Timothy Spall

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Timothy Spall
200
Spall filming Enchanted in New York City, March 2007
Born Timothy Leonard Spall
February 27, 1957
Battersea, London, England
Spouse(s) Shane Spall (married 1981)

Timothy Leonard Spall OBE (born February 27, 1957) is an English BAFTA award-nominated film, stage and television actor.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Spall, third of four sons,[1] was born in Battersea, London; his father, Joe, was a postal worker, and his mother, Sylvia, a hairdresser.[2][3][4] He trained at the National Youth Theatre and RADA, where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor in his year. His brother, Matthew, is studio director of the computer games company Morpheme.

[edit] Career

Initially notable in the UK for playing the gormless (clueless) Barry Taylor in all four series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet alongside actors such as Christine Garner, (1983-2004) he has since starred in films such as Secrets & Lies, Shooting the Past, Rock Star, The Last Samurai, and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. He gained international recognition as Peter Pettigrew ("Wormtail") in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Spall played the starring role of Albert Pierrepoint in the 2005 film Pierrepoint, which was released as The Last Hangman in the United States. In the 2006 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Spall voiced Phil Collins' manager, Barry Mickelthwaite. In 2007, he starred as Nathaniel in Disney's Enchanted and Beadle Bamford in Tim Burton's production of Sweeney Todd.

On December 31, 1999, he was named an Officer of the British Empire.[5]

[edit] Personal life

Spall is married and has three children: Mercedes, (born 1985), Pascale (born 1976) and Rafe (born 1983), who is also an actor. He lives in a large house in Forest Hill[6] a suburb of south-east London.[7]

In 1996 Spall was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, but has since been in remission.[8] He has said of his illness:

I didn't know what made me ill but stress had something to do with it and the point is now to head off stress at the pass. It made me aware of things and become more selective. I am less worried about employment. I really do my homework so I am not getting stressed on the set because I don't know what I'm doing.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article210989.ece Julian Llewellyn Smith, Timothy Spall: A bloke for all seasons, The Independent, 20 August 2001
  2. ^ Timothy Spall: Lucky Tim
  3. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article354600.ece Nick Duerden, Timothy Spall victim of his own success, The Independent, 30 March 2006
  4. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/16/1073878022968.html?from=storyrhs You'll Know the Face, 17 January 2004
  5. ^ BBC - Drama - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Barry (Timothy Spall)
  6. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,800979,00.html Lynn Barber, Spall mercies, The Guardian, 29 September 2002
  7. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2205425,00.html Stuart Jeffries, I don't always play losers, The Guardian, 5 November 2007
  8. ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/30793f8a-c612-11da-99fa-0000779e2340.html Amy Raphael, Nothing to lose, everything to enjoy, Financial Times, 8 April 2006

[edit] External links