Thank you very much for the really lovely gifts you and Michael’s fans sent to us to the theatre on Saturday. They were a super surprise and a terrific send off to the tour. We had a great week in Newcastle to finish and, as always, it was lovely to see some of the members who have all been so faithful and supportive throughout.
I will keep you posted as to what is next. For now, I have to catch up with my life.
001 – From Clare: How have you family (Susan included) influenced your career? Well I think mostly through their absolute continued unquestioning support for whatever I embark upon. Susan particularly is a very good springboard for various choices that I have made so I do share all the choices that I make. I think that my mum and dad particularly, it was about the honesty of what one was trying to do, and the respect for the audience. Very early on my father taught me about respect for the audience. I’m not sure I was ever really gonna go down in a daft way with it but certainly that I think has been a very important part in how I deal with the public. I’m always giving the time for other people even within a busy schedule.
Simon MacCorkindale is perhaps best recognized over the last few years as Harry Harper, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, in the BBC’s most popular and enduring drama series Casualty. Following his starring role in the successful 2007 tour of Agatha Christie’s Unexpected Guest, he now returns to the stage in Sleuth.
Simon will be appearing in a touring production of Sleuth, starting on 22nd January 2008 in Windsor for two weeks, then to various locations around the UK on a 16 week tour (starting 4th February and ending 25th May? – if my maths is right – so any dates after this will be without Simon, if the play continues) (Edit – see dates below)
At present the only other location I can confirm is The Grand in Wolverhampton in April. More details as soon as I’m aware of them but it’s still a long time away for details to come too quickly.
This probably means he will be leaving Casualty at the end of the year as most of us suspected, but no confirmation of that yet. (Edit – has now been confirmed)
Still no new locations confirmed, yet. But tickets are already on sale for both Wolves and Windsor.
All details are subject to change so please confirm with the theatre when booking
Simon has confirmed that he’ll start rehearsals for Sleuth on January 14th (this might be earlier now too)
Simon’s co star will be Micheal Praed and we will be sharing details with his official site so we can keep as up to date as possible. (Micheal will be playing Milo, so Simon will be playing Andrew(?)) Micheal Praed Official Site (added 01/11/07)
The years I ran Simon’s international club were 1982 – 1995. In the summer of 1982 my friend Violet and I had just seen “The Sword and the Sorcerer”. We noticed the young actor who played Micah and decided he deserved to have a fan club. I contacted his manager and presented our plan for a quality fan club for Simon. We outlined the club format using the accepted format by the National Association of Fan Clubs (NAFC). It was a nice coincidence that Simon was going to direct a play in Dallas at a dinner theater that Sept. I received a letter from his manager with official permission to begin the club, and soon after that received my first letter from Simon personally.
This is the interview we managed to arrange for the site’s first birthday in April 2007 , though the interview was recorded late February. All answers are pretty much word for word what he replied. The interview was carried out at the Grand Theater in Wolverhampton. This is quite a long interview and the questions are out of order from when they were originally asked to make more sense.
Question 000 – From shelliwood: How did you get the scar under your right eye?
How did I get the scar under my right eye? That happened when I was about 13 and I was playing cricket and I got hit by a cricket ball.
I hit a ball and it caught the edge of the bat and flew back up into my face, and hit me right under the eye, split it wide open. But it’s been there and I’ve used it, on a couple of jobs I did I actually highlighted it slightly and made it a feature of the character.
Did I use it in Manimal? Did I or not, do you know I can’t remember. I mean it was more noticeable, it become progressively less noticeable, I don’t even notice it anymore actually. I haven’t ever had anything done about it but as one’s face changes so does it. It also stated a little higher it was nearer my eye so it gets a bit lower, force of gravity (chuckle) or something like that.
Question 003 – From Kerri: Do you find it weird that there are fan sites about you?
I suppose I don’t find it weird because I did when it first happened and therefore having accepted it, I know it’s there.
When Lonna Poland approached my manager in California, which was probably 1982, she would know better than I, but I’m sure it was 1982, it seem to me to a very strange thing, seemed to be rather an American thing because I hadn’t really experienced it much in the UK. We discussed it, my manger said, ‘No this is really fairly normal and it’s not a bad things at all it’s good for PR, it a good way of communicating with fans and we can control a lot of thing so forth to a degree.’ So anyway I said to Lonna that we’d do it and we did. So having made that judgment, from then on I knew about fan sites and therefore I knew what it could be like and Lonna was exceptionally good at running it.
Following widespread critical acclaim for their star-studded production of The Hollow, the second production from The Agatha Christie Theatre Company promises to be another “beautifully staged and executed murder-mystery… a killer production of classic Christie class” (The Argus).
Simon MacCorkindale is perhaps best recognised as Harry Harper, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, in the BBC’s most popular and enduring drama series Casualty.
A childhood love for drama led to a place at Studio ’68 of Theatre Arts in London aged 19. On completing the course, he toured in regional rep before his West End debut in the highly acclaimed Pygmalion. He worked extensively on British TV, and in 1976 appeared in the renowned I, Claudius and in Zeffirelli’s opulent Jesus of Nazareth.
Simon MacCorkindale Plays Harry Harper, Consultant
Simon describes Harry in five words
The Master Of Everyone’s Destiny!
How has Harry developed over series XVIII?
“As well as having to deal with an NHS consultant’s hours, Harry has had to come to terms with the loss of his wife while looking after his five children. He finds it a very difficult juggling act and he can’t just walk away from them. He is haunted with the guilt of not being where he should have been at the time of the fateful car accident.”
The dashing actor, 50, veteran of long-running US shows such as Falcon Crest, joined the show as caring consultant Harry Harper earlier this year and he says: “It is a big commitment. It is very intensive – we work 49 weeks a year.
“I was worried about the balance of my life and I am still a bit worried but I knew what I was doing. I have been in TV from a young age.”
Simon MacCorkindale, the talented British actor/producer/director, who made his international film debut as the murderer in DEATH ON THE NILE and who was seen as a regular on CBS’s FALCON CREST, says that probably more mayhem has happened to him on movie and TV screens than any other actor of the younger set.
“In DEATH ON THE NILE, I was shot twice; in THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS, my hand was smashed; in QUATERMASS, I was beaten up and then shot; in CABO BLANCO, I caught a bullet in the shoulder and almost bled to death. In THE GAYDEN CHRONICLES, I was hanged; in MACBETH, I was beheaded; in I CLAUDIUS, I was drowned; while in AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS, I hanged myself after comitting murder. For THE SWORD & THE SORCERER, I was hung in chains and tortured; while in THE MANIONS OF AMERICA, I was wounded in the leg (off stage) and then shot in the shoulder in a duel. In OBSESSIVE LOVE, I put my fist through a glass cabinet; in FALCON’S GOLD (ROBBERS OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN), I get beaten up, chased, beaten up again, and finished up hanging from the skid of a helicopter; and in JAWS 3D, I was unceremoniously devoured by a 35-foot shark.”
Internationally recognised as an award-winning actor, director, producer and screenwriter, Simon MacCorkindale personifies the suave, sophisticated British leading man, a role he very much brought to life in the USA Cable/ALLIANCE/TFl France co-production series COUNTERSTRIKE (66 episodes), in which he starred as ex-Scotland Yard inspector Peter Sinclair in front of the cameras, and acted as executive production consultant behind them.
SIMON MacCORKINDALE, the British actor/ director, rose to international prominence for his portrayal of Simon Doyle, the smoothly avaricious young murderer in the star-studded DEATH ON THE NILE and is currently seen regularly as lawyer Greg Reardon on the CBS series FALCON CREST. Long an established leading actor on the British stage and television, MacCorkindale made his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England as Captain Blackwood in A BEQUEST TO THE NATION. In 1974 he made his London West End debut in the highly acclaimed production of PYGMALION.
This site looks like it’s no longer online, so here is the full article.
Merely transforming into a wide variety of animals from a black leopard to a high flying hawk should pose no problem to British star Simon MacCorkindale, who stars as Jonathan Chase in the 20th Century- Fox Television series, “Manimal”.
“In recent pictures and series I’ve been shot and killed, had my hand bashed, was caught by a bullet in the shoulder, hanged, beheaded, drowned, hung in chains, tortured, and in “Jaws 3D”, I was devoured by a 35-ft. shark,” the handsome leading man confided.
MacCorkindale, who came to the United States in 1981, is a native of Cambridge, England, who made his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England, in “A Bequest to the Nation”. His first international television assignment was in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth ” in which he played Lucius, the centurion who was strongly featured in the last hour of the six-hours epic. Curiously enough, he also played Lucius, the son of Emperor Augustus, in “I Claudius”.
Among his roles on British TV have been Sir Thomas Walsingham in “Will Shakespeare”, Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet”, the callous vet in “Baby”, poet Siegfried Sassoon in “Out of Battle”, the naive Oxford graduate in Elinor Glyn’s “Three Weeks”, along with appearances in “Just William ” and Dr. Dady in the series set in a woman’s prison, “Within These Walls”.
What he considers the major break of his career was his being cast as Simon Doyle, the smooth, avaricious young murderer in “Death on the Nile”. He was presented to the Queen at the Royal Premiere in London, by which time he had completed a role in marked contrast, the tough sailor hero in Erskine Guilders classic spy story, “The Riddle of the Sands”.
Simon MacCorkindale is undoubtedly the only actor in theatrical history to go from a guest-starring role on TV’s “The Dukes of Hazzard” to performing the title role of “MacBeth” on the London stage.
In the Moonlight Productions II telefilm “Obsessive Love” the handsome actor gets to play another new character. Simon is the star of a television soap opera who finds himself caught up in a dangerous and bizarre love affair with one of his fans, Yvette Mimieux.
SM: Yes, it’s a film I made in 1977 with Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
LP: Tell us about that character
SM: He’s one of my favourite characters, a guycalled Arthur Davies. He’s from a book, a classic novel written in 1901 by an Irishman called Erskine Childers. The story basically is about Arthur, who goes sailing around the Friesian Islands just off the north coast of Germany, and while he is there he comes upon some strange goings on and discovers that there is a plot to invade England by the Kaiser, which flat bottom boats coming over to the east coast. He calls his friend from the foreign office who is a guy called Carouthers, played by Michael York, and between us we go about finding out what is going on and we actually manage to stop it.
There have been several times during Simon’s career when, while making a movie or TV show, there have been out-takes (bloopers) or occasions in which Simon and the other actors burst into uncontrollable laughter. Simon has consented to share a few with us. If you enjoy reading about these, please encourage him to tell us more.
The first is a blooper, the second an uncontrollable giggle. Both are from Riddle of The Sands.
Congratulations to Simon. His pilot movie, Manimal, was picked up by NBC to become a regular fall series. He is signed to do thirteen episodes (12 plus the pilot), which will air in the former Knight Rider time slot on Friday nights. Michael Knight and Kit are moving to Sunday nights. We wish Simon much success with his very own TV series.
Ed note: One of our members, Tisha Shelden, who lives near Orlando, Florida where Jaws 3D was filming, was able to spend some time on the movie set. She has consented to share her adventures with the club. Thanks, Tisha
Arriving on the set at 6:00 am, I was impressed at how incredibly cheerful and friendly everyone was. Everyone said hello to Simon and cast and crew alike seemed to like him.
July 22, 1983 marks the addition of a new dimension to Simon’s career – the third dimension, and watching Simon in 3D promises to be a whole new, exciting experience for all of us. With this issue we welcome the advent of Jaws 3D to movie screens everywhere and also add our sincere hope for its success at the box office.
In the following pages we will take a visit to the Jaws set, exploring behind-the-scenes movies-making techniques, receive advice on how to best enjoy viewing a 3D movie, and sit with Simon once more as he answers questions about his career. So without further delay we introduce our special feature: (See issue 3 part 2 for the feature)
It seems that Simon faces mayhem no matter where he goes. Recently, while filming Jaws-3D in Orlando, FL, he had a slight mishap. Simon’s character, Philip Fitzroyce, is very much the daredevil photographer. He seems to thrive on thinking up dangerous ways to get the required shots and camera angles, often using very dangerous and acrobatic methods. Simon, in character as Philip, had planned an unique way to photograph Shamu the killer whale. Shamu would be leaping high out of the water, while at the same time allowing his trainer to jump off a platform onto his nose, whale and trainer completing the dive together. With a rope tied around him for safety, Simon/Philip planned to get the shot by coming up behind the trainer on the platform and then leaning way over the edge, while his partner, Jack, (P.H. Morairty) pulled the rope taut to keep him from falling over. (The best laid plans of mice and men!)
LP: DEATH ON THE NILE was your first feature film internationally, and you starred with other big names in the movie business, David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, the list goes on and on. Do you have any particularity interesting thing about this that you’d like to share with us?
SM: Strictly speaking, I had, in fact appeared in a film called JUGGERNAUT, for United Artists much earlier than that. I mean, I really only flashed across the screen. I was cast in a rather nice little role for that, that when they changed directors, quite rightly so, the role got cut down to absolutely nothing. As it was I very disappointed, because obviously I wanted more lines on the screen.
I have been in the U.S. since February 1981, thought I visited off and on for two years prior to that. I am glad to be in America and delighted so many Americans seem to like my work.
What do you miss most about England?
My Family. (Parents, Jill and Peter MacCorkindale, and brother, Duncan. Duncan, an accountant, is two years eight months younger than Simon.)