Jim Dale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jim Dale

Jim Dale with Glenn Close performing Busker Alley, 2006
Born 15 August 1935 (1935-08-15) (age 72)
Rothwell, Northamptonshire, England
Occupation Actor, Lyricist, Director, Narrator, Singer
Spouse(s) Patrica Dale (div.)
Julia Schafler
Official website

Jim Dale MBE (born 15 August 1935) is an English actor and singer-songwriter, best known for his roles in the Carry On films, as well as the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobook series in the United States, for which he has won two Grammy Awards.

Dale is currently featured on the ABC series Pushing Daisies, as the Narrator.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Dale was born James Smith in Rothwell, Northamptonshire, where he attended Kettering Grammar School. He did two years National Service in the RAF.

[edit] Career

[edit] Music career

As a songwriter Dale is best remembered as the lyricist for the movie theme Georgy Girl, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. The song (performed by The Seekers) reached number 2 in the US charts the following year. Several of his songs entered the UK singles chart including Be My Girl (1957)(UK # 2in 1957), Just Born (1958), Crazy Dream (1958) and Sugartime (1958). As a singer he became the first artist under the wing of Sir George Martin who produced many hit records for him. Dale also wrote the song Dick-a-Dum-Dum (King's Road), which became a hit for Des O'Connor in 1969.

[edit] Film career

Dale is most famous in the UK for his appearances in eleven Carry On films, a long running series of comedy farces, generally playing the hapless romantic lead. His last appearance in the main series was in Carry On Again Doctor in 1969, however 23 years later he appeared in the title role in the last Carry On film, Carry on Columbus. He was in the silent short film The Plank, and played the young Spike Milligan in the film version of Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall. He starred in Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World, which also featured Milligan, The National Health directed by Jack Gold, Scandalous, a triple-role as twin brothers and their father in Disney's Hot Lead & Cold Feet, The Hunchback, as a tap dancing executive in Arthur Miller's The American Clock and a memorable performance as a comic villain in the Disney films Pete's Dragon and The Spaceman and King Arthur aka Unidentified Flying Oddball.

[edit] Stage career

At the age of eighteen Dale became the youngest professional comedian in Britain, touring all the great Variety Music Halls. On stage he appeared in both straight and musical roles, and has been nominated for five Tony Awards, winning one for Barnum when in 1980 he became “The Toast of Broadway” (N.Y.Times), also winning the second of four Drama Desk Awards. In 2006, Dale performed on Broadway (at Studio 54) in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Threepenny Opera, as Mr. Peachum. In 1970, at the request of Sir Laurence Olivier, he joined the The National Theatre in London as a leading actor. Over the next two years he appeared in Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, The National Health, The Good Natured Man, The Captain of Kopenick, and a two hander play with Anthony Hopkins, The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria. At the Young Vic Theatre, he created the title role in Scapino, which he co-adapted with Frank Dunlop, and played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. His other West End theatre credits include The Wayward Way, The Card, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale, and most recently the part of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s Oliver! at the London Palladium.

His Broadway successes include Scapino (Drama Desk Award/Outer Critics Award/Tony Award Nomination), Joe Egg (Outer Critics Award /Tony Award Nomination). Me And My Girl and Candide (Tony Award Nomination). Other credits Off-Broadway include Travels With My Aunt (Drama Desk Award / Lucille Lortel Award / Outer Critics Award), Privates On Parade, The Taming of the Shrew, The Invisible Man, The Music Man, Comedians (Drama Desk Award nomination and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination), A Christmas Carol – The Musical, Address Unknown and Three Penny Opera (Drama Desk Award / Outer Critics Award / The Richard Seff Award and a Tony Award nomination). In November, 2006 Dale starred as "Charlie Baxter" in the Sherman Brothers' musical, Busker Alley alongside Glenn Close.

[edit] Voice work

To millions of fans in the United States and Canada, Jim Dale is the "voice" of Harry Potter. (In Britain the audiobooks are produced by Bloomsbury, and Stephen Fry reads them.) He has recorded all seven books in the Harry Potter series, and as a narrator he has won two Grammy Awards, six Grammy Nominations and a record nine Audie Awards including "Audio Book of the Year 2004," "Best Narrator 2004/2005/2007," "Best Children's Audio Book 2005," two Benjamin Franklin Awards and eleven Audio File Earphone Awards. He is also the narrator for the Harry Potter video games. He also holds two Guinness World Records: one for having created and recorded 147 different character voices[1] for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and one for occupying the first six places in the Top Ten Audio Books of America and Canada 2005.

Due to his popularity as the narrator, Dale now narrates the new ABC drama, Pushing Daisies, adding the "fairy tale" voice for this "forensics fairy tale."

[edit] Personal life

In 2003 Queen Elizabeth II awarded Dale with the MBE for his work in promoting English children’s literature.

He has lived in New York since 1980. He was married to Patricia from 1957 until their divorce in 1977. They had 4 children, one of whom, Murray Dale, was briefly an actor in the 1970s children's television series Boy Dominic. His youngest son, Toby Dale, is also an actor living in London. Another son Adam is an award winning helicopter camera man. Jim's only daughter Belinda died of leukemia. In 1980, Jim married Julia Schafler, the owner of Madison Avenue’s prestigious "Julie: Artisan’s Gallery."

[edit] Awards nominations

Awards
Nominations
  • 1975 Tony Award Best Actor in Play - Scapino
  • 1985 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Play - Joe Egg
  • 1985 Tony Award Best Actor in Play - Joe Egg
  • 1997 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Candide
  • 1997 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical - Candide
  • 2006 Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Musical - The Threepenny Opera
  • 2003 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Play - Comedians

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jim Dale Home Page

[edit] External links


Awards
Preceded by
Len Cariou
for Sweeney Todd		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical
1979-1980
for Barnum		 Succeeded by
Kevin Kline
for The Pirates of Penzance
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

George Rose (1976) · Barry Bostwick (1977) · John Cullum (1978) · Len Cariou (1979) · Jim Dale (1980) · Kevin Kline (1981) · Ben Harney (1982) · Tommy Tune (1983) · George Hearn (1984) · George Rose (1986) · Robert Lindsay (1987) · Michael Crawford (1988) · Jason Alexander (1989) · James Naughton (1990) · Jonathan Pryce (1991) · Gregory Hines (1992) · Brent Carver (1993) · Boyd Gaines 1994) · Matthew Broderick (1995) · Nathan Lane (1996) · James Naughton (1997) · Alan Cumming (1998) · Martin Short (1999) · Brian Stokes Mitchell (2000)
v • d • e
The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Philosopher's
Stone
Film • Game • Soundtrack

Chamber
of Secrets
Film • Game • Soundtrack

Prisoner
of Azkaban
Film • Game • Soundtrack

Goblet
of Fire
Film • Game • Soundtrack

Order of
the Phoenix
Film • Game • Soundtrack

Half-Blood
Prince
Film • Game

Deathly
Hallows
Characters
Universe
Related
Other books
Other games
v • d • e
Carry On films
Languages