Michael Pennington

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the actor Michael Pennington. For the comedian, see Johnny Vegas.
Michael Pennington
Born (1943-06-07) 7 June 1943
Cambridge, England

Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is a British director and actor who, together with director Michael Bogdanov, founded the English Shakespeare Company. Although primarily a stage actor, he is best known to wider audiences for his role as Moff Jerjerrod, commanding officer of the Death Star in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and as Michael Foot in The Iron Lady, opposite Meryl Streep.

Life and career

Pennington was born in East Anglia, the son of a Scottish mother (Euphemia Willock (née Fyfe) and a Welsh father (Vivian Maynard Cecil Pennington) and grew up in London.[1] Most of his career has been on stage in works such as Hamlet (RSC), Oedipus the King, The Entertainer, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. In 1986, Pennington and director Michael Bogdanov together founded the English Shakespeare Company. As joint artistic director, he starred in the company's inaugural productions of The Henrys and, in 1987, the seven-play history cycle of The Wars of the Roses, which toured worldwide. He has directed plays including Twelfth Night at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the United States. Among his notable TV appearances have been in the title role of "Oedipus the King" and in the television movie The Return of Sherlock Holmes. He appeared in the 2005 film Fragile, co-starring Calista Flockhart. He is the author of the book Are You There, Crocodile?[2] which combines biographical material about the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov with an account of the writing of Pennington's highly successful one-man show about Chekhov; the full text of which is included. He has also written three books about individual Shakespeare plays and most recently "Sweet William - Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare". His solo show "Sweet William" continues to tour worldwide, and a DVD of this will shortly be available.

In April 2004 he became the second actor, after Harley Granville-Barker in 1925, to deliver the British Academy's annual Shakespeare lecture. The lecture was entitled Barnadine's Straw: The Devil in Shakespeare's Detail.[3]

Selected stage credits

  • Richard II (Earl of Salisbury), National Youth Theatre, Apollo Theatre, London, 9–19 August and 30 August - 2 September 1961
  • Henry IV, Part 2 (Earl of Warwick), National Youth Theatre, Apollo Theatre, London, 22–29 August 1961
  • Hamlet (title role), ADC Theatre, Cambridge, February 1964[4]
  • Love's Labour's Lost (Dumaine and understudying Berowne), Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1965
  • Hamlet (Fortinbras), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1965
  • The Judge by John Mortimer, Theatre Royal, Brighton and Cambridge Theatre, London, 1967
  • Hamlet (Laertes), Round House, London, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York and Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles, 1969
  • Three Sisters (Andrei), Cambridge Arts Theatre, 1971
  • "Trelawny of the Wells" (Ferdinand Gadd), Cambridge Arts Theatre, 1971
  • "Savages" by Christopher Hampton (Crawshaw), Royal Court Theatre and Comedy Theatre, London, 1973
  • Measure for Measure (Angelo), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
  • The Tempest (Ferdinand), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
  • Afore Night Come (Johnny Hobnails), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974
  • Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), RSC, Straford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977
  • Troilus and Cressida (Hector), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977
  • "King Lear" (Edgar), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon 1976 and Aldwych Theatre London 1977
  • Destiny by David Edgar (Major Rolfe), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977
  • The Way of the World (Mirabell), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1978
  • Measure for Measure (the Duke), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1979
  • Love's Labour's Lost (Berowne), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978 and Aldwych Theatre, London,
  • Hippolytus (title role), RSC, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1978 and The Warehouse, London, 1979
  • The White Guard (Shervinsky), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1979
  • The Shadow of a Gunman (Donal Davoren), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980 and The Warehouse, London, 1981
  • Hamlet (title role), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980, Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 1981 and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1981
  • Crime and Punishment (Raskolnikov), directed by Yuri Lyubimov, Lyric Hammersmith, London, 1983
  • Strider, The Story of a Horse by Mark Rozovsky based on Kholstomer by Leo Tolstoy (title role), Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1984
  • Venice Preserv'd (Jaffier), Lyttelton at the Royal National Theatre, London 1984
  • Anton Chekhov, his one-man-play about Anton Chekhov (Anton Chekhov),[5] Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1984
  • "Henry IV Parts One and Two", (Prince Hal), English Shakespeare Company 1986-1989
  • "Henry V" (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1986-1989
  • "Richard II" (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1987-1989
  • "The Winter's Tale" (Leontes), English Shakespeare Company 1990-1991
  • "Coriolanus" (title role), English Shakespeare Company 1990-1991
  • "Macbeth" (title role), English Shakespeare Company 1991-1992
  • "The Gift of the Gorgon" by Peter Shaffer (Edward Damson), West End 1992
  • "The Entertainer" (Archie Rice), Hampstead Theatre 1996
  • Waste (Henry Trebell), directed by Peter Hall, Old Vic London 1997
  • The Seagull (Trigorin), directed by Peter Hall, Old Vic London 1997
  • The Provoked Wife (Sir John Brute), directed by Lindsay Posner, Old Vic London, 1997
  • The Misanthrope (title role), directed by Peter Hall, Piccadilly Theatre London, 1998
  • Filumena (Domenico), directed by Peter Hall, Piccadilly Theatre London 1998
  • Gross Indecency (Oscar Wilde), directed by Moises Kaufman, Gielgud Theatre London 1999
  • Timon of Athens (title role), directed by Gregory Doran, RSC Stratford and London 1999-2000
  • John Gabriel Borkman (title role), English Touring Theatre, 2003
  • The Madness of George III (title role) West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep 2003
  • The Seagull (Dr Dorn), directed by Peter Stein, Edinburgh Festival 2003
  • Sweet William (One man show about Shakespeare) London and international touring, 2007 on
  • "Collaboration" by Ronald Harwood (Richard Strauss), Duchess Theatre London 2009
  • "Taking Sides" by Ronald Harwood (Major Steve Arnold), Duchess Theatre London 2009
  • "The Master Builder" by Henrik Ibsen, (title role), Chichester Festival Theatre 2010
  • "Love Is My Sin" directed by Peter Brook, International tour and Broadway 2010
  • "The Syndicate" (Dr Fabio) by Eduardo di Filippo, adapted by Mike Poulton, directed by Sean Mathias, Chichester Festival Theatre 2011
  • "Judgement Day" by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Mike Poulton, directed by James Dacre, The Print Room 2011
  • "Antony and Cleopatra" (Antony), directed by Janet Suzman Chichester Festival Theatre 2012
  • King Lear (title role), directed by Arin Arbus, Theatre For A New Audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 2013

Television

  • War of the Roses (1965)
  • Sat'day While Sunday (1967)
  • Middlemarch (1968)
  • The Witches of Pendle (1977)
  • Cymbeline (1982)
  • Freud (1984)
  • The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987) as Holmes
  • Summer's Lease (1989)
  • Degas and Pissarro Fall Out (1994)
  • State of Play (2003)
  • The Bill (2003)
  • The Tudors (2008)

Films

  • Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
  • Fragile (2005)
  • The Iron Lady (2011)

Books

  • Rossya: A Journey through Siberia (1977)
  • Txèkhov - Un monòleg sobre la vida d'Anton Txèkhov (1989)(Catalan translation of Anton Chekhov) ISBN 84-297-2876-7
  • Hamlet: A User's Guide (1996)
  • Twelfth Night: A User's Guide (2000)
  • Are You There Crocodile? Inventing Anton Chekhov (2003)
  • A Pocket Guide to Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg (2004)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream: A User's Guide (2005)
  • Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare (2012)

References

  1. ↑ Michael Pennington Biography (1943-)
  2. ↑ Oberon Books, London, 2003
  3. ↑ Proceedings of the British Academy, vol 131, 2004 Lectures, pp 205-227
  4. ↑ Hamlet:A User's Guide, p 7
  5. ↑ Are You There Crocodile? Inventing Anton Chekhov

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.