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PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY
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| I was born in a little
village called Brooklyn in the great city of New York on April 20th
weighing 7lbs. 7oz. As best my mom remembers it was around 7 p.m.
My birth certificate didn’t report the time and the Bethel Hospital
in Brownsville, Brooklyn was demolished decades ago. So astrological
charts are meaningless to me. Half say, I am Aries, the rest Taurus
so maybe I’m on the cusp with a cow in Kansas. If I feel I need to
look, I pick the best one and get on with the day. |
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| I moved from Brooklyn
at age six to Queens, another borough of New York City. The area was
called Kew Gardens. The only other person I know who lived there,
although I didn’t know him at the time, was Jerry Springer. So I thought
it was serendipitous when I got to play him in Jerry Springer the
Opera. Which opened at the Royal National Theatre in London, 2004.
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| On my ninth birthday my
family moved to Long Island N.Y. My brother Elliot was five and my
sister Debi was eleven months old. The town was called Valley Stream
and although it was only thirty minutes from Brooklyn it seemed like
a farm to a kid from street gangs. Our house had a back yard with
fruit trees and a front lawn that ran to the street without pavement.
School was all day instead of triple session. (In Queens we split
the day into three two-hour sessions because of over-crowding). Fourth
grade was catch up time for me. My teacher Mrs. Earl said, ‘you passed
by the skin of your teeth’. (She lived across the street) Lucky me. |
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 I
attended Memorial Junior High and then Central High School .
I won a Regents Scholarship to College but I knew after three hours
of pre-law it was not for me. I had worked for a beauty supply after
school and stayed with it for a couple of years.
I was even offered a partnership but I dreamed of bigger things. I
took a writing class and though my existential writing was therapeutic,
basically it was depressing and I was lost.
I wanted more out of life. I wanted to be in the movies! |
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| 1965 |
I auditioned for the American Academy
of Dramatic Arts and got accepted after doing the famous scene from
Hamlet, and the Sakini role from Tea House of the August Moon. To
tell the truth, I had never acted in a school play or even seen a
play in my life. I did see Marlon Brando play the part in the movie
of Tea House. He was my hero as far as acting was concerned, always
will be. On the Waterfront is still my favourite movie. |
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| 1967 |
Two years later I graduated the Academy
but have to say I didn’t learn much about film. It was more geared
to stage. But I knew I had made a good life change. Film was what
I wanted. I was also attending acting classes at the Actors Studio.
We put on a production of The Crucible for Lee Strasburg, who critiqued
us afterwards. He was tough. More so on the director than the actors.
I told myself I would give it two years, two years to get my movie. |
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| 1968 |
 I
auditioned for a dinner theatre production of ‘The Rainmaker’. I
did an imitation of Burt Lancaster playing Starbuck. The director
said ‘good Burt, but you’d be a better Jimmy Curry’. So I had my
first professional theatre job. Only before each show the actors
had to serve dinner to the audience, then change to perform after
the tables were cleared. It’s an experience let me tell you. I remember
someone in the audience asking for more coffee in the middle of
my emotional breakdown speech. With or without …
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| 1969- |
I made the rounds of New York and
worked as a waiter like thousands before me and thousands still do.
I drove delivery trucks and baked bagels. You do what you gotta do
and make the break happen cause nothing puts on the brakes like waiting
for breaks. I got my first agent by picking two names off a lobby
list at the William Morris Agency. I called one agent and told him
the other agent said he must see me. It worked. The agent got me an
audition for ‘Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?’ I had several call-backs
for the lead role. Inches away from the lead on Broadway. As luck
would have it, one actor beat me out. His name was Al Pacino. The
producers were impressed with my work and gave me another role and
I understudied Al’s role as well. We became friends but the play,
for which Al won the Tony award, closed a week after opening. I never
got to play the part.
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Starting out as an actor is tough
stuff but a stroke of good luck was meeting two people who are still
in my life. Renee Valente was the head of casting for Columbia Pictures/Screen
Gems and the other was her assistant, Rachel. They were a port in
a storm, kind and helpful. When Columbia closed the N.Y. office and
moved them to Los Angeles I looked them up a few months after Tiger
closed, auditioned and landed my first lead in prime time TV. Another
lucky stroke, an LA casting agent had seen me on Broadway and had
made notes on my performance. That led to the lead in an episode of
MGM’s new series; Medical Center.
