David Suchet

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David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in The Dream

David Suchet OBE (born May 2, 1946) is an English actor best known for his television portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot. He is the brother of John Suchet, a former ITV News presenter. He married Sheila Ferris in 1976, and their son, Robert, graduated from the University of Birmingham in July 2002. They also have a daughter together, Katherine.

Born in London to Jack and Joan Suchet, he took an interest in acting and joined the National Youth Theatre at 18. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he now serves as a council member. He began his acting career at the Watermill Theatre, and retains a great affection for the place saying it "fulfils my vision of a perfect theatre".

In 1973, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. The 1970s also saw his first appearance on screen in the 1980 film A Tale of Two Cities. In 1985 he played Blott in the television series Blott on the Landscape. He was awarded the Royal Television Society's award for best male actor for A Song for Europe in 1985.

Suchet's performance as Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot in the television series Poirot earned him a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination. He was given a Variety Club Award in 1994 for best actor for portraying John in David Mamet's play Oleanna at the Royal Court Theatre. Suchet later won another Variety Club Award for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in Amadeus.

Suchet was nominated for another Royal Television Society award in 2002 for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now, which also earned him a BAFTA nomination. The same year he was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003 he played ambitious 16th-century English primate, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 2-part ITV drama Henry VIII opposite Ray Winstone as Henry VIII and Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn.

Suchet is vice-president of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust, whose most challenging achievement to date has been securing funding (both via an appeal, and from influencing government decisions) concerning the building of the new M6 Toll motorway where it cuts the lines of the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal, both of which the Trust wishes to see reopened. He has also been officially voted in as chairman of the River Thames Alliance in November 2005. At the July 2006 Annual General Meeting of the River Thames Alliance, he agreed to continue being chairman for another year.

Suchet also does numbers of small appearances and voiceovers for religious dramatic works in accord with his own Christian faith (see [1]). He also provided the voice of Aslan in Focus on the Family's radio version of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.

At Christmas 2006 he will play the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in a new adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Count Dracula, due to be screened on BBC One. He is also expected to be seen in the action film titled Flood, also due out 2006.

[edit] Trivia

Suchet's father was Jewish, his mother was Anglican, and he later converted to Roman Catholicism.^{[citation needed]}
His paternal grandfather was a Russian whose surname was shortened from Suchedowitz to Suchet. He also has some French blood on his mother's side.
He plays the clarinet.
Affectionately calls his fat suit for Hercule Poirot his "armadillo padding".
One of his hobbies is photography. His grandfather, James Jarché, was a famous Fleet Street photographer. Suchet first got into photography when his grandfather gave him a Kodak as a present.
Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie's daughter, saw him in Blott on the Landscape and decided he would make a perfect Poirot. Two years later, in 1987, he was cast for the series.
He stands 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) tall.
He said that he always carries around with him a list of ninety-three things to remember about Poirot.^{[citation needed]}
Suchet played Inspector Japp in the 1985 film version of Thirteen at Dinner, starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot.