Martin shaw children

English actor (born )

For other people named Martin Shaw, see Martin Shaw (disambiguation).

Martin Shaw (born 21 January ) is an English stage, television, and film actor.

He came to national recognition in the role of Ray Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series The Professionals (–). Further notable television parts include the title roles in The Chief (–), Judge John Deed (–) and Inspector George Gently (–). He has also acted on stage and in film, and has narrated numerous audiobooks and presented various television series.

Early life

Shaw was born in Birmingham. His childhood was spent in Alleyne Grove in Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.^[2] Shaw attended Great Barr School, where he excelled in English literature and drama lessons. ^[3] At sixteen, he was offered a scholarship to a Birmingham drama school but declined.^[4]

In his youth, Shaw was involved in a drunken brawl with a friend, suffering broken teeth, injuries to his face and a fractured skull, and needed cheekbone surgery.

^[5]

At age eighteen, Shaw moved to London to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[6] He served his apprenticeship in repertory as an assistant stage manager at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch and the Bristol Old Vic.^[7]

Stage

Shaw took key roles in the first revival of Look Back in Anger (Royal Court/Criterion, ); in the National Theatre's Saturday, Sunday, Monday opposite Laurence Olivier (); and in A Streetcar Named Desire presented by the Piccadilly Theatre in He later acknowledged the role of Stanley Kowalski in 'Streetcar' as a point of breakthrough in his career.^[7]

In , Shaw played Elvis Presley in Alan Bleasdale's Are You Lonesome Tonight?.

It told the story of Presley's last few hours. After a long run in London, the production visited Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia. ^[8][9]

Shaw's portrayal of Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband on Broadway earned him a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk award.

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After filming finished on the TV series Judge John Deed, Shaw took the role of Thomas More in Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons. Shaw's daughter, Sophie, played opposite him as More's daughter, Margaret. The production toured Britain's cities before a run in London at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.^[7]

In , in a new production of the classic play Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre London, Shaw played the part of the dissenting juror (identified as juror number 8).^[10]

In Shaw toured and returned to the West End again with a production of Hobson's Choice at the Vaudeville.

After completing filming the final episode of George Gently, Shaw again toured in with the U.K. premiere of Gore Vidal's political piece, The Best Man. Shaw played the part of William Russell, former US Secretary of State.^[11]

Television

Shaw began television work in ^[9] Parts in one-off plays for Granada Television led to his playing hippy student Robert Croft, Lucile Hewitt's boyfriend, in Coronation Street.^[9] Another early role was booze and football-loving Welsh medical student Huw Evans in the television comedy series Doctor in the House.

He later guest-starred, playing the same role, in the follow-up series Doctor at Large, now a nervous expectant father in the episode "Mother and Father Doing Well".^[12] The actor had been introduced to international audiences via his portrayal of Horatio in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Hamlet, starring Richard Chamberlain.

Shaw appeared with future co-star Lewis Collins in an episode of The New Avengers. Both played the roles of terrorists.^[9] Shaw portrayed Ray Doyle ("Agent 4–5") in the British television series The Professionals (–), opposite Collins. Shaw played another law-enforcement role in the s ITV production The Chief.^[9]

In , Shaw played Robert Falcon Scott in The Last Place on Earth.

The series was filmed at Frobisher Bay near the city of Iqaluit on Baffin Island, Canada. In interview at the time, Shaw commented that he generally responded well to the testing physical conditions, particularly when they enhanced the reality of the scene. In the same year he played Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles, an adaptation of the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

He acted opposite Ian Richardson's Sherlock Holmes and Donald Churchill's Dr. Watson.

He played Cecil Rhodes in Rhodes, an eight-part serial that aired in and was filmed on location in South Africa. Shaw's younger son, Joe, took early leave of his drama school course to play the part of the youthful Rhodes.

^[13]

Another television acting credit includes the role of Dr Robert Kingston in Always and Everyone (–), a British accident and emergency medical series, played alongside Niamh Cusack. ^[14]

In , he took the title role in the BBC drama Judge John Deed.^[9] The character gave an editorial voice to the television writer and producer G.F.

Newman's ideas about lifestyle choices such as vegetarianism and alternative medicine as well as issues of social justice. One episode about the safety of the MMR vaccine was banned.^[15][16]

Between seasons of Judge John Deed, Shaw took the role of poetic bespectacled forensic detective Adam Dalgliesh in P.D.

James's Death in Holy Orders in and The Murder Room in After the sixth season of Judge John Deed had been filmed, Shaw appeared in the series Apparitions, broadcast by the BBC in This was Shaw's first project as executive director.^[14]

From until he played the title role in the BBC TV series Inspector George Gently.

On 9 May Shaw recited "For the Fallen" at VE Day A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London which was broadcast on BBC 1.^[14]

In he played the role of Dennis Stephenson, leader of a fictitious religious cult called the Barum Brethren, in the BritBox original series The Long Call. The series premiered in autumn , and is based on the Ann Cleeves bestselling novel.^[17]

Film

Shaw's first film role was as an Irish communist in a television adaptation of the novel, Love on the Dole.

Better known is his role of Banquo in Roman Polanski's Macbeth. He has also been seen as an undercover Second World War operative in the production Operation Daybreak; a singing and dancing futuristic magician "Zax" in Facelift; the role of Rachid in the film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and a wanted villain leading a life on the run in a circus troupe in Ladder of Swords ().^[14]

Narration and documentaries

Shaw has narrated many audiobooks, including Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Silmarillion; Swift's Gulliver's Travels; and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.

In , Shaw narrated and appeared in a DVD chronicling the "Merlins over Malta" project. This featured the return of a Second World War Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane from Britain to Malta for the first time in fifty years.^[14]

In December , Shaw presented the six-part Discovery Channel Real Time TV series Martin Shaw: Aviators, produced by Twofour, which followed the two-year restoration of his Boeing Stearmanbiplane after it was crashed by another pilot at Old Buckenham airfield in Norfolk.

Shaw fulfilled a lifetime ambition to take the controls of a Spitfire and, though take-off was not permitted, he also powered an English Electric Lightning to &#;mph in three seconds along the runway at Cranfield Airport.

Shaw also compared notes with the builder and developer of the modern autogyro, Wing CdrKen Wallis.^[14]

In he presented a documentary for the BBC titled Dambusters Declassified in which he investigated and debunked some of the myths of the dambusters raid known as Operation Chastise story which had been portrayed in the books Enemy Coast Ahead and The Dambusters, and the film The Dam Busters.^[14]

Advertisements

Among several voiceovers and appearances, in , Shaw starred in a three-minute advertisement for the Mk II Ford Capri^[18] and in , a TV advert for the Vauxhall Cavalier.^[19]

Activism and charity work

Shaw is a celebrity activist for animal rights and animal welfare.

He is the patron of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Frettenham in Norfolk, a charity organisation which provides a safe home for neglected and abused animals.^[20] He also supports Viva! and Dr Hadwen Trust.^[21]

In March , he also announced that he would become the official patron to the community organisation Stop Norwich UrBanisation or SNUB, whose aim is to protect Norfolk's countryside from overdevelopment and excessive urbanisation.

In the press release, he stated that he was "simply furious and upset by your plight and that of all of us who wish to live in quiet and peace. I will be your Patron and keep fighting".^[22]

Personal life

In , Shaw became a follower of Charan Singh, of the Sant Mat religion.^[23]

Shaw lives in Wreningham in Norfolk.^[24]

On 18 August , Shaw collapsed during the first act of the matinee showing of A Country Girl at Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn.

His agent, Roger Charteris, said he had been suffering from cracked ribs and was taking antibiotics for a severe chest infection. An understudy went on in his place.^[25]

Shaw has been a vegetarian since about ^[26] He has a prominent scar on his right cheek, the result of a physical attack during a mugging, after which he became a teetotal.^[27]

Awards and nominations

Shaw won two awards in for his performance as Lord Goring in the Broadway production of An Ideal Husband and was nominated for a third:

Appearances

Television

Theatre

Film

Notes

References

External links