I returned to N.Y.C. to audition for ‘Lovers and Other Strangers’.
The timing was right. I got the lead in my first movie with Diane
Keaton, Bea Arthur, and Gig Young, who had just won the Oscar for
best actor in They Shoot Horses Don’t They? What an experience! I
had what I wanted, the lead in a movie within two years! Life is good! |
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| 1970 |
After Lovers and Other
Strangers, I went back to Los Angeles and rented the most amazing
place; a monk’s cell in an old monk’s dorm that a monastery had sold
off to a private owner. For a guy from Brooklyn this was like a Paris
artists’ pied-à-terre. It was on Vista Del Mar, under the Hollywood
sign and filled with artists, actors and musicians.
After that I went to Venice to make my second feature, Jennifer On
My Mind. This was my first trip to Europe. En-route to Venice I stopped
in London for the first time. Then travelled to Amsterdam and on to
Venice. After finishing the Venice part of the shoot, swimming across
the Grand Canal.
I returned to finish the movie in NYC. With Typhoid Fever. Robert
Deniro worked on the film for a few days as a cab driver. We ate Chinese
food after work and tried to figure out if the film was a comedy or
a drama. The critics had the same problem. |
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My next film came with a knock on
the door of my monk’s cell. Lovers and Other Strangers had been released
in Europe and cult director Dario Argento wanted me to be the lead
in his new movie. His father, Salvatore came to find me for Dario’s
third film, Four Flies on Grey Velvet. He handed me the script and
told me his son Dario was waiting for me in Rome. Working with Dario
in Italy was spectacular. One day, Dario informed me of a special
opportunity; I was to have a private tea with Federico Fellini on
the set of Roma. I stayed in Italy almost a year and returned to London
on way home. |
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| 1971 |
 My
first television movie; The Impatient Heart, written by Alvin Sargent,
(Spiderman ll) and directed by John Badham, (Saturday Night Fever).
TV movies really were movies made for television then. Quality writers,
directors and actors were making films in twenty-eight days instead
of the months or years a feature would normally take. On this one,
I worked with Carrie Snodgrass who recently passed away (2004 - RIP).
At the time she was nominated for best actress in Diary of a Mad Housewife.
One day after filming on the Santa Monica Pier, Carrie asked me if
I liked Neil Young, I said, ‘Yeah!’ I raced us to his concert downtown
L.A. Not knowing Carrie was his special guest. We sat with him in
his dressing room while he warmed up and practically on stage while
he performed. He came back to the set with us and hung out on set
for days. After the shoot I rented my motor home dressing room, drove
up to his ranch and hung out some more. |
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| 1972- |
 Then
back to Los Angeles and lots of television work. I was hiding out
with friends in Mexico when my agent tracked me down and sent a message.
Kim Novak and Tony Curtis Film, Please Come Back! I did, and it was
after ‘Third Girl From the Left’ I had a major change in my life.
Her name was Kim Novak. |
| 1973 |
One year later I was living
on a ranch and became the last of the Brooklyn Cowboys. Horses, mountains
and sunsets were all I needed. Well and Kim. |
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| 1974 |
   Eventually,
I drifted to my own ranch in northern Malibu, Deer Springs Ranch;it
was like living in a painting. I really had forty acres and a mule.
Her name was Nubbin, a pure white half Arabian mule, a gift from
Kim. I had fallen in love with Nubbin when I saw her standing in
the foggy pasture. She looked like a Unicorn; her huge ears standing
forward looked like a unicorn’s horn.I left occasionally to make
some television films, ‘Hitchhike’ was shot all up and down the
California Coast, (a disturbed youth on the run), the Civil War
classic remake of ‘Red Badge of Courage’, (first period costume
as a heroic Yankee soldier) and the television musical ‘Queen of
the Stardust Ballroom’ that became a Broadway Musical after the
TV film. Thrillers, period classics, and musicals. These television
movies were the framework of my career.
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| 1975 |
 I
stayed on the ranch growing long hair and a beard till my best friend
Andy, dragged me to an acting workshop where I met Lindsay Wagner.
Brought her up to my ranch for our first date and took her home a
month later. Not long after we started going together she got a TV
series called the Bionic Woman. It took more time than the ranch.
Bye Bye ranch. |
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| 1976 |
Lindsay and I had an
automobile accident that gave her a split lip and me a wire eyebrow.
Late in 1976 we were married and honeymooned in Sun Valley, Idaho.
She was away one day when I landed one of my favourite TV movies:
James Dean. I shaved off my beard, cut my hair and prepared for the
real life role of Bill Bast, James Deans’ college friend and roommate.
Lindsay came home, thought I was an intruder and ran screaming down
the street.
I made several television films, guest episodes on TV shows and launched
a new anthology called ‘Love Story’ directed by the late, Michael
Landon (Bonanza). He was a good director and a great guy. |
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 Lindsay
and I hung out with Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall on a Hawaiian holiday.
Between laughing Rob Reiner suggested I try stand-up.
By coincidence, my next television movie was Comedy Company, a two
and a half-hour film about comedians. It was a great experience to
do stand-up and work with a grand master like the late George Burns.
I have always felt that’s a way I could have gone. (Might still go?)
It wasn’t until one night while performing in Jerry Springer the Opera
that I had the opportunity to experience it for real. The electronic
keyboard froze and I stood telling jokes to a live audience of 800
for ten minutes. Wow the adrenalin! More Please! |
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| 1977 |
‘FM’. What a great chance
to hang out with rock stars. Linda Ronstadt, Reo Speedwagon, Tom Petty,
the Eagles, and Jimmy Buffet who invited me to Aspen, Colorado when
the film was over. Unfortunately, so was my marriage, it was a very
good time to learn how to ski. Mountains are good. |
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| 1979 |
I was reading in the chalet during
a blizzard when I got a call from David Green, an English director.
He said make a cup of tea and he read me the entire script over the
phone. I said ‘when?’ He said, ‘Now, shoot tomorrow’ and I said ‘where
are you?’ He said ‘Hawaii’. I flew in my long underwear from Nevada
to Hawaii. Shorts, and flip-flops were all I needed. ‘Vacation in
Hell’ was not only a TV film; it was a vacation from divorce in the
news. Trapped on a desert island with four beautiful women. Somebody
had to do it. |
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| 1980 |
More television movies,
Red Alert, Perfect Match, and Between Brothers which gave me a variety
of roles to play; a nuclear security agent, a TV presenter and a
politician.
   Change
of Seasons, one of my favourite film experiences because of Shirley
MacLaine.
Although the film itself didn’t receive rave reviews, working with
Shirley was fantastic.
My acting coach, Eric Morris always told me, ‘don’t act unless you
have to’. Between Anthony Hopkins and Shirley MacLaine acting was
not necessary.
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| 1981 |
Here was another moment of film adventure.
The now infamous mile-high love scene with Jacqueline Bisset in George
Cukor’s Rich and Famous. Rolling Stone magazine called it one of the
ten sexiest scenes in cinema. I have no argument. |
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| 1982 |
I had an office and development deal
with the late producer Julia Philips at Fox Studios for two of my
scripts when I heard they were looking for a ‘Michael Brandon’ type
on Emerald Point N.A.S. They wanted someone to be a love interest
for Maud Adams (Octopussy). So one morning I sailed into the story,
a bearded bachelor writer on his huge sailboat with a white German
Shepard. Story and budget changes and by afternoon the boat had sunk,
the dog died, the beard shaved and instead of a romantic interest
for Maud, I became a psychopath stalking her. Maybe it’s time for
a series of my own...…Be careful what you wish for. |
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| 1983 |
I am in London. It rained
for the first 28 days but I did say I wanted change. I met Glynis
Barber in the Ritz Hotel. She is to play Makepeace. There
is more to life than weather. |
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| 1984 |
   Badda
boom badda bing, big hitsky! Dempsey and Makepeace is a phenomenon
and exported to over 75 countries.
I have fallen in love with my co-star Glynis Barber.
Life is more than good. The second
season she loves me too.
I was writing and directing and able to be involved with many
charities and even had an exhibition of my photographs for the
Princes’ Trust. I love England!
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| 1987 |
 D
& M comes to a close. It was a phenomenal and amazing experience.
The crew became my family and when someone passed away we all mourned
and if somebody had a baby we broke out the Champagne.
My driver Bill was an extraordinary man and I shall always miss him.
We worked very hard six sometimes seven days a week, rain or shine
and the years went by in a flash.
