| Paul Darrow | |
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 Photo by Tim Drury. |
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| Born | Paul Birkby 2 May 1941 Surrey, England, UK |
| Spouse(s) | Janet Lees Price |
| Official website | |
Paul Darrow (born Paul Birkby on 2 May 1941) is an English actor best known for his portrayal of Kerr Avon in the BBC science fiction television series Blake's 7. He also guest starred twice on Doctor Who, playing Captain Hawkins in the serial Doctor Who and the Silurians and Maylin Tekker in the serial Timelash.
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Personal life
Darrow was born in Surrey, England, and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Career
The popularity of his role as Avon has tended to overshadow his extensive work in theatre and television. He also plays the character of Kaston Iago in the Kaldor City audios - a role which many[who?] have theorised is intended to be Kerr Avon.
He appeared in all but the first episode of Blakes 7. In the final episode of the series, in which all of the main characters are seen to be shot, Avon shot dead the character Klyn - played by Paul Darrow's wife, Janet Lees Price.
Darrow's other notable TV appearances include: Emergency Ward 10, The Saint, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Within These Walls, as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1975 BBC series The Legend of Robin Hood, as Thomas Doughty in the TV film Drake's Venture, Dombey and Son, Maelstrom, Making News, Pie in the Sky, Hollyoaks and Little Britain. He also spoke the voiceover for Biblical quotations in The Root of All Evil?.
Proud of his work on Blake's 7, Darrow has acted as the show's most prolific spokesperson, both in the UK and during the late 80s, in the U.S., when the show was frequently broadcast on US public television. In the mid to late 1990s, he has also purchased the rights to Blake's 7 and attempted to produce a big-budget followup miniseries, Blake's 7: A Rebellion Reborn. According to Darrow, it would have begun 25 years after the ending of the original series and might have included an aged Avon passing the torch to a new generation. Reportedly, due to creative differences, Darrow left the project.
Recently, Darrow has recorded voiceovers and straplines for Jack FM, a radio station based in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Because Jack FM's format is predominantly automated with topical, local and quirky sweepers linking the songs, Darrow is effectively the main voice of the radio station after 9am.
He also provides the voice of the character Grand Moff Tarkin in the computer game Star Wars: Empire at War.
Darrow appeared in Emmerdale from 13 July 2009, playing Eddy Fox, a friend of Alan Turner's; he knows Turner as "Tank".
Further reading
He is the author of Avon: A Terrible Aspect (ISBN 0-80651-112-5), a 1989 novel about Avon's father and Avon's own early life. Darrow's autobiography, You're Him, Aren't You? (ISBN 1-84435-236-6) was published in 2006.
External links
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