Simon Callow
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+
Known for
Midsomer Murders
Dr. Wellow
Outlander
Duke of Sandringham
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Dr. Lutz
NOVA
Galileo
Doctor Who
Charles Dickens
Death in Paradise
Larry South
Omnibus
Self
Inside No. 9
Dick
The Witcher
Codringher
Agatha Christie's Marple
Colonel Melchett
Hawkeye
Armand Duquesne III
The Sweeney
Detective Sergeant
Testament: The Bible in Animation
Meneptah (voice)
Étoile
Crispin Shamblee
Playhouse Presents
Dudley
Plebs
Inspector Morse
Theodore Kemp
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
Hugo Trenchfoot (voice)
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Tree Blathereen (voice)
Performance
John Mortimer
Tate Britain's Great Art Walks
Self
Chance in a Million
Tom Chance
The Cleaner
Mr. Abahassine
Arn: The Knight Templar
Fader Henry
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat
Himself
Angels in America
Prior 2
Angels in America
Prior Walter Ancestor #2
Roman Mysteries
Pliny
Them From That Thing
Various
Acting
The Boy That Never Was
Cozimo
A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley
Himself
Notting Hill
Simon Callow (uncredited)
David Copperfield
Wilkins Micawber
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
Cavendish
Jamie's Dream School
Himself
The Rebel
Henry Palmer
Classical Destinations: The Great Composers
narrator
Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags
Narrator
Amadeus
Emanuel Schikaneder
Don't Eat the Neighbours
Little Napoleons
Edward Feathers
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
Vincent Cadby
Street Fighter
A. N. Official
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Gareth
Westminster Abbey: Behind Closed Doors
Self - Narrator (voice)
Galavant
Edwin the Magnificent
The Phantom of the Opera
Andre
Shoebox Zoo
Wolfgang the Wolf (voice) / Hunter the Horse (voice)
The Company
MI6 liaison officer Elihu
James and the Giant Peach
Grasshopper (voice)
Dead Head
Hugo Silver
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Leech
Shakespeare in Love
Tilney
A Room with a View
The Reverend Mr. Beebe
Arn: The Knight Templar
Father Henry
Howards End
Music and Meaning Lecturer (uncredited)
Maurice
Mr. Ducie
Hampstead
Judge
Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale
Charles Dickens
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
Postcards from the Edge
Simon Asquith
Victoria & Abdul
Mr. Puccini
Rag Tale
Cormac Rourke
The Amazing Mr. Blunden
Mr. Blunden
Love's Kitchen
Guy Witherspoon
The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
George Russell
No Man's Land
Colonel Soft
Bright Young Things
King of Anatolia
Ice
Prime Minister
Ice
Prime Minister
The Good Father
Mark Varda
The Crucifer of Blood
Inspector Lestrade
George and the Dragon
King Edgar
Thunderpants
Sir John Osgood
Viceroy's House
Cyril Radcliffe
Jefferson in Paris
Richard Cosway
Blue Iguana
Uncle Martin
The Addictions of Sin: WH Auden in His Own Words
Readings (voice)
Eternal Return
Malcolm
Surprised by Oxford
Dr. Sterling
Merchant Ivory
Self
Bob the Butler
Mr. Butler
The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
George Russell
Ripley Under Ground
Dean Bentliffe
Mindhorn
Himself
Golden Years
Royston
There's Something About Romcoms
Self
The Woman In White
Count Fosco
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
Dr. Alex Sauer
The Best Man
Big-Time Publisher
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
Self
Victory
Zangiacomo
Manifesto
Police Chief Hunt
The Civilization of Maxwell Bright
Mr. Wroth
50 Years Legal
Self
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Self - Actor and Welles' Biographer
Late Bloomers
Richard
Christmas Carol: The Movie
Charles Dickens / Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Bedrooms and Hallways
Keith
The Holiday List
Samuel
Doctor Jekyll
The Fringe, Fame and Me
Self
Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock 'n' Roll
Richard O'Keefe
Dame Maggie Smith - A Celebration
Self
Reviving Harry Lime
Himself
Chemical Wedding
Haddo
Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule
Narrator (voice)
Deadly Appearances
Rick Spencer
El pasajero clandestino
Major Owens
Soft Top Hard Shoulder
Eddie Cherdowski
American: An Odyssey to 1947
Self
Old Flames
Nathanial Quass
Alec Guinness: A Class Act
self
Alexander Pope: Rediscovering a Genius
Alexander Pope
Grindsploitation 3: Video Nasty
Thank You, Doctor Rey
Bob
The Sarah Millican Television Programme - Best of Series 1-2
Self
Creditors
How Gay Sex Changed the World
Self
The Marvellous Maggie Smith: A Celebration
Self
The Pay Day
Gates
Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story
Dickie Attenborough
The Dead Room
Aubrey Judd
Revisiting Brideshead
Narrator
Camp Christmas
A Christmas Carol
Around The World In 80 Days
Phileas Fogg (voice)
The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World
The Madness of Boy George
Narrator (voice)
Dodger Special: Coronation
Archbishop of Canterbury
A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
Self (archive footage)
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Moses
Meneptah II (voice)
The Man of Destiny
Napoleon
The Scarlet Tunic
Captain Fairfax
The Reluctant Dragon
Dragon (voice)
Miss in Her Teens
The Author
The Unforgettable Harry Secombe
Self
Animated Epics: Don Quixote
Don Quixote
Femme Fatale
Vicar Ronnie
Orson Welles Over Europe
Himself - Presenter
The Mystery of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Theatreland
Himself
The British Guide to Showing Off
Self
England, My England
Charles II
The Trials of Oz
John Mortimer
Acts of Godfrey
Godfrey
Honour, Profit & Pleasure
George Frideric Handel
Art of Freedom
Self
Cariani and the Courtesans
Raimondi
Judi Dench: Our National Treasure
Narrator
Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
Maximillian
Nutcracker Delights: English National Ballet
Narrator
Men of Mystery
Himself
Surveillance 24/7
St John
Save Our Bacon
The Swinesbury's Boss (voice)
Revolutionary Witness
Franciscus Palloy
Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens
Galileo
Maggie Smith at the BBC: a portrait
Self
An Audience with Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Question Time
Himself - Panellist
Being Shakespeare
Q&A
Self - Panellist
Parkinson
Self
Loose Women
Self
Saturday Review
Self