John Simm Biography

John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English stage and screen actor. He has been nominated twice for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and is a Laurence Olivier Award nominee for best actor. His Television credits include: Life on Mars, State of Play, The Lakes, Doctor Who, Crime and Punishment, Exile, Prey and Cracker. His films include Wonderland, Everyday, Boston Kickout, Human Traffic, and 24 Hour Party People.

Early life

The eldest of three children, Simm grew up in a series of places around North West England, including Blackpool, Burnley, Nelson, Colne, and Manchester. His father, Ronald, a Mancunian, was a musician; and from the age of twelve, John sang and played guitar with his father on stage in the working men's clubs.

In 1986, Simm enrolled at Blackpool and the Fylde College in Lytham St. Annes for three years, and starred in Guys and Dolls and West Side Story at Blackpool's Grand Theatre. However, he soon decided that musical theatre didn't interest him, so he joined an amateur dramatic group and honed his skills in his spare time, playing the title roles in Billy Liar and Amadeus. He then moved to London to train at the Drama Centre London at the age of 19, where he studied Stanislavski's system of method acting and graduated in 1992.

Career

Independently of his acting, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Simm was a founding member, songwriter, and guitarist with the rock band Magic Alex (named after the Beatles self-styled electronics wizard "Magic Alex" Mardas). The group played support on two British tours with Echo & the Bunnymen. Simm plays guitar on the album Slideling by his friend, Echo & the Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch. Simm also played lead guitar on a few of McCulloch's solo live shows, including one at Wembley Arena as the main support to Coldplay. Magic Alex released one album, Dated and Sexist, before splitting in 2005.

Simm made his professional acting debut in 1992 with the role of Joby Johnson in an episode of the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey (there had been an earlier part in the BBC drama Between the Lines where Simm was in one scene as PC Witty, but the scene was cut). There then followed a variety of roles during which time he honed his craft in front of the camera, including a psycho in The Bill, a lovestruck schoolboy in Heartbeat, and a drugged-up burglar in The Locksmith. He also made two series of the BBC sitcom Men of the World, playing the lead role of Kendle Bains. His next project saw him take the role of Gary Kingston, a deluded murderer, in Chiller.

In 1995, Simm played the troubled teenager Bill Preece in the acclaimed ITV police drama Cracker. This is considered his breakthrough role. He also made his feature film debut in Boston Kickout, beating Dennis Hopper to the Best Actor award at the Valencia Film Festival. In 1996, he made his professional stage debut in the Simon Bent play Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre, directed by Paul Miller. In 1997, he won the lead role of Danny Kavanagh in the first series of The Lakes, a BBC series written by Jimmy McGovern. In 1999, he starred in the second series of The Lakes as well as appearing as Jip in the award-winning cult clubbing film Human Traffic and Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed Wonderland. In 2000, he starred in the opening episode of the BBC drama Clocking Off, written by Paul Abbott, with whom he would work again in 2002 when he starred as Cal McCaffrey in the multi-award-winning political thriller series State of Play. Simm also played the lead role of loan shark John Parlour in Tony Marchant's Never Never for Channel 4.

In 2002, Simm featured in another Michael Winterbottom film, 24 Hour Party People, as New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. At a live concert in Finsbury Park that same year, Simm sang the Joy Division song "Digital" onstage with New Order. It was also this year that he played Raskolnikov in the BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment, adapted by Tony Marchant. Marchant also wrote The Knight's Tale, one of a series of modern reworkings of The Canterbury Tales, in which Simm played Ace. Later that year, Simm starred opposite Christina Ricci and John Hurt in the film Miranda.

In 2004, he played the researcher and charity investigator Daniel Appleton in the BAFTA award-winning Channel 4 drama Sex Traffic. This two-parter followed the plight of two young Moldovan sisters sold into sexual slavery. After playing Dr. Bruce Flaherty in Howard Davies' production of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, Simm starred as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler in the 2006 BBC series Life on Mars, playing a police officer sent back in time to 1973. The show won the Pioneer Audience Award for Best Programme at the 2007 BAFTA TV Awards, Simm was nominated but lost out on the award for Best Actor.

His next project, in March 2007, was The Yellow House for Channel 4, a biographical drama produced by Talkback Thames, based on the book of the same name by Martin Gayford about the turbulent relationship of artists Vincent van Gogh (Simm) and Paul Gauguin (John Lynch). In the same year, Simm also returned to the theatre as the title character in Paul Miller's acclaimed Bush Theatre staging of Simon Bent's version of Elling, a comedy about two men just out of a psychiatric hospital adjusting to normal life and to each other. Following positive press reviews and an extended, sell-out run, the production was transferred to the Trafalgar Studios 1 in July 2007 and Simm was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance.

In 2007, Simm was chosen by Russell T. Davies to play The Master, the nemesis of The Doctor in the long-running BBC series Doctor Who. He appeared in the final three episodes of series three: "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", and "Last of the Time Lords". He reprised the role in the 2009 two-part special The End of Time. In 2008, Simm played Edward Sexby in The Devil's Whore, a four-part English Civil War epic for Channel 4. He performed at the Royal Variety Performance with Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and starred in the film Skellig, broadcast on Sky1 in April 2009.

Simm became involved in an ongoing project with director Michael Winterbottom called Everyday, to be filmed in real time over five years. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012, and is in competition at the 2013 London Film Festival. Simm returned to the west end stage in autumn of 2009 to critical acclaim, starring in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues at the Duke of York's Theatre. In September 2010, Simm played Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible. The production was a sellout and broke box office records for the theatre.

In 2011, Simm starred in Mad Dogs on Sky 1. Simm plays Baxter in a project that reunited him with Philip Glenister and Marc Warren along with Max Beesley and Ben Chaplin. Mad Dogs became a critical and ratings success and received a BAFTA nomination for best drama serial, and a second and third series were commissioned. Mad Dogs 2 was shot in Mallorca and Ibiza in late 2011, and appeared on Sky 1 in January 2012, the same time as Mad Dogs 3 was being shot in South Africa. On BBC One in May 2011, Simm starred as Tom Rondstadt in Exile. His performance earned him his second BAFTA nomination for best actor.

From 17 May to 9 June 2012, Simm starred as Jerry in a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Crucible Theatre. He plays John Middleton in The Village, a 6-part BBC drama which portrays life in a Derbyshire village during World War I.

From May to August 2013, he returned to Trafalgar Studios in London's West End to star opposite Simon Russell Beale in a new production of Harold Pinter's The Hothouse, directed by Jamie Lloyd. The final instalment of Mad Dogs aired in January 2014, and Simm completed work on the three-part thriller Prey, in which he plays detective Marcus Farrow. The mini-series began airing on 28 April 2014 on ITV.

In February 2014, Simm began filming the BBC America eight-parter Intruders in Vancouver. He plays ex-LAPD officer Jack Whelan. The series aired on BBC America in August 2014. In addition to this, he completed the second season of The Village in Derbyshire.

Later that year Simm played Alec Jeffries, the man who discovered DNA fingerprinting, in Code of a Killer, a 2-part drama for ITV.

In 2015, he took a break from the screen to concentrate on theatre. He appeared for the first time at The National Theatre, playing the role of Rakitin to great acclaim, in Patrick Marber's Three Days in the Country, (a version of Turgenev's A Month in the Country) and was reunited with Jamie Lloyd, playing the role of Lenny in the 50th anniversary production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming in London's West End.

In 2016, he was invited to the US to act in The Catch for ABC. Starring Mireille Enos and Peter Krause, the show is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and is filmed at Sunset Bronson studios and on location around Los Angeles. Simm plays the character of Rhys Griffiths, a recurring character in Season 1 and a regular in Season 2, currently in production.

On 6 April 2017, the BBC confirmed that Simm would be returning in his role as the Master in the tenth series of Doctor Who.

Personal life

In April 2004, Simm married actress Kate Magowan in the Forest of Dean; they have a son and a daughter. He is a supporter of Manchester United. and a self confessed "Beatles fanatic".

