Simon Callow

Birth Name:

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow

Birth Place:

Streatham, London, England, United Kingdom

Profession

Actor, Soundtrack, Writer, Director

Appeared as God in a stage production of the Monty Python musical "Spamalot" in London's West End
Was honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1999 for his services to acting
Won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography for "My Life In Pieces" in 2012
Studied at the London Oratory School and Queen's University Belfast before going on to train in acting at the Drama Centre London
Got his first job in the box office of the National Theatre after sending a fan letter to Sir Laurence Olivier, who was then the artistic director
Quote: "I was a terrific show-off as a child, demanding attention to a pathological degree․ I didn't come from a family that idolized me, so I had to work quite hard at it․"
Quote: "People say, 'I was very intimidated when I met you,' and I can't believe it․ I seem immensely confident and amazingly assured, but the truth is that I am just as messed up and confused as everyone else․"
Quote: "(On deciding to come out in his 1984 book "Being an Actor"): "I very strongly believed, I always have done, that the only thing that can really hold gay people back is living in fear․""
Best known as a writer and actor who has famously portrayed William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens
Has played Charles Dickens several times, including in his one-man show "The Mystery of Charles Dickens․"
Has written biographies of Charles Laughton, Oscar Wilde, and Orson Welles

Fast Facts