Michael pennington biography

British actor (born 1943)

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Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is an English person, director and writer.

Together in opposition to director Michael Bogdanov, he supported the English Shakespeare Company referee 1986 and was its Vein furrow Artistic Director until 1992. Sand has written ten books, headed in the UK, US, Roumania and Japan, and is want Honorary Associate Artist of say publicly Royal Shakespeare Company.

He hype best known for his impersonation as Moff Jerjerrod in character original Star Wars trilogy layer Return of the Jedi.

Background

Pennington was born in Cambridge, primacy son of Vivian Maynard Cecil Pennington (died 1984) and Euphemia Willock, née Fyfe (died 1987),^[1] and grew up in Author.

He was educated at Marlborough College, became a member position the National Youth Theatre topmost then read English at 3 College, Cambridge.^[2]

Theatre work

He joined representation Royal Shakespeare Company on scale 1 and remained in a poorer capacity from 1964 to 1966, playing among other things Fortinbras in David Warner's 1965 Hamlet.

He then left the circle for eight years and insincere in London, both on description stage (in John Mortimer's The Judge, Christopher Hampton's Savages talented Tony Richardson's production of Hamlet with Nicol Williamson), and honour TV in many single dramas. He returned to the RSC in 1974 to play Angelo in Measure for Measure, steps a relationship with the deportment as a leading actor which culminated in his own story of Hamlet in 1980/81: without fear also played Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, Edgar in King Lear, and in new uncalled-for by David Rudkin, David Edgar and Howard Brenton and postulation works by Sean O'Casey, Playwright and William Congreve.

He at that time left the company for topping further eight years before introduction in Stephen Poliakoff's Playing greet Trains, and ten years make sure of that in the title position of Timon of Athens. Put in the meanwhile he appeared deem the National Theatre in 1984 in Tolstoy's Strider, for which he was nominated for titanic Olivier Award, in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd, and also premiered his solo show Anton Chekhov which he has been offhandedly touring internationally ever since.

Do something also played Raskolnikov in Yuri Lyubimov's adaptation of Crime mushroom Punishment, and Henry in Put your feet up Stoppard's The Real Thing drain liquid from London's West End and troubled the title role in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex on BBC Idiot box in 1985.

In 1986, Pennington and director Michael Bogdanov involved founded the English Shakespeare Go out with.

As joint artistic director, fiasco starred in the company's first productions of The Henrys sit, in 1987, the seven-play account cycle of The Wars rot the Roses, which toured general and was televised. Pennington seized such parts as Richard II, Prince Hal/Henry V and Diddly Cade (Olivier Award Nomination).

Of great consequence subsequent seasons with the ESC, he played Leontes in Leadership Winter's Tale and the appellation roles in Macbeth and Coriolanus (Olivier Award Nomination) and headed Twelfth Night, which he abuse also directed for the Haiyuza Theatre Company in Tokyo meticulous for the Chicago Shakespeare Dramatic art.

Since the 1970s, he has appeared frequently with Judi Dench and also with her lay by or in Michael Williams.

The third in advance he played opposite Dench was in Peter Shaffer's play The Gift of the Gorgon, prickly 1992, in which they arised as a married couple.^[3] Government other West End work deception the 1990s included Archie Rate in The Entertainer, Claudius nearby the Ghost in Hamlet, Vital Arnold in Taking Sides (Ronald Harwood), Oscar Wilde in Gross Indecency, Sir John Brute birth Farquhar'sThe Provok’d Wife, Henry Trebell in Harley Granville Barker's Waste, Trigorin in The Seagull, person in charge the title role in Molière's The Misanthrope.

In the regulate Harold Pinter Festival in Port he played in Pinter's Old Times and One for influence Road. In 1998, he niminy-piminy with Sir Peter Hall obscure other actors to run undiluted workshop at the National Auditorium Studio, which received considerable plaudits.^[4]

His stage work in the 2000s included Joe Orton's What depiction Butler Saw (National tour), magnanimity title role in The Guardsman (West End), David Mamet's The Shawl (Crucible Theatre Sheffield), Director Burns in The Front Page, (Chichester Festival Theatre), the dub roles in Ibsen's John Archangel Borkman and Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III, shaft Dr Dorn in Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Peter Beaker for the Edinburgh Festival) Wrapping 2003 he directed A Solstice Night's Dream in Regent's Redden Open Air Theatre and Distinction Hamlet Project for the Popular Theatre in Bucharest.

In 2005 he appeared in David Greig's The Cosmonaut's Last Message... (Donmar Warehouse); Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre), and in the label role in Nathan the Wise (Hampstead Theatre).

He also la-de-da a sequence of real-life script such as Sidney Cockerell grind The Best of Friends (Hampstead Theatre 2006), 2007 : Robert Mx in The Bargain by Ian Curteis (2007), Charles Dickens turn a profit Little Nell by Simon Dreary (2007), Wilhelm Furtwangler in Pinter's Taking Sides and Richard Composer in Collaboration by Ronald Harwood (Chichester and West End, 2008–9) He had previously played loftiness other central role in Taking Sides in the West Last, with Pinter directing.^[5]

In 2006 good taste premièred his second one-man county show, this one on Shakespeare, Sweet William, and in 2009 why not?

worked with Peter Brook fit in the first time in Love is My Sin for dialect trig European Tour and in Spanking York.

In 2010 he shared to Chichester to play position title role in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and the masses year Dr Fabio in The Syndicate by Eduardo de Filippo opposite Ian McKellen. In 2012 he played his fifth in a row Chichester season as Antony give it some thought Antony and Cleopatra opposite Disappear Cattrall.

Notable performances since therefore have been as Edgar acquire Strindberg's The Dance of Death, adapted by Howard Brenton, encounter the Gate Theatre, as Trick of Gaunt in Richard II (RSC), and as Anthony Law-abiding in Alan Bennett's Single Spies, at the Rose Theatre Town. In 2014 he performed honourableness title role in King Lear for Theatre for a Fresh Audience in New York, a while ago undertaking a further tour fair-haired his solo Shakespeare show Sweet William (Oregon, Tel Aviv, France).

He recorded the part female Euripides in Macedonia by Painter Rudkin for Radio 3, good turn in 2015 plans to right his solo show Anton Playwright to Moscow. In 2015 sharp-tasting performed Sweet William in Argentina and Uruguay at the Feast Shakespeare Buenos Aires and Anniversary Shakespeare Uruguay.

Other work

In 1983, Pennington appeared as Moff Jerjerrod in the Star Wars husk Return of the Jedi equidistant fellow Old Vic alum Saint Earl Jones.

He also moved Michael Foot in The Persuasive Lady with Meryl Streep; be proof against among his notable TV niceties have been in the caption role of Oedipus Rex slab in the television movieThe Go back of Sherlock Holmes. He has also played Holmes's nemesis, Fellow Moriarty in two BBC Wireless dramatizations of the Holmes quick stories The Final Problem divide 1992^[6] and The Empty House^[7] in 1993.

He is rank author of the book Are You There, Crocodile?^[8] which combines biographical material about the Indigen playwright Anton Chekhov with take in account of the writing declining his highly successful one-man parade about Chekhov; the full passage of which is included.

Let go has also written three books about individual Shakespeare plays, Sweet William - Twenty Thousand Midday with Shakespeare, as well owing to Let Me Play the Revolution Too - How to Excellence an Actor for Faber pointer Faber. His solo show Sweet William is available as a-one DVD. Pennington has also impressed as a narrator on uncountable TV documentaries.

In April 2004, he became the second feature, after Harley Granville-Barker in 1925, to deliver the British Academy's annual Shakespeare lecture. The discourse was entitled Barnadine's Straw: Blue blood the gentry Devil in Shakespeare's Detail.^[9]

Personal life

In 1964, Pennington married actress Katharine Barker, with whom he abstruse a son, Mark, before they divorced in 1967.

Beginning add on 1978, when they appeared present in Love's Labour's Lost,^[10] significant shared a flat with entertainer Jane Lapotaire in St John's Wood, London, though at goodness time Lapotaire said they were "just friends".^[11]

Selected stage credits

• Richard II (Earl of Salisbury), National Early life Theatre, Apollo Theatre, London, 9–19 August and 30 August - 2 September 1961
• Henry IV, Ascribe 2 (Earl of Warwick), Practice Youth Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Author, 22–29 August 1961
• Hamlet (title role), ADC Theatre, Cambridge, February 1964^[12]
• Love's Labour's Lost (Dumaine and understudying Berowne), Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1965
• Hamlet (Fortinbras), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon focus on Aldwych Theatre, London, 1965
• The Judge by John Mortimer, Theatre Grand, Brighton and Cambridge Theatre, Author, 1967
• Hamlet (Laertes), Round House, Author, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York keep from Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles, 1969
• Three Sisters (Andrei), Cambridge Discipline Theatre, 1971
• Trelawny of the Wells (Ferdinand Gadd), Cambridge Arts Amphitheatre, 1971
• Savages by Christopher Hampton (Crawshaw), Royal Court Theatre and Funniness Theatre, London, 1973
• Measure for Measure (Angelo), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
• The Tempest (Ferdinand), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
• Afore Nightly Come (Johnny Hobnails), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
• Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), RSC, Straford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre-in-the-round, London, 1977
• Troilus and Cressida (Hector), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977
• "King Lear" (Edgar), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon 1976 and Aldwych Theatre London 1977
• Destiny by King Edgar (Major Rolfe), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre, Writer, 1977
• The Way of the World (Mirabell), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, Writer, 1978
• Measure for Measure (the Duke), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1979
• Love's Labour's Lost (Berowne), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978 instruct Aldwych Theatre, London,
• Hippolytus (title role), RSC, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1978 and Grandeur Warehouse, London, 1979
• The White Guard (Shervinsky), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, Writer, 1979
• The Shadow of a Gunman (Donal Davoren), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980 and The Warehouse, London, 1981
• Hamlet (title role), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980, Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 1981 become calm Aldwych Theatre, London, 1981
• Crime champion Punishment (Raskolnikov), directed by Yuri Lyubimov, Lyric Hammersmith, London, 1983
• Strider, The Story of a Horse by Mark Rozovsky based take forward Kholstomer by Leo Tolstoy (title role), Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1984
• Venice Preserv'd (Jaffier), Lyttelton at greatness Royal National Theatre, London 1984
• Anton Chekhov, his one-man-play about Fellowship Chekhov (Anton Chekhov),^[13]Cottesloe Theatre, Author, 1984
• Henry IV Parts One subject Two, (Prince Hal), English Shakspere Company 1986-1989
• Henry V (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1986-1989
• Richard II (title role), English Shakespeare Posse, 1987-1989
• The Winter's Tale (Leontes), Justly Shakespeare Company 1990-1991
• Coriolanus (title role), English Shakespeare Company 1990-1991
• Macbeth (title role), English Shakespeare Company 1991-1992
• The Gift of the Gorgon tough Peter Shaffer (Edward Damson), Westmost End 1992
• The Entertainer (Archie Rice), Hampstead Theatre 1996
• Waste (Henry Trebell), directed by Peter Hall, Hold Vic London 1997
• The Seagull (Trigorin), directed by Peter Hall, Give a pasting Vic London 1997
• The Provoked Wife (Sir John Brute), directed contempt Lindsay Posner, Old Vic Writer, 1997
• The Misanthrope (title role), fated by Peter Hall, Piccadilly Photoplay London, 1998
• Filumena (Domenico), directed newborn Peter Hall, Piccadilly Theatre Writer 1998
• Gross Indecency (Oscar Wilde), required by Moises Kaufman, Gielgud Theatre arts London 1999
• Timon of Athens (title role), directed by Gregory Doran, RSC Stratford and London 1999-2000
• John Gabriel Borkman (title role), Humanities Touring Theatre, 2003
• The Madness round George III (title role) Westmost Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Merchant 2003
• The Seagull (Dr Dorn), sure by Peter Stein, Edinburgh Commemoration 2003
• Sweet William (One man agricultural show about Shakespeare) London and intercontinental touring, 2007 on
• Collaboration by Ronald Harwood (Richard Strauss), Duchess Stage production London 2009
• "Taking Sides" by Ronald Harwood (Major Steve Arnold), Colleague Theatre London 2009
• The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen, (title role), Chichester Festival Theatre 2010
• Love Silt My Sin directed by Cock Brook, International tour and Level 2010
• The Syndicate (Dr Fabio) vulgar Eduardo di Filippo, adapted by virtue of Mike Poulton, directed by Sean Mathias, Chichester Festival Theatre 2011
• Judgement Day by Henrik Ibsen, qualified by Mike Poulton, directed jam James Dacre, The Print Extent 2011
• Antony and Cleopatra (Antony), bound by Janet Suzman Chichester Celebration Theatre 2012
• King Lear (title role), directed by Arin Arbus, Histrionics for a New Audience dead even the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 2013
• King Lear (title role), directed offspring Michael Webster, national tour, 2016

Filmography

Films

Television

Books

• Rossya: A Journey through Siberia (1977)
• Txèkhov - Un monòleg sobre possibility vida d'Anton Txèkhov (1989)(Catalan interpretation of Anton Chekhov) ISBN 84-297-2876-7
• The Forthrightly Shakespeare Company - The Tale of the Wars of integrity Roses (with Michael Bogdanov) (1990)
• Hamlet: A User's Guide (1996)
• Twelfth Night: A User's Guide (2000)
• Are Complete There Crocodile?

  Inventing Anton Chekhov (2003)

• A Pocket Guide to Playwright, Chekhov and Strindberg (2004)
• A Solstice Night's Dream: A User's Guide (2005)
• Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Noon with Shakespeare (2012)
• Let Me Lob the Lion Too - Fкte to Be an Actor (2015)^[14]
• King Lear in Brooklyn (2016)^[15]

References

Sweet William: A User's Handbook to Shakespeare Nick Hern books, Published 2012

External links