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Boston Kickout	Phil
1999	Human Traffic	Jip
1999	Wonderland	Eddie
2000	Forgive and Forget	Theo	Television film
2001	Understanding Jane	Oz
2002	24 Hour Party People	Bernard Sumner
2002	Miranda	Frank
2002	Crime & Punishment	Raskolnikov	Television film
2004	Nero	Caligula
2005	Blue/Orange	Dr. Bruce Flaherty
2006	Devilwood	Gabriel	Short film
2008	Tusday	Silver
2009	Skellig	Dave	Television film
2012	Everyday	Ian	Filmed in real-time over five years

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Rumpole of the Bailey	Joby Jonson	Episode: "Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson"
1993	Oasis	Posh Robert	7 episodes
1993	Heartbeat	Richard Francis	Episode: "Wall of Silence"
1993	The Bill	Paul Jeffries	Episode: "Blind Spot"
1993	Men of the World	Kendle Bains	Series 1-2. Credited as Season 1 title song singer, together with David Threlfall.
1994	A Pinch of Snuff	Clint Heppelwhite
1994	Meat	Cecil
1995	Chiller	Gary Kingston	Episode: "Here Comes the Mirror Man"
1995	Cracker	Bill Nash	Episode: "Best Boys"
1997	The Locksmith	Paul
1997-1999	The Lakes	Danny Kavanagh	Series 1-2
2000	Forgive and Forget	Theo
2000	Clocking Off	Stuart Leach	Episode: "The Leaches' Story"
2000	Meet Ricky Gervais	Himself	Episode 6
2000	Never Never	John Parlour
2001	Spaced	Stephen Edwards	Episode: "Back"
2002	Magic Hour	Alex
2002	White Teeth	Mr. Hero	Cameo
2003	State of Play	Cal McCaffrey	6 episodes
2003	The Canterbury Tales	Ace	The Knight's Tale
2003	Play Like Champions, The Official Manchester United Skills Series	Narrator
2004	The All Star Comedy Show	Various characters
2004	London	Friedrich Engels
2004	Sex Traffic	Daniel Appleton
2006-2007	Life on Mars	Sam Tyler	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor
2007	The Yellow House	Vincent van Gogh
2007, 2009-2010, 2017	Doctor Who	The Master	5 episodes
2008	The Devil's Whore	Edward Sexby
2010	Moving On	Moose / Mike	Episode: "Malaise"
2011	Exile	Tom Ronstadt	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actor
2011-2013	Mad Dogs	Lloyd Baxter	14 episodes
2013-2014	The Village	John Middleton	12 episodes
2014	Prey	DS Marcus Farrow	Royal Television Society North West Award for "Best Male Performance"
2014	Intruders	Jack Whelan	8 episodes
2015	Code of a Killer	Alec Jeffreys	2 episodes
2015	Toast of London	Himself	Episode: "Global Warming"
2016-2017	The Catch	Rhys Spencer Griffiths	Seasons 1-2
2018	Collateral	David Mars	Miniseries

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Goldhawk Road	Colin	Bush Theatre
2007	Elling	Elling	Bush Theatre Trafalgar Studios 1
2009	Speaking in Tongues	Leon	Duke of York's Theatre
2010	Hamlet	Hamlet	Crucible Theatre
2012	Betrayal	Jerry	Crucible Theatre
2013	The Hothouse	Gibbs	Trafalgar Studios
2015	Three Days in the Country	Rakitin	National Theatre, London (Lyttelton auditorium)
2015	The Homecoming	Lenny	Trafalgar Studios

Music Video

Year	Title	Artist	Role	Notes
2002	Here to stay	New Order	Bernard Sumner	Closing track from the movie 24 Hour Party People
2013	Some Better Day	I am Kloot		Album: Let It All In

Discography

Album

Year	Title	Artist	Role
2006	Dated and Sexist	Magic Alex	Guitar and backing vocals

Singles

Year	Title	Artist	Role
2003	Sliding	Ian McCulloch	Guitar
2015	Older / Outside	Magic Alex	Guitar and backing vocals