Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell at the Fantasia Film Festival in 1999.
Birth name	Malcolm John Taylor
Born	June 13 1943 (1943--) (age 64) Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Malcolm McDowell is a British-born actor, probably best known for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

Biography

Acting career

McDowell began his professional life serving drinks in his parents' pub and then as a coffee salesman (the latter job providing inspiration for the movie O Lucky Man!). While enrolled in Cannock House School, he began taking acting classes, and eventually he secured work as an extra with the Royal Shakespeare Company. McDowell made his screen debut in If... (1968) by British director Lindsay Anderson, The Raging Moon (1970) and Figures in a Landscape (1970). His performances caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who cast McDowell as the lead in A Clockwork Orange. Although he won great acclaim (nominated for Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle) for his role as the leader of a gang of futuristic toughs, the downside was that it created a characterization so unforgettable that many had a hard time separating actor from character.

He also starred in a sleeper tearjerker "Long Ago Tomorrow" about a paralyzed soccer player who falls in love with another handicapped woman, in 1971, from the book "A Raging Moon".

He rejoined Lindsay Anderson for the ambitious O Lucky Man! (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982), and starred in Aces High (1975). McDowell regularly turned up on British Television productions in the early 1970s in adaptations of theatre classics. He co-starred in Voyage of the Damned (1976), and made a favorable Hollywood-movie debut as H. G. Wells in Time After Time (1979).

McDowell played mainly villainous parts in the late 1970s and 1980s — none more notorious than the title character in the controversial Caligula (1979). He relishes the characters he portrays and while his villainous roles are certainly thanks in part to type-casting, he emphasizes that he doesn't only play the baddies. "I suppose I'm primarily known for that but in fact, that would only be half of my career if I was to top it all up".^[1] He also appeared in the 1983 action film Blue Thunder as F.E. Cochrane, and the 1982 remake of Cat People. In 1983, he starred in Get Crazy as Reggie Wanker, a broad satire of Mick Jagger. Also in 1983, McDowell starred as The Wolf (Reginald von Lupen) in Faerie Tale Theatre's rendition of Little Red Riding Hood (his wife at that time, Mary, played Little Red Riding Hood). His voice is heard narrating the two-hour documentary "The Compleat Beatles" (1984).

McDowell is well known in Star Trek circles as "the man who killed Captain Kirk" in the film Star Trek: Generations, in which he played the mad scientist Dr. Tolian Soran. Incidentally, McDowell is also the uncle of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast member Alexander Siddig. McDowell has also appeared in several computer games, most notably as Admiral Tolwyn in the Wing Commander series of computer games. His appearance in Wing Commander III marked the series transition from 2D pre-rendered cutscenes to live-action cutscenes.

McDowell played himself in Robert Altman's The Player, in which he chastises protagonist Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) for badmouthing him behind his back. Teaming up with Altman once again in 2003 for The Company, McDowell's performance as Mr. A. the fictional director of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago was based on real-life director Gerald Arpino.

Recent work

Some of McDowell's recent voice work has been as the Superman villain Metallo in Superman: The Animated Series, the character Mad Mod in the cartoon Teen Titans, a character in, and the narrator of an episode of South Park, and even as the voice of a Death Star commander in the Star Wars Robot Chicken special episode. He has voiced several characters in the second season of Adult Swim's Metalocalypse.

In 2006 he was a special guest star on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as radio mogul Jonas Slaughter, who admits to killing one of his sons and manipulates the other into a dying declaration confession to save his own life. He has also appeared in various other television series such as Monk. In 2007, he portrayed the wealthy, conspiratorial villain Mr. Linderman on the hit NBC television show Heroes. He has starred in Jerry Was A Man, which has appeared on TV as an episode for the series "Masters of Sci-Fi", on ABC^[2] and portrayed Terrence McQuewick in Entourage.

In 2007, he appeared as Dr. Sam Loomis in Rob Zombie's remake of the classic horror film Halloween, released in theaters August 31, 2007 (he has stated in interviews that he has an option for two more potential sequels)^[3] and as Desmond LaRochette in the release of Robert Whitlow's The List. McDowell also stars as Irish family patriarch Enda Doyle in Red Roses and Petrol,^[4] to be released theatrically in early 2008.

Personal life

He was born Malcolm John Taylor in Leeds, Yorkshire, the son of a pub owner father who was an alcoholic and a mother who ran a hotel; "McDowell" is his mother's maiden name.^[5][6] McDowell was married to actress Margot Bennett from 1975 to 1980. He then married actress Mary Steenburgen, whom he had first met while filming Time After Time and they had two children together: Lily Amanda, born January 21, 1981 and Charles Malcolm born July 10, 1983, before divorcing in 1990. In 1991, McDowell married Kelley Kuhr, with whom he has two children, Beckett Taylor (born January 29, 2004) and Finn McDowell. He currently resides in Los Angeles, USA.

Filmography

• If... (1969)
• Figures in a landscape (1970)
• The Raging Moon (1971)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• O Lucky Man! (1973)
• Royal Flash (1975)
• Voyage of the Damned (1976)
• Aces High (1976)
• Caligula (1979)
• The Passage (1979)
• Time After Time (1979)
• Look Back in Anger (1980)
• Britannia Hospital (1982)
• Cat People (1982)
• Blue Thunder (1983)
• Cross Creek (1983)
• Faerie Tale Theatre's Little Red Riding Hood (1983) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190532
• Get Crazy (1983)
• The Compleat Beatles (1984)
• Merlin and the Sword (aka Arthur the King) (1985), King Arthur (Television)
• The Caller (1987)
• Sunset (1988)
• Mortacci (1989)
• Maestro, II (1989)
• Buy & Cell (1989)
• Jezebel's Kiss (1990)
• Schweitzer (1990)
• Class of 1999 (1990)
• Moon 44 (1990)
• Disturbed (1990)
• Tsareubiytsa (1991) - Russian movie about killing tsar Nikolai II
• The Player (1992)
• Chain of Desire (1992)
• Night Train to Venice (1993)
• Bopha (1993)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• In The Eye of the Snake (1994)
• Dangerous Indescretion (1994)
• Milk Money (1994)
• Tank Girl (1995)
• Kids of The Round Table (1995)
• Fist of the North Star (1995)
• Our Friends in the North (1996) (TV)
• Superman: The Animated Series (1996-2000)
• Asylum (1997)
• (1997)
• Mr. Magoo (1997)
• Lexx, Episode Giga Shadow (1997)
• Fantasy Island (1998)
• Garden of Evil (1998) (Also known as The Gardener and as Silent Screams)
• Gangster No. 1 (2000)
• (2000)
• The Barber (2001) (Also known as Le Barbier)
• Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)
• Just Visiting (2001)
• Princess of thieves (2001)
• Tempo (2002)
• I Spy (2002)
• Between Strangers (2002)
• Shadow Realm (2002) (TV)
• The Company (2003)
• Inhabited (2003)
• I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)
• Hidalgo (2003)
• Red Roses and Petrol (2003)
• Evilenko (2004)
• In Good Company (2004)
• Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius (2004)
• The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (2006)
• Entourage (2006)
• The List (2007)
• Exitz (2007)
• Halloween (2007)
• Heroes (2007)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Malcom McDowell

External links

• Malcolm McDowell at the Internet Movie Database
• The authorized fansite
• Interactive video talk by McDowell on the British "Free Cinema" movement of the 50s, made for the British Film Institute
• What if... - The Guardian, April 24, 2004. In-depth profile and interview.

Donate to Wikimedia