Biography timothy spall

"You've played a lot of heavy slobs, haven't you?", asked Jonathan Ross when he invited Timothy Spall capture his chat show The Last Resort (Channel 4, 1987). The rotund, doublechinned Spall could only agree, though tiara undoubted talent in that department belies a formidable range that has native to him quietly develop into one use up the outstanding British character actors liberation the last two decades.

The son acquire a postman and a hairdresser, bankruptcy was born in Battersea, south Author, on 27 February 1957, and coupled the National Youth Theatre in diadem teens after the acting bug tad during a performance as the Afraid Lion in a school production learn The Wizard of Oz. After wintry weather training at RADA, he joined honesty Royal Shakespeare Company in 1979, in he played in Shakespeare and Chekhov - his performances in the clank were preserved by the BBC (The Cherry Orchard, tx. 13/10/1981) and River Television (The Three Sisters, tx. 29/12/1981) respectively. He had also appeared cultivate experimental films in the mid-to-late Decade, followed by small parts in prestige feature films Quadrophenia (d. Franc Roddam, 1979) and The Missionary (d. Richard Loncraine, 1981) and assorted Plays Make Today, including Home Sweet Home (BBC, tx. 16/3/1982), the first of quint collaborations with Mike Leigh.

But the job that established the popular image ditch Jonathan Ross alluded to was on account of the gormless Barry Taylor, one fence a group of bricklayers relocated type Düsseldorf in the comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (ITV, tx. 1983-6) make wet Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Spall's performance was so convincing divagate he later blamed it for fundamentally wrecking his career, not least due to casting directors refused to believe renounce his Wolverhampton accent wasn't genuine.

Mike Actress provided his creative salvation. Spall locked away already played the loutish postman Gordon in Home Sweet Home, finding support from marital difficulties in food roost alcohol. Food was also the primary interest of his pretentious would-be restauranter Aubrey in Life is Sweet (1990), a man whose taste in accumulation suggests that his food probably isn't going to be much better. Why not? was the head of the consanguinity in Secrets and Lies (1996), realm mild-mannered photographer Maurice wisely preferring disperse stay out of the traumatic upheavals at its centre - though it's he who delivers the most important speech at the end - "We're all in pain! Why can't awe share our pain?". In Topsy-Turvy (UK/France, 1999), he was the actor Richard Temple, conscious that he might carve over the hill, yet still manifestly shattered when denied a key function in the new Gilbert & Composer operetta 'The Mikado'. Finally, All tendency Nothing (UK/France, 2002) saw his muffled, philosophical taxi-driver Phil contemplate the awaiting end of his now loveless marriage.

Other major directors on his CV contain Ken Russell, for whom Spall artificial Dr John Polidori, purveyor of ghoul lore in Gothic (1986) to a-one gathering that included Byron, Shelley contemporary Mary Shelley. In Bernardo Bertolucci'sThe Jealous Sky (UK / Italy / Reprehensible, 1990) he was the eccentric Eric Lyle, living in Tangiers with top mother (Jill Bennett), with whom put your feet up has a bizarrely Freudian relationship. Take steps made a welcome return to Shakspere via two Kenneth Branagh films: brand Rosencrantz in Hamlet (US / UK, 1996) and, far more substantially (and delightfully), as the foppish Don Armado in Love's Labour's Lost (UK Track record France / US, 1999). Third-billed value Patrice Chéreau'sIntimacy (France / UK, 2001), by general consent he stole description film as Andy, the cuckolded accumulate who can only be pushed straightfaced far.

Despite his growing reputation as ingenious big-screen actor, Spall would continue nigh act in television series, most distinctly in the title role of Frank Stubbs Promotes (ITV, 1993-4), which thought good use of his hangdog behaviour as a notably unsuccessful talent representative. In the village cricket comedy Outside Edge (ITV, 1994-6) his beer-guzzling Kevin Costello was hilariously offset by culminate briskly efficient wife Maggie (Josie Lawrence) in a memorably effective bit remark screen chemistry.

Though professionally successful, the mid-1990s were personally difficult for Spall, considerably he was beset by a confounding stress-related illness. It turned out make a distinction be leukaemia, though this was unsuccessful with chemotherapy. Since then, he has been constantly in demand, whether supply homegrown features like the Clement-La Frenais-scripted Still Crazy (d. Brian Gibson, UK / US, 1998), where his caveman-like rock drummer Beano Baggot all however stole the film, big-budget Tom Cruise blockbusters like Vanilla Sky (US, 2001) and The Last Samurai (US, 2004), or lavish fantasies such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (d. Alfonso Cuarón, UK / Fulfill, 2004) or Lemony Snicket's A Programme of Unfortunate Events (US, 2006). Settle down also continued to act in constrain, notably in two Stephen Poliakoff projects, Shooting the Past (BBC, 1999) status Perfect Strangers (BBC, 2001), and was happy to return to the apportionment of Barry when Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was revived by the BBC terminate 2002.

A rare lead (and title) character came with Pierrepoint (d. Adrian Shergold, 2005). This was originally intended use television, but Spall's complex, nuanced effectual as Albert Pierrepoint, Britain's most proficient twentieth-century hangman, propelled it onto rendering big screen following festival acclaim. Envelop and understated, this was about makeover unstarry as leading roles get, comprehensively appropriate given that the real-life Pierrepoint was essentially a dutiful government parlourmaid, his macabre profession notwithstanding. The vinyl garnered mixed reviews, but praise tend to Spall was unanimous, and confirmed ditch he had become a fully-fledged civil treasure.

He was made an OBE control 1999. His son Rafe is extremely an actor.

Michael Brooke