David Walliams
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David Walliams (born David Williams, 20 August 1971 in Surrey) is a British comedy actor, best known for his partnership with Matt Lucas in the sketch show Little Britain.
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[edit] Biography
Born to Peter (a London Transport engineer) and Kathleen Williams (a lab technician), Walliams was raised in Banstead in the county of Surrey. He has an older sister, Julie, and three nephews, Ben, Joe and Freddie.
Walliams was educated at Reigate Grammar School, where he was a contemporary of Robert Shearman. Walliams was a member of the National Youth Theatre, where he met comedy partner Lucas, and later studied Drama at the University of Bristol, where he was in the 1989-92 cohort - one year below Simon Pegg.
Walliams is a stage name adopted for Equity purposes. This was sent up in Rock Profile, in which Robbie Williams is always referred to as 'Robbie Walliams'.
On 4 July 2006, Walliams successfully swam the English Channel to raise money for Sport Relief.
On 6 November 2006 he won The Mirror's Pride of Britain Award for the Most Inflential Public Figure as he raised more than £1 million swimming the channel for Sport Relief.
Although initially tipped as a contender for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year poll for 2006, he failed to make the final shortlist of 10 contenders follwing the nominations stage which closed on 15th November. Though nominations were invited from the public, the opinion of Sports Editors was also used in deciding the eventual shortlist. It is unknown whether Walliams would have been nominated had only the public nominations been considered. Instead, Walliams was given a special award during the ceremony for his achievement.
In July 2006, Walliams also became a Patron of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY)
[edit] Career
His first known TV appearance was as Lesley in a Sky One show Games World" (1993)
after that he went on to be "The Lift" on the first series of the CBBC gameshow Incredible Games in 1994.
Walliams appeared alongside comedy partner Matt Lucas in the video of the Fat Les song Vindaloo, the unofficial anthem for the England national football team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Together with The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, he wrote and appeared in Doctor Who parodies The Pitch of Fear, The Web of Caves and The Kidnappers for BBC2's "Doctor Who Night" in 1999. He later performed in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Phantasmagoria, written by Gatiss.
In 2000 he played Jake Plaskow in the BBC's Attachments, set in an internet start-up company.
He appeared in an episode of Black Books in which he complained about getting second-hand smoke from the main character, who waved him off saying, "Forget about it, you can buy me a drink sometime."
In 2003 he appeared in an episode of EastEnders. He also appeared in the first episode of Agatha Christie's Marple.
In 2006 he made appearances in the movies A Cock and Bull Story and Virgin Territory
Also in 2006, he presented a documentary on James Bond. It was entitled David Walliams: My Life with James Bond.
[edit] Walliams and Lucas
He and Lucas have also appeared as grotesque caricatures of various rock musicians in the series Rock Profile and in the spoof documentary series Sir Bernard's Stately Homes. They were also stars of the Paramount Comedy Channel Show "Mash and Peas" and it was in this guise that they appeared in the Fat Les video (see above).
Walliams and Lucas recently starred together in the film clip for the Pet Shop Boys new single "I'm with Stupid", in which the two are apparently auditioning their version of the song's film clip for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who are tied up and appear to be hostages.
Among the characters played by Walliams in Little Britain are Emily Howard, the "rubbish transvestite", the mad Scottish hotel owner, Ray McCooney, and Sebastian Love, a camp aide (or aide de camp) to the Prime Minister, on whom he has a huge crush.
In 2006, as the pair toured Britain with a stage show, Little Britain Live, Walliams managed to fit in two hours of swimming training every morning in preparation for his cross-channel swim. On 3 April 2005, the swimming pool scene featuring Lou & Andy was hailed as the greatest comedy sketch of all time in a Channel 4 poll, on the show The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches[1]. (Vicky Pollard's swimming pool sketch came fourth.)
[edit] Personal life
There are many rumours that Walliams is gay or bisexual, and humorous references to this are made on the DVD commentary of Little Britain. However in an interview with Queerday,[2], Walliams stated that life would be easier if he were attracted to men - implying that he is not. The newspapers portray him as being very camp and that some women mistake him for being gay. It has been confirmed by the Daily Mail on 25 October 2006 that David's girlfriend is Australian model Emily Scott.
Other rumours say that Walliams and Lucas are a couple, although they have always denied this and Lucas is due to enter into a civil partnership with his life partner.
He lives in Belsize Park, North West London in a house called "Supernova Heights" - Noel Gallagher's former home, which he bought for £3.25M from Davinia Taylor and her ex-husband. [3]
[edit] Swimming the English Channel
On 4 July 2006 Walliams swam the English Channel for the charity Sport Relief (part of Comic Relief). [4] [5]
He successfully completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes to cover the 35 km (22 miles) stretch of sea, the equivalent of 700 lengths of an Olympic standard swimming pool. This placed his effort within the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing, in the process of which he raised over £1,000,000 in donations.
It took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's Little Britain tour so every morning before performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also completed an eight hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport.[6]
The Bluetones,whose lead singer Mark Morriss is a friend of Walliams wrote a song in honour of his achievement. Entitled Fade In/Fade Out it can be found on their self-titled album, which was released on 9 October 2006.
Walliams was awarded a special award in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in recognition.
[edit] Selected Filmography
Games Ville - Leslie (1992)
Mash and Peas - Gareth Peas (1996)
Dennis Pennis R.I.P. - Anthony Cream Jr. (1997)
Alexi Sayle's Merry-Go-Round - Newsagent (1998)
Rock Profile - Various (1999)
Sir Bernards Stately Homes - Anthony Rogers (1999)
Spaced - Vulva (1999)
Doctor Who: The Web of Caves - Chief Alien (1999)
Doctor Who: The Kidnappers - David (1999)
Doctor Who: The Pitch of Fear - Sydney Newman (1999)
Cruise of the Gods - Jeff Monks (2002)
Eastenders Christmas Special - Ray (2003)
Little Britain - Various (2003 -)
Monkey Trousers - Various (2004)
Shaun of the Dead - News Reporter (2004)
Marple - George Bartlett (2004)
A Cock and Bull Story - Parson (2005)
Alan Partridge's Cream of British Comedy - Daffyd's Father (2005)
My Life with James Bond - Himself (2006)
[edit] Trivia
- He was educated at Reigate Grammar School in Surrey
- His best friend is Jimmy Carr, Walliams makes numerous references not knowing who Carr is
- He once went on a date with actress Jessica Stevenson, but she said it was boring
- He has had a sitcom called Home in the pipeline since September 2003, he has written most of it with potential co-star Rob Brydon. Ronnie Corbett said he agreed to appear in it
- In the book Inside Little Britain he refers to a woman he fell in love with as "Miss X", Lisa Snowdon revealed in the Daily Mirror that she was Miss X
[edit] Biography
- Neil Simpson: Yeah but No But: The Biography of Matt Lucas and David Walliams: London: John Blake: 2006: ISBN 1-84454-258-0
- Boyd Hilton, Matt Lucas, David Walliams: Inside Little Britain: London: Ebury Press: 2006: ISBN 0-09-191231-8
[edit] References
- ^ Channel 4's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches at thecustard.tv
- ^ http://www.queerday.com/2005/nov/08/little_britains_david_walliams_i_wish_i_was_gay.html
- ^ http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=16143871&method=full&siteid=62484&headline=becks-best-pal-in-split-from-wife--name_page.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sport_relief/5143966.stm
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2255100,00.html
- ^ http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3722156a1860,00.html
[edit] External links
- David Walliams at the Internet Movie Database
- Walliams page on BBC Comedy Guide
- David Walliams Fansite
- David Walliams Fanlisting
- Comedy Zone Profile of Walliams
- Wonderful World of Walliams
- WalliamsandLucas.com
- David Walliams Tribute Act
- David Walliams attempts to swim English Channel (Flash player required)
