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Simon Callow

Simon Callow

Acting · Directing · Creator

Born June 13, 1949, Streatham, London, England, UK

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. Callow rose to prominence originating the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1979 Peter Shaffer play Amadeus, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. Callow joined the Miloš Forman 1984 film adaptation, this time portraying Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1992, Callow won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Musical for Carmen Jones. As an actor, he won acclaim for his comedic roles in A Room with a View (1985) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) earning a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination for each. Other notable roles include in Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004). His television roles include Tom Chance in the Channel 4 series Chance in a Million (1984) and The Duke of Sandringham in the series Outlander from 2014 to 2016. He portrayed Napoleon in The Man of Destiny (1981), and Charles Dickens in numerous television projects. He has also appeared on numerous shows such as Midsomer Murders, Rome, Angels in America, Doctor Who, Galavant, Hawkeye, and The Witcher. Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, South London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. His father left when Simon was 18 months old, and he was brought up by his mother and grandmothers. He and his mother travelled to Northern Rhodesia (now called Zambia) when he was nine to try and reconcile with his father. This did not happen and Callow was sent for three years to boarding school in South Africa. He and his mother returned to Britain when he was twelve. He was raised as a Catholic. Callow was a student at the London Oratory School in West Brompton, and then went on to study briefly at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he was active in the gay liberation movement.[5] He gave up his degree course after a year to take a three-year acting course at the Drama Centre London. He made his first film appearance in 1984 as Schikaneder in Amadeus. The following year, he appeared as the Reverend Mr Beebe in A Room with a View. His first television role was in the Carry On Laughing episode "Orgy and Bess" in 1975, but it was cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him to a wider audience. Callow portrayed Pliny the Elder in CBBC's 2007 children's drama series, Roman Mysteries in the episode "The Secrets of Vesuvius". He played Armand Duquesne in Marvel's Hawkeye on Disney+.

Filmography

Appearances as themselves (37)
  • 2025Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece — Himself
  • 2024Alec Guinness: A Class Act — self
  • 2024Dame Maggie Smith - A Celebration — Self
  • 2024Merchant Ivory — Self
  • 2022American: An Odyssey to 1947 — Self
  • 2022The Fringe, Fame and Me — Self
  • 2022The Marvellous Maggie Smith: A Celebration — Self
  • Westminster Abbey: Behind Closed Doors — Self - Narrator (voice)
  • 2018They'll Love Me When I'm Dead — Self
  • 201750 Years Legal — Self
  • Tate Britain's Great Art Walks — Self
  • 2016Mindhorn — Himself
  • 2016There's Something About Romcoms — Self
  • 2014Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles — Self - Actor and Welles' Biographer
  • 2014Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule — Self - Narrator (voice)
  • 2014The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World — Self - Host - Narrator
  • A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley — Self
  • 2013The Sarah Millican Television Programme - Best of Series 1-2 — Self
  • 2011Art of Freedom — Self
  • Jamie's Dream School — Himself
  • 2011The British Guide to Showing Off — Self
  • 2010The Unforgettable Harry Secombe — Self
  • 2009Theatreland — Self
  • 2008Maggie Smith at the BBC: a portrait — Self
  • Q&A — Self - Panellist
  • Derren Brown: Trick or Treat — Himself
  • 2007How Gay Sex Changed the World — Self
  • Great British Menu — Self - Guest Judge
  • 2006Men of Mystery — Himself
  • 2006Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Mask — Self
  • 2006Reviving Harry Lime — Himself
  • 2005A Tribute To Ismail Merchant — Self (archive footage)
  • Loose Women — Self
  • Parkinson — Self
  • Saturday Review — Self
  • Question Time — Himself - Panellist
  • Omnibus — Self
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