Malcolm McDowell

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Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell at the Fantasia Film Festival in 1999.
Birth name	Malcolm John Taylor
Born	June 13, 1943 (age 63) Leeds, West Yorkshire
Notable roles	Alex in A Clockwork Orange

Malcolm McDowell (born June 13, 1943) is an English actor. He was born Malcolm John Taylor in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

1 Acting career
2 Recent Career
3 Upcoming projects
4 Personal life
5 Selected filmography
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Acting career

Possibly best known for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange (1971), he began his professional life serving drinks in his parents' pub and then as a coffee salesman (the latter job providing inspiration for the movie O Lucky Man!) While enrolled in Cannock House School, he began taking acting classes, and eventually he secured work as an extra with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

McDowell made his screen debut in Poor Cow (1967) followed by The Raging Moon (1970), Figures in a Landscape (1970) and If... (1968) by British director Lindsay Anderson. His performances caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who cast McDowell as the lead in A Clockwork Orange. Despite winning great acclaim (nominated for Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle) for his role as the leader of a gang of futuristic toughs, the role created a characterization so unforgettable that the public had a hard time separating actor from character.

Malcolm McDowell as Maj. John Gresham

He rejoined Lindsay Anderson for the ambitious O Lucky Man! (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982), and starred in Aces High (1975). McDowell regularly turned up on British Television productions in the early 1970s in adaptations of theatre classics. He co-starred in Voyage of the Damned (1976), and made a favourable Hollywood-movie debut as H. G. Wells in Time After Time (1979).

McDowell played mainly villainous parts in the late 1970s and 1980s — none more notorious than the title character in the controversial Caligula (1979). He also appeared in the 1983 action film Blue Thunder as F.E. Cochrane, and the 1982 remake of Cat People. In 1983 he starred in Get Crazy as Reggie Wanker, a broad satire of Mick Jagger.

McDowell in his signature role as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange.

He is also well known in Star Trek circles as "the man who killed Captain Kirk" in the film Star Trek: Generations, in which he played the mad scientist Dr. Tolian Soran. Incidentally, McDowell is also the uncle of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast member Alexander Siddig.

McDowell has also appeared in several computer games, most notably as Admiral Tolwyn in the Wing Commander series of computer games. His appearance in Wing Commander III marked the series transition from 2D pre-rendered cutscenes to live-action cutscenes.

McDowell played himself in Robert Altman's The Player, in which he chastises protagonist Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) for badmouthing him behind his back. Teaming up with Altman once again in 2003, McDowell convincingly portrayed fictional artistic director Alberto Antonelli in The Company, an intimate portrait of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.

[edit] Recent Career

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the hit cartoon series South Park have been known to be fans of McDowell and cast him in an episode of South Park.

McDowell appearing in South Park

In 2006 he was a special guest star on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as radio mogul Jonas Slaughter, who admits to killing one of his sons and manipulates the other into a dying declaration confession to save his own life. He has also appeared in various other television series such as Monk and Masters of Horror.

He currently appears as Mr. Linderman on the NBC show Heroes.^[1]

[edit] Upcoming projects

He will appear as Dr. Loomis in Rob Zombie's remake of the classic slasher film Halloween, to be released in theaters August 31, 2007.

[edit] Personal life

McDowell first met actress Mary Steenburgen while filming Time After Time. They married in 1980 and divorced 10 years later in 1990. Steenburgen and McDowell had two children together: Lily Amanda, born January 21, 1981 and Charles Malcolm born July 10, 1983. In 1991, McDowell married Kelley Kuhr, with whom he has one child, Beckett Taylor (born January 29, 2004).