(Mainly a Sleuth review – Contains spoilers) Thanks to SMCFP member Kerri
SLEUTH’S first night was at the Theatre Royal Brighton 38 years ago. I was there. A few seats along from me was Laurence Olivier, who, apparently, had some unflattering things to say about it.
Two years later, with the thriller a huge hit, Olivier himself starred with Michael Caine in a film version. Now it’s back on stage with Simon MacCorkindale and Michael Praed in the two key roles.
A screen and stage star raised the spirits of a group of brain injury survivors with an inspiring talk.
Thanks to maggiesangel at Holby.TV for this article
Ely- born Simon MacCorkindale – best known for his role as Harry Harper in the BBC1 hospital drama Casualty – visited members of Headway Cambridgeshire at Brookfields, in Mill Road, Cambridge.
Headway is a charity which provides support, services and information to brain injury survivors, their families and carers, as well as to professionals in the health and legal fields.
The big interview Simon MacCorkindale has rubbed shoulders with tinseltown’s elite but is just as happy on stage in Glasgow
WHEN Simon MacCorkindale watches hit US shows like Lost, Ugly Betty or Pushing Daisies he can say: “Been there, done that.”
The veteran actor might be best known as Casualty heart-throb Harry Harper but his long and successful career saw him cross the Atlantic and crack America 30 years ago.
But not just on TV— in real life, accident-prone actor often finds himself in hospital
THERE’S a reason why Simon MacCorkindale carries off the role of consultant Harry Harper in BBC’s Casualty so well — he’s never out of his local hospital’s casualty department as a patient!
He and his wife, actress Susan George, run a very successful horse farm when not appearing on stage or screen, and Simon is very much hands-on down on the farm.
STAGE CLASSIC IS BRINGING OUT THE MANIMAL IN SIMON
He was the English aristocrat of choice a decade before Colin Firth emerged from a lake to become a housewife heartthrob and Hollywood star.
Simon MacCorkindale played the upper-crust cad in some of the most popular American television series of the 1980s – from The Dukes of Hazzard and Hart To Hart to Dynasty and Falcon Crest.
Now he’s taking to the Nottingham stage as a devious author in the revival of psychological thriller Sleuth, alongside his Dynasty co-star and former TV Robin Hood Michael Praed.
SIMON LEAVES CASUALTY TO TAKE ON OLIVIER’S KEY ROLE
One of television’s best-loved doctors has marched out of accident and emergency and into a stage play that has become a modern classic.Simon MacCorkindale, whose character Harry Harper left Casualty two episodes ago, takes the leading role of Andrew in Sleuth which comes to the Theatre Royal, Bath, next Monday.
Harry Harper works his last Casualty shift this week when he leaves after exposing troubled colleague Ruth’s diary to the press, Simon MacCorkindale, who plays him, is delighted Harry isn’t departing on a stretcher! “Often in these shows, characters get blown up, shot or stabbed to death,” smiles Simon, 56. “Doctors do take great risks, but few get shot or stabbed!”
Consultant Harry Harper was shocked by the breakdown of poor Ruth – who was so overworked she attempted suicide. ‘He decides to publish her diary to heighten awareness of the plight of these doctors says actor Simon MacCorkindale, who this week plays his final scenes as Harry, with the dashing doc in trouble for airing the hospital’s dirty laundry in public.
A DARK psychological thriller featuring top television stars will be on stage at the town’s theatre this week.
Sleuth, one of the greatest ever stage thrillers, is being performed at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking until Saturday.
The play, written by Anthony Shaffer, promises to baffle even the most proficient sleuth so budding Miss Marples and Poirots should grab their magnifying glasses and book their seats.
Busy Simon MacCorkindale chats to Viv Hardwick about leaving BBC1 ‘s Casualty, taking on a stage tour and finding time to breed expensive Arabian horses
YES sighs Simon MacCorkindale with mock irony, “I have gone down in history as the man who sacked Charlie Fairhead in Casualty.” The plot of the Christmas episode of the BBC1 drama made the right kind of headlines for the programme as actor Derek Thompson became the last member of the original cast to leave after 21 years.
The cast of Casualty reckon that their colleague Simon MacCorkindale takes his role as top medic Harry Harper so seriously that they wish he was a real doctor!
Sad news for all those female fans who tune in to BBC1 on Saturday nights to gaze adoringly at Simon MacCorkindale. After five years playing consultant Harry Harper in Casualty the smoothy actor is hanging up his stethoscope.
Harry Harper makes a triumphant return to the A&E department -but not everyone is pleased. His new job as consultant manager means he’s now arch-rival Nathan’s boss!
The medic finally returns following Guppy’s pleas for him to come back to the troubled hospital.
Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale has spoken for the first time about the moment he became a hit-and-run driver, abandoning a seriously injured cyclist in a remote country lane.
The 55-year-old actor, who plays consultant Harry Harper in the BBC hospital drama, hit John Lilley in a narrow lane near Taunton, Somerset, in 2005.
But instead of stopping to help, he made the split-second decision to continue on to Casualty rehearsals in Bristol.
Half an hour later, his conscience got the better of him and he called an ambulance to the scene.
MacCorkindale then drove to a police station to report the accident.
IT was typical of a doctor to keep you waiting. When have they ever kept their appointment times?
But as my consultation was with one of Holby City’s finest medics, the stoical Harry Harper, I was prepared to wait.
In the four years that actor Simon MacCorkindale has worn the lead stethoscope and a furrowed brow in the BBC’s flagship Saturday night soap he has set more than a few hearts fluttering on and off set.
But can the 54-year-old actor cut the mustard while temporarily back in civvie street on stage at Milton Keynes Theatre this week in Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest?
Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale was ordered to pay 5,000 to a cyclist who suffered serious head injuries in a hit-and-run car accident.
MacCorkindale, 53 who plays consultant Harry Harper in the hospital drama was also banned from driving for two months after knocking over cyclist John Lilley.
The actor married to seventies screen beauty Susan George- told magistrates he collided with Mr Lilley after sneezing at the wheel of his Mercedes and losing control.
Simon MacCorkindale: Why I need time away from Susan
This site looks like it’s no longer online, so here is the full article.
Simon MacCorkindale is convinced he would have become the Army’s youngest general. He feels his dogged determination, dashing looks and slavish adherence to discipline would have sent him hurtling up the ranks. Indeed, thanks to his father’s contacts, a glittering military career was once guaranteed; instead, he chose to become the nearly man of British cinema, a decision he puts down to an in-built self-destruct button which he presses whenever his life is running smoothly.
To the horror of his family, Simon put showbusiness before the Army, and his role opposite Mia Farrow in Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile in 1978 won him the Most Promising Film Actor award when he was 26. From there, anything seemed possible. Only now, years later, after disappearing from the movie actor radar, is he acting again, this time as Harry Harper, a dashing doctor in the BBC’s hospital drama, Casualty. He is expected to cause a stir with his character, who is married but has a penchant for sexy girls; a natural extension to the love-rat image from his TV heyday in the 1980s, when he played Greg Reardon in Falcon Crest.
IN ‘COUNTERSTRIKE’, ELITE CRIME-BUSTERS TAKE ON INTERNATIONAL THUGS
It won’t win any awards for plausibility but Counterstrike (CTV, Saturdays) is just what the action fan ordered — a combination of James Bond, Mission: Impossible and Charlie’s Angels with the accent on pyrotechnics. The plot spins on the exploits of an elite strike team of international crime-fighters.
Christopher Plummer gets star billing, but 39-year-old British actor Simon MacCorkindale is the series’ power-source. Although he has plenty of stage experience, MacCorkindale is best known to Canadian audiences for the movies Death on the Nile and The Sword and the Sorcerer, and for TV roles in I, Claudius, Falcon Crest, and Dynasty. He brings a natural credibility and depth of personality to Peter Sinclair, the dashing team leader recruited because of his savvy as Scotland Yard’s youngest-ever inspector.
From glamorous actress to high-powered producer, Susan George has proved she’s a movie star to be reckoned with
When Susan George announced that she was becoming a film producer her greatest fear – not being taken seriously – was evident from the start. Some could not contain their bemused amazement. I mean, everyone knew Susan: blonde, glamorous, seductive. But a film producer? Do me a favour.
So the shoulder-length hair which had been her hallmark for so long was cropped short; well-cut business suits replaced dresses, and designer handbags were dumped in favour of a leather briefcase. Financial men who had been looking forward to meeting Susan George, highly fanciable actress, suddenly discovered they were dealing with a single-minded businesswoman determined to get her own way.
Susan George, fed up with being known more for who she’s going out with than the work she’s doing, wants to put the record straight – she’s happily married and has just produced a limited and illustrated edition of her poems
(Mainly a Susan George article)
Susan George sprawls against a sofa, mug of tea by her side, and squints slightly into the glow of the sinking sun. From outside, over the backwater of the Thames that slips by the bottom of the garden, come the muted sounds of dusk in semi-rural Berkshire. Comfortable in jeans and sweatshirt, happy in such a domestic setting, this surely cannot be the sex siren Susan George who paraded her nakedness across the cinema screen and pouted a path through the clubs and bachelors of London and Los Angeles.
Simon MacCorkindale expected only English gentlemen roles after he also broke into American TV in The Manions of America.
“I considered myself too different for American audiences,” he admits. “As it turned out, that was exactly what the producers of my first series, Manimal, needed. It also plays well for my present role as Jane Wyman’s attorney on Falcon Crest.”
Falcon Crest star and wife mix work & pleasure high above Hollywood
We draw a line at the end of the day, when we change our business into pleasure
VALETS are busy parking Bentleys, Mercedes and limousines. Behind the bulletproof glass doors, crystal chandeliers and Persian rugs adorn the lobby of the tallest building on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip.
High above the dazzling hub of Hollywood live the MacCorkindales — Falcon Crest star Simon MacCorkindale and his wife, British actress Susan George.
Falcon Crest” star Simon MacCorkindale and actress Susan George shocked guests by showing up at their Hollywood wedding shower — and announcing they were already married!
The happy lovebirds had eloped several days earlier — jetting off to the romantic South Sea island of Fiji where they were wed October 5 by a local minister with only the island’s natives looking on.
