NT : People : Company Members : Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale's theatre career began with plays at the Traverse and Lyceum Theatres in Edinburgh. His first London appearance was in William Gaskill's Royal Court production of Women Beware Women.For the National Theatre: Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, The Life of Galileo, The Alchemist, Jumpers (also West End and New York, where he was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor), Humble Boy (also West End), the title role in Hamlet (2000 Evening Standard Best Actor, Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance and the Boston Critics' Association Outstanding Actor in a Large Company), Battle Royal, Candide (2000 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical), Summerfolk, Money, Othello, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Volpone (1996 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor).
For the RSC: The Tempest, King Lear, Ghosts, the title roles in Richard III and Edward II, The Seagull, Troilus and Cressida, The Man of Mode and Restoration.
Other theatre: Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway; for the Donmar, The Philanthropist (2005 Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Best Actor), Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night (both winning him 2002 Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Actor and Drama Desk award nominations in the US. For Uncle Vanya: Village Voice Obie for Best Actor); Julius Caesar at the Barbican and on international tour; Macbeth at the Almeida, and The Duchess of Malfi at Greenwich and Wyndham's Theatres.
TV
American Experience, Dunkirk, The Young Visiters, Great Historians: Gibbon, A Dance to the Music of Time (1997 Royal Television Society Best Actor and BAFTA Best Actor), Persuasion and The Mushroom Pickers.
Films
The Gathering, Alice in Wonderland, An Ideal Husband, The Temptation of Franz Schubert and Hamlet.
Radio
Extensive recording credits, including War and Peace; Oscar in The Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Sisterhood, Waiting for Godot, Art and A Dance to the Music of Time.
Narrations
Several books, three roles for the Shakespeare CD Series, and a 10-part television series on The National Trust.
Concerts
First Night of the Proms, Ivan The Terrible, Artaxerxes, Façade, Music and Poetry: Auden and Britten, The Firebrand of Florence and Stravinksy Promenade.
Simon Russell Beale is an associate of the National and Almeida theatres, and an associate artist of the RSC. In 2003 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to the Arts.
(published July 2008)