I was sorry when the series ended. Some of the best times of my life.
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| 1988 |
I filmed Tales of the Unexpected and
flew to Los Angeles and make ‘Rock and Roll Mom’ for Disney with old
friend Dyan Canon. I get a call to fly to Todi, Italy to film the
prestigious Dennis Potters’ Visitors for the BBC. Surprise! The lady
playing my wife is Glynis Barber. Todi is to die for. |
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| 1989 |
Return to LA to make a pilot for Aaron
Spelling called Divided We Stand. It was a great idea, a one hour
show about a couple with a child that breaks up and it’s done as two
half hour shows back to back, but ABC didn’t think so. While in LA
I directed Monsters, introducing my leading lady, Tory Spelling. This
was the best part of an otherwise awful year.You have to have them
too. |
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Time for change! I meet with a French
Producer and Director about four movies to be shot back to back in
the South of France. Glynis and I fly to the Cote’ d’ Azur to rent
a house. Sometimes in life you realize that you made the right decision.
You forewent the security of a steady job and career and it was the
cool thing to do. Careers are peaks and valleys? Peak, Peak, Peak!
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| 1990 |
 I
really enjoyed the year living in France and attending the Cannes
Film Festival as a local. The last film gave me the opportunity
to work with Robert Mitchum. (That’s a book of stories). The final
scene of the film for me was on a huge yacht in Nice Harbour. The
captain said to me after my last shot and the crew were off to film
elsewhere, ‘the ship is booked for the entire day’, I said, ‘So,
what are we doing here?’ I cruised up the Cote’ d’ Azur feeling
grateful for the blessings of the last year and looking forward
to the adventure waiting ahead of me.
I had proposed marriage to Glynis
Barber.
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I returned to London to film ‘Care
of Time’ with Christopher Lee. Then on November 18th I married Glynis
Barber at Camden Council. The same day we married she had to run off
after lunch at San Lorenzo to finish the last performance of a Schnitzler
Play at the Gate theatre and then we went on a five-week honeymoon
to India and that nearly finished me. |
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| 1991 |
We moved to Los Angeles. The Gulf
War happened and the subject of ‘Care of Time’ was so weirdly coincidental
that ITV held it’s airing for a year fearing for the lives of British
Hostages in Iraq. I am doing a series called Home Fires directed and
written by Bruce Paltrow (RIP). He was an amazing man and this was
an equally wonderful show. Kate Burton played my wife. |
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Dynasty – the Reunion. My character
has an affair with Heather Locklear’s character and my character’s
wife tells Joan Collin’s character. Joan’s character helps my wife’s
character kill my business and end the affair. Bitch! |
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| 1992 |
My son Alexander is born. There is
nothing like it.
If anything else happened that year I can’t remember. |
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| 1993 |
I made some TV movies and a mini-series
and a Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.
I did the pilot of The Marshall produced by Don Johnson in Vancouver
and a mini-series in Omaha with Shannon Dougherty and all I wanted
was to be home with my family.
It’s great to be a dad. |
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| 1996 |
We sell our Beverly House and just
before we return to London I make a low budget film called The Disappearance
of Kevin Johnson, with Pierce Brosnan and Dudley Moore. The story
was about a man missing in Hollywood. Maybe it's me, Bye Bye L.A.
It’s great to be back in the UK. Glynis and I get to work together
playing the American Ambassador and his wife in a mini-series called
Apocalypse Watch based on the book by Robert Ludlum and then again
in a film called Déjà Vu
with Vanessa Redgrave directed by our friend Henry Jaglom.
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| 1997 |
The Knock.
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A great bad guy in a four-hour
drama.
My old friend David Soul and
I do David Mamet’s play, ‘Speed the Plow’.
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| 1998 |
Dark Realm gives me the chance to
play a Vampire in an all vampire law firm. Very fang in cheek. |
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I was eating lunch in Holland Park
with my friend Johnny Gold when the voice of Fran Drescher broke my
glass. ‘Michael Brandon, why haven’t you been on my show?! So I did
an episode of the Nanny. Thank you Fran. |
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While in Los Angeles an episode of
JAG. And then my old friend who directed me on Broadway, Michael Shultz
hires me for a special episode of Ally McBeal playing D.A. Dawson,
which continued as an episode of The Practice playing the same character
on both shows. |
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Florida with my family during my Dad’s
last moments. 8th April 1998 |
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| 1999 |
My mom passed away. 13th
June 1999. I miss them both dearly. |
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Jonathan Creek,
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C.I.5 New Professionals, another episode of JAG and D.A. Dawson returns
to
The Practice.
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clip in Windows Media
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| 2000 |
Glynis and I celebrate; Ten Years
Married.
Stefani Powers and I are well received at our opening at Guildford’s
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre for the National Tour of ‘The Adjustment’. |
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| 2001 |
The Contaminated Man
filmed with Natasha McCelhone and William Hurt in Budapest Hungary.
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clip in Windows Media
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The Division for Lifetime TV. |
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| 2002 |
The Lost Battalion. This film is based
on a true story and I played the World War 1 General who sent these
soldiers into harms way. I could feel the power in his uniform. |
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Dinotopia. This fantasy series on
a mysterious island with a lost civilization complete with talking
dinosaurs was seven months in the making and lots of Goulash . |
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| 2003 |
 This
was my Jerry Springer moment.
Playing Jerry Springer in the Royal
National Theatre production of Jerry Springer the Opera.
We opened in April and moved in October to the Cambridge Theatre
in London’s west end.
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‘Hawking’ A BBC Screen Drama about
Stephen Hawking and the Big Bang. I had the wonderful opportunity
to play the Noble Prize winner, Arno Penzias, who discovered the three
degrees of background radiation that substantiated Hawking’s theory.
Filming on set in the day and performing on stage in the evening,
playing two fascinating and living people; life and dreams at one. |
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| 2004 |
 I
am nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a musical.
Jerry Springer the Opera wins the Olivier Award, the Evening Standard
Award, the What's On Award and the Critic's Circle Award. That's all
of them.
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Hawking nominated for
Best Television Drama by the Monte Carlo Film Festival and the British
Television Bafta Awards.
 I
am the North American voice of Thomas the
Tank, doing the narration and all the voices for the characters
on the Island of Sodor for Hit Entertainment.
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Clip in Macromedia Flash |
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| 2005 |
   'Dead
Man Weds' six part series with Johnny Vegas. Another wonderful
opportunity to work with Catherine Tate in her second series.
Then off to Romania to film The Detonator with Wesley Snipes playing
Commander Flint.
Really enjoyed doing Michael Connelly's
latest best seller on audio book, The Lincoln Lawyer, also narrating
a documentary for the History Channel, 'Roman Vice.'
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| 2006 |
 Narrated
Walking the Earth, a ten part series for the Discovery Channel,
an audio book for my friend Jackie Collins, Four hour episodes of
the Bill, and finishing the year with Agatha Christie - Miss Marple:The
Sittaford Mystery. I even had the mystery seance with a wonderful
cast.
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| 2007 |
A fantastic two part
Trial and Retribution XI - Closure, helping the police look for
this killing monster who was me. Then fantastic fun playing with
Catherine Tate in her second series. give me more more more!
 A
jazz tour with Guy Barker and a fifteen piece orchestra perfoming
Guy's original jazz compositon of Mozart's Magic Flute. I narrated
to Rob Ryan's Mickey Spillane style story intercut with fab music
at the infamous Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London and then major
jazz venues throughout England. We cut the album, The Amadeas Project.
Then some stage work, I was Charlie in Steven Berkoffs' version
of On the Waterfront at the Hackney Empire Theatre. Finished the
year with a broken foot and landed a role in Casualty wearing my
cast. How about that for luck and understanding producers?
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| 2008 |
Started the year off guesting on
the remake of 'Bewitched'. the classic American series made for
the UK to air in the fall.
Then Hello this is Michael Brandon
on City Talk 105.9. I have just finished off twelve Saturday nights
from 7-8 pm on my own talk radio show for radio city's new talk
station City Talk with lots of special guests, and friends, Jackie
Collins, Linda Gray, David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser, Guy Barker,
Errol Brown, Charlie Webb, and Glynis Barber and good chat with
my friend Rob Ryan as cohort.
More Jazz with Guy Barker coming
up later in the year with ronnie scots and a Billie Holiday Concert
for a live BBC radio broadcast in the Cheltenham Town Hall. Then
played Les Tremayne the forties radio star in Richard Linklater's
new movie 'Me and Orson Welles' starring Zak Efron and Christian
