Cast Biographies

- CAST BIOGRAPHIES -

Timothy West

Theatre

Timothy West was born in Bradford in 1934, the son of actor Lockwood West. Seasons in repertory in Wimbledon, Newquay, Hull, Northampton, Worthing and Salisbury, coming to the Piccadilly Theatre in the farce Caught Napping in 1959.

Since then his performances on the London stage have included Gentle Jack, The Trigon, The Italian Girl, Abelard and Heloise, Exiles, The Constant Couple, Laughter, The Homecoming, Beecham, Master Class, The War at Home, When We Are Married, The Sneeze, Long Day's Journey Into Night, It's Ralph and Twelve Angry Men.

With the Royal Shakespeare Company he first appeared in 1962 in Nil Carborundum and Afore Night Come at the Arts Theatre, and in seasons at the Aldwych and Stratford until 1966; then in 1975 Hedda Gabler (also touring Australia, Canada and the USA).

For the Prospect Theatre Company, in the UK and abroad, he has played King Lear, Prospero, Holofernes, Claudius, Enobarbus, Shylock, Bolingbroke in Richard II and Mortimer in Edward II, as well as Shpigelsky in A Month in the Country, Emerson in A Room with a View and Samuel Johnson in two plays about the great man.

For the Bristol Old Vic company: the musical Trelawny, Falstaff in both parts of Henry IV, Sartorius in Widowers' Houses, Solness in The Master Builder, Lord Ogleby in The Clandestine Marriage And Vanya in Unclle Vanya.

More recently he has played King Lear in Dublin, Death Of A Salesman and Macbeth For Theatr Clwyd, Brian Phelan's Himself on Tour for The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, The Rivals At Chichester, Mail Order Bride and Getting On at The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Falstaff again For English Touring Theatre, Gloucester in King Lear At The National Theatre; The Birthday Party at The Salisbury Playhouse, on Tour and at The Piccadilly Theatre, The Master Builder on tour for English Touring Theatre, The External at Greenwich Theatre and on tour, Luther at The National Theatre and the title role in King Lear for English Touring Theatre on tour and for a season at The Old Vic.

Tim has recently directed HMS Pinafore for Carl Rosa Opera, on tour in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in which he also played the role of Sir Joseph Porter. Most recent performances include National Hero at The Edinburgh Festival and tour, the title role in The Life Of Galileo and Alan Bennett’s The Old Country for English Touring Theatre on tour and at The Trafalgar Studios. He played Salter in A Number at The Crucible Theatre, Menenius Agrippa In The RSC's International tour of Coriolanus and then appeared in The Lover And The Collection at The Comedy Theatre.

Television

Among his many television appearances are Edward VII, Horatio Bottomley, Hard Times, Crime And Punishment, Churchill And The Generals, Brass, The Monocled Mutineer, A Very Peculiar Practice, Murder Most Horrid, What The Butler Saw, Harry's Kingdom, When We Are Married, Breakthrough At Reykjavik, Strife, A Shadow On The Sun, The Contractor, Blore Mp, Beecham, Survival Of The Fittest, Why Lockerbie?, Framed, Reith Tothe Nation, Smokescreen, Eleven Men Against Eleven, The Place Of The Dead, Cuts, Goodnight Sweetheart, and most recently King Lear, Bramwell, Murder In Mind, Station Jim, The Inspector Lynlley Mysteries, Waking The Dead, The Alan Clark Diaries, Bedtime (3 Series), Colditz, New Tricks and as Sir Lester Dedlock in Bleak House for the BBC.

Films include Nicholas and Alexandra, The Day of the Jackal, Oliver Twist, Hedda, Joseph Andrews, Agatha, Masada, The Thirty Nine Steps, Rough Cut, Cry Freedom , Ever After, Luc Besson's Joan Of Arc, 102 Dalmations, Villa Of Roses, Iris, The Fourth Angel and Beyond Borders.

His book I'm Here I Think, Where are You? is published by Coronet, and his autobiography A Moment Towards the End of the Play is published by Nick Hern Books.

In 1984 he was made CBE for his services to the profession.

-ENDS-

Further cast biographies are available by request to Becky Martin (contact details below)

If you have any questions or require any further information please contact:

Becky Martin Press & Communications Officer Milton Keynes Theatre [email protected] 01908 547603 www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes