Jason Donovan

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Donovan on the cover of the "Especially For You" single with Kylie Minogue
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Donovan on the cover of the "Especially For You" single with Kylie Minogue

Jason Sean Donovan (born June 1, 1968) is an Australian actor and singer, with world-wide record sales of over 30 million copies (singles, albums, compilation inclusions, etc.) [citation needed]. In recent years he has mainly worked as a leading man in stage musicals in the UK.

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[edit] Biography

Jason Donovan was born in Malvern, Melbourne. His father is Terence Donovan , also a well-known Australian actor (he was a regular in top-rated police series Division 4 and much later played Doug Willis in Neighbours), and his mother is Sue McIntosh. His half-sister is current Neighbours star Stephanie McIntosh. Jason attended the De La Salle College (Australia).

He made his name as an actor in Neighbours as the second incarnation (after Darius Perkins) of the character Scott Robinson. After leaving Neighbours in 1989, Donovan moved to London, and worked there as a singer and actor, but none of about twenty parts since had a similar notoriety; yet he still regularly appears in various talk and musical shows as himself.

In 1988 he joined Neighbours co-star Kylie Minogue in signing for Stock, Aitken and Waterman's record label PWL and he started to release singles which appealed to his pre-pubescent fanbase. His duet of the song "Especially For You", with Minogue, was the fourth-highest selling single in the United Kingdom that year, and 17th in Australia for 1989. Donovan and Minogue dated for a time, during this period. Donovan became the biggest pop star of the time with the album Ten Good Reasons, which yielded two solo #1 singles in the UK with "Too Many Broken Hearts" and a cover of Brian Hyland's "Sealed With A Kiss". Between 1988 and 1993 alone, he enjoyed no fewer than 17 hit singles in the UK. His third and final solo album, "All Around The World", was never released in his home country of Australia. He spent a long run playing the character of Joseph in the West End musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and had a third UK #1 single with one of its tracks, "Any Dream Will Do". In 1992, he sued The Face magazine for libel over allegations that he was homosexual. He won the case, but lost credibility in the process.

His career later suffered from drug problems. In 1999, he admitted that he still used cocaine, saying 'I still have a joint and I still take coke, but not as much as I did two years ago.' (see [1]).

Jason enjoyed success playing Frank 'N' Furter in the musical The Rocky Horror Show; on the eve of its London premiere, Jason was famously interviewed by Dom Joly for the cult British TV sketch show, Trigger Happy TV. In it, a drenched Dom claimed to have been attacked by an irate ice-cream van proprietor, who had supposedly hurled him into the Serpentine, resulting in his dishevelled appearance. Jason, bemused and outraged at Dom's account, continually interjected, demanding to know the motivation for such an unprovoked attack - at one point asking him, 'Did you punch the f*** out of him?' At this point, the phony ice cream van man appeared on the scene, whereupon Dom broke off the interview to tackle him. The tables were soon turned however, and Dom ended up being chased down a side-street. The piece concluded with Jason - at this point utterly bemused - asking questions to the camera, which were unfortunately not audible.

Jason suffers from the skin condition psoriasis (see[2]). According to recent media profiles, his two young children and a steady relationship with their mother have tamed him substantially. He has begun to get more steady work as a serious actor, notably in a role in the high-brow medical-legal drama MDA (2003), on Australia's ABC network.

In late 2004, he was headlining in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium in England. He finished his original run on 13 March 2005, but was then invited back from June onwards to play in the final two months of the show, until its closure on 4 September 2005. Following this, he has toured the UK performing a few gigs and will return to the stage in 2006 to star in a UK tour of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, from January. After this, he has confirmed he will return to Melbourne to star in David Eldrige's Australian transfer of the successful London drama Festen, before continuing with his intention to make a comeback as a folk rock singer. Recently, Donovan lent his voice to the PlayStation 2 game "Buzz!".

Donovan took part in the 2006 series of the ITV show I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!. Donovan proved very popular in the show and made the final three along with celebrities Matt Willis and Myleene Klass, finally finishing in third place having been favourite to win. The money raised through phone votes for Jason on the show he will be donating to the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign - http://www.chox.org.uk charity, thought to be £200,000.

[edit] 2005 Virgin Mobile viral marketing

His phone number has recently been circulating around the web in Australia, due to an (see[3]) image, which was taken in Sydney recently. It appeared that Jason was trying to sell his car, and unwittingly released his mobile phone number to the public. As of 10 September, his answering machine had a special message on it, because he was frustrated by the number of calls he was receiving for no particular reason. Virgin has since placed (see [4]) advertisements in several high-profile Australian newspapers, urging people not to call Mr. Donovan, one of their customers. Virgin Mobile has since admitted the photos were all part of a marketing ploy. Virgin also ran TV advertisements showing Mr. Donovan answering prank calls, asking the viewer not to call him, then displaying his number.

[edit] I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2006)

Donovan took part in I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2006 and finished in 3rd place. During his time in the jungle, he was known as 'Jungle J' and was seen as somewhat of a support figure. Whilst in the jungle, he became good friends with David Gest and Matt Willis. Donovan also took part in many Bushtucker Trials, which included wearing a helmet full of insects and playing a giant game of Operation. Donovan lost out on the King of the Jungle Crown to Matt Willis.

[edit] Record releases

[edit] Singles

  • 1988 "Nothing Can Divide Us" - #5 UK / #3 AUS
  • 1988 "Especially For You" (duet with Kylie Minogue) - #1 UK / #2 AUS
  • 1989 "Too Many Broken Hearts" - #1 UK / #7 AUS
  • 1989 "Sealed With A Kiss" - #1 UK / #8 AUS
  • 1989 "Every Day (I Love You More)" - #2 UK / #43 AUS
  • 1989 "When You Come Back to Me" - #2 UK / #40 AUS
  • 1990 "Hang On To Your Love" - #8 UK
  • 1990 "Another Night" - #18 UK
  • 1990 "Rhythm Of The Rain" - #9 UK / #44 AUS
  • 1990 "I'm Doing Fine" - #22 UK
  • 1991 "R.S.V.P" - #17 UK
  • 1991 "Any Dream Will Do" - #1 UK / #92 AUS
  • 1991 "Happy Together" - #10 UK
  • 1991 "Joseph Mega Remix" - #13 UK (also shown as "Joseph Megamix")
  • 1992 "Mission Of Love" - #26 UK
  • 1992 "As Time Goes By" - #26 UK
  • 1993 "All Around The World" - #41 UK
  • 2007 "Too Many Broken Hearts"

[edit] Albums

  • 1989 Ten Good Reasons - #1 UK/ # 5 AUS
  • 1990 Between The Lines - #2 UK
  • 1993 All Around The World - #27 UK

[edit] Other Albums and Compilations

  • 1989 The Other Side Of Jason Donovan (Japanese release)
  • 1991 Greatest Hits - #9 UK
  • 1991 Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (musical soundtrack, with the 1991 London Revival Cast) - #1 UK
  • 2000 The Very Best Of Jason Donovan
  • 2006 The Very Best Of Jason Donovan

[edit] References and external links

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