Simon MacCorkindale

Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale^[1] (born 12 February 1952) is an English actor, director, and producer.

Early life

MacCorkindale was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, to Peter and Gill MacCorkindale on 13 February 1952. He has a younger brother, Duncan. His father Peter was a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and a station commander. MacCorkindale spent part of his chilhood in Edinburgh where his father was stationed.^[2] He attended the exclusive Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire from 1965-70, where he was Head Boy. He also joined the Air Training Corps and initially had plans to join the RAF, but at 13 his eyesight began to deteriorate. He considered joining the diplomatic corps and becomming an ambassador but become a fan of theatre and instead opted to become a stage director. Convincing his parents that he would get a "sensible job" if by 25 a directing career was not sustaining himself, MacCorkindale attended Studio 68 drama school rather than university. He took acting classes there as well so he "could better understand actors and, hopefully, be a more competent director." He became a "star pupil" and continued acting after graduating "until [he] felt confident enough to" direct "a seasoned performer".^[3]

Career

He began an acting career and toured the country with a repertory theatre group. He made his West End debut in a production of Pygmalion, alongside Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg. Having appeared in a number of UK television productions such as I Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, his break came when he was cast as Simon Doyle in the 1978 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile at the age of 25. He became friends with co-star Bette Davis and noted: "There was a feeling of being in awe of these people but I had a certain amount of pioneer courage so I didn't let it get to me. But there were days when I thought, 'I'm about to do a scene with this cinema legend, am I up to it?' But people were very gracious. I was never the whipping boy because I was less experienced."^[2] The following year he played astronomer Joe Kapp in Quatermass, the fourth serial in Nigel Kneale's Quatermass series, starring alongside John Mills. MacCorkindale had previously appeared in an episode of Kneale's series Beasts and was delighted with the part of Kapp, finding it a break from the typecast romantic roles he was used to playing,^[4] while noting that playing the character's strong Jewish faith was "challenging".^[3] Kneale later stated he was disappointed with MacCorkindale's performance: "We had him in Beasts playing an idiot and he was very good at that".^[5]

Following the success of Death on the Nile he moved to the US in 1980. Although told it was a "negative", MacCorkindale refused to put on an American accent, believing his English accent would help fill a "niche".^[2] However, for two years he failed to get past the audition stage for any major parts because he was English. ABC told him he was not "an eight o'clock actor" which meant "at that time of night they didn't want viewers watching someone who sounded intellectual or who had an accent that was alien to their ears and, therefore, hard work when it came to listening."^[3] He was eventually cast in the lead role of the NBC adventure television series Manimal in 1983. He played Professor Jonathan Crane, an English character who helped the police solve crime with his ability to transform into animals. The role impressed MacCorkindale as Chase was "a very cerebral individual"^[3] and also meant he "found himself in the first wave of UK stars to make it big in America," along with Joan Collins in Dynasty and Pierce Brosnan in Remington Steele, which lead to a further influx of British actors finding work there.^[2] Filming often lasted 14-16 hours a day while MacCorkindale often worked weekends for the prosthetics for the transformation sequences. The show was cancelled after one season of eight episodes due to low ratings (NBC initially put the show on opposite Dallas where it lost out) and budget cuts as it was the network's most expensive series. It has since become a cult series which enjoys popularity around the world.^[3] He appeared in films such as The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Riddle of the Sands, Cabo Blanco and Jaws 3 and television parts such as Dynasty, Hart to Hart, Matt Houston and The Dukes of Hazzard. He played David Clement, an aristocrat, in the mini-series Manions of America and appeared as Greg Reardon on two seasons of Falcon Crest.^[3]

MacCorkindale returned to the UK in 1986 to form a production company and the following year set up Amy International Artists based at Shepperton Studios; he also owns Anglo Films International. He has subsequantly directed, written and produced a number of projects.^[3][6] In the 1980s he directed three performances of the 1970 play Sleuth, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Howard Keel and James Whitmore.^[2] He played Peter Sinclair on the USA Network series Counterstrike from 1990-1993 while also serving as an executive production consultant. MacCorkindale also reprised his role as Chase in an episode of Night Man in 1998, using CGI for the transformation instead of makeup, and directed an episode of the show.^[3] He made his TV directing debut in 1986, directing the Falcon Crest episode "Checkmate". He served as co-executive producer for the 2000 syndicated TV series Queen of Swords and guest starred as the sadistic sea captain Charles Wentworth in the episode "Runaways", and the 2002 syndicated Canadian TV series Adventure Inc.. He also produced and composed music for the 1989 film Djavolji raj (That Summer of White Roses), starring his wife Susan George and Tom Conti.

MacCorkindale joined the cast of the BBC One medical drama Casualty in 2002, portraying clinical lead consultant Harry Harper.^[7] MacCorkindale commented that he "loved [his] time on Casualty," and spent time researching all of the medical terminology he used to ensure he understod it. In February 2007, MacCorkindale was given a five month sabbatical from Casualty due to a storyline and toured the UK in a revival of the Agatha Christie thriller The Unexpected Guest. He returned to Casualty, but having rediscovered his "taste" for theatre left in 2008 to take the role of Andrew Wyke in a production of Sleuth which toured the UK before being performed on the West End.^[6] On 25 August 2008 he replaced Simon Burke as Captain Georg von Trapp in the London Palladium production of The Sound of Music and remained with the show till its closure on 21 February 2009.^[8][9] He will return to television with an appearance in the 2010 series of New Tricks.^[10]

Personal life

He lives on and runs an Arabian stud-farm on Exmoor with his wife, British actress Susan George, to whom he was married in October 1984 in Fiji. They met in 1977.^[6][7][9] They also lived together in Buckinghamshire near the River Thames and then on a farm on the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire boundary. He was previously married to actress Fiona Fullerton on 10 July 1976 in the City of London. The marriage ended in divorce in 1981.

MacCorkindale was diagonsed with bowel cancer in 2006, undergoing an operation to remove a section of his bowel during a two-week Casualty filming break. It was thought to have been cured but a year later the cancer spread to his lungs. MacCorkindale continued working during his treatment. He publically revealed the disease was terminal in November 2009.^[7][9]

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

• Official BBC
• Simon MacCorkindale at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon MacCorkindale (Semi-Official) Fan Page