Simon Callow
Acting
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (CBE)(born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999.
Callow rose to prominence originating the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1979 Peter Shaffer play Amadeus, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. Callow joined the Miloš Forman 1984 film adaptation, this time portraying Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1992, Callow won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Musical for Carmen Jones. As an actor, he won acclaim for his comedic roles in A Room with a View (1985) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) earning a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination for each. Other notable roles include in Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
His television roles include Tom Chance in the Channel 4 series Chance in a Million (1984) and The Duke of Sandringham in the series Outlander from 2014 to 2016. He portrayed Napoleon in The Man of Destiny (1981), and Charles Dickens in numerous television projects. He has also appeared on numerous shows such as Midsomer Murders, Rome, Angels in America, Doctor Who, Galavant, Hawkeye, and The Witcher.
Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, South London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. His father left when Simon was 18 months old, and he was brought up by his mother and grandmothers. He and his mother travelled to Northern Rhodesia (now called Zambia) when he was nine to try and reconcile with his father. This did not happen and Callow was sent for three years to boarding school in South Africa. He and his mother returned to Britain when he was twelve. He was raised as a Catholic. Callow was a student at the London Oratory School in West Brompton, and then went on to study briefly at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he was active in the gay liberation movement.[5] He gave up his degree course after a year to take a three-year acting course at the Drama Centre London.
He made his first film appearance in 1984 as Schikaneder in Amadeus. The following year, he appeared as the Reverend Mr Beebe in A Room with a View. His first television role was in the Carry On Laughing episode "Orgy and Bess" in 1975, but it was cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him to a wider audience. Callow portrayed Pliny the Elder in CBBC's 2007 children's drama series, Roman Mysteries in the episode "The Secrets of Vesuvius". He played Armand Duquesne in Marvel's Hawkeye on Disney+
Media of
Simon Callow
Photos (21)
Filmography of
Simon Callow
Malcolm
... 2025
Richard O'Keefe
... 2025
Samuel
... 2024
... 2024
Self
... 2024
Cavendish
... 2024
Archbishop of Canterbury
... 2023
... 2023
Dr. Sterling
... 2023
Gates
... 2022
... 2022
... 2022
Narrator
... 2022
Mr. Blunden
... 2021
Alexander Pope
... 2021
... 2020
Aubrey Judd
... 2018
... 2018
... 2018
Uncle Martin
... 2018
... 2017
... 2017
Mr. Puccini
... 2017
Self
... 2017
Judge
... 2017
Cyril Radcliffe
... 2017
Himself
... 2016
... 2016
Royston
... 2016
... 2015
Narrator (voice)
... 2014
Self - Actor and Welles' Biographer
... 2014
The Author
... 2014
Dickie Attenborough
... 2012
... 2012
... 2012
Godfrey
... 2012
... 2011
Richard
... 2011
Guy Witherspoon
... 2011
Self
... 2011
Prime Minister
... 2011
... 2010
The Swinesbury's Boss (voice)
... 2010
Himself - Presenter
... 2009
Himself
... 2009
... 2008
Haddo
... 2008
Father Henry
... 2007
St John
... 2007
... 2007
Narrator (voice)
... 2006
Himself
... 2006
George Russell
... 2006
Himself
... 2006
Dean Bentliffe
... 2005
Self (archive footage)
... 2005
Narrator
... 2005
Cormac Rourke
... 2005
Big-Time Publisher
... 2005
Mr. Wroth
... 2005
Mr. Butler
... 2005
Andre
... 2004
... 2004
King Edgar
... 2004
King of Anatolia
... 2003
Galileo
... 2002
Charles Dickens
... 2002
Sir John Osgood
... 2002
Charles Dickens / Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
... 2001
Colonel Soft
... 2001
Rick Spencer
... 2000
Phileas Fogg (voice)
... 2000
Don Quixote
... 2000
Simon Callow (uncredited)
... 1999
Tilney
... 1998
Keith
... 1998
Captain Fairfax
... 1998
Count Fosco
... 1997
Zangiacomo
... 1996
Meneptah II (voice)
... 1996
Grasshopper (voice)
... 1996
Charles Dickens
... 1996
Vincent Cadby
... 1995
Richard Cosway
... 1995
Charles II
... 1995
Major Owens
... 1995
A. N. Official
... 1994
Gareth
... 1994
... 1993
Vicar Ronnie
... 1993
Eddie Cherdowski
... 1993
Music and Meaning Lecturer (uncredited)
... 1992
John Mortimer
... 1991
Inspector Lestrade
... 1991
Dr. Alex Sauer
... 1990
Simon Asquith
... 1990
Nathanial Quass
... 1990
Franciscus Palloy
... 1989
Police Chief Hunt
... 1988
Dragon (voice)
... 1987
Mr. Ducie
... 1987
Raimondi
... 1987
The Reverend Mr. Beebe
... 1985
Mark Varda
... 1985
George Frideric Handel
... 1985
Emanuel Schikaneder
... 1984
Napoleon
... 1981
Maximillian
... 1979