• Keen Eddie (2003–2004) as Supt. Nathanial Johnson
• Dinotopia (2002) as Oonu
• Die Another Day (2002) as Charles Robinson
• Resident Evil (2002) as One
• The World Is Not Enough (1999) as Charles Robinson
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) as Charles Robinson
• Prime Suspect 2 (1992) as Detective Sergeant Robert Oswalde

References

External links

• Colin Salmon at the Internet Movie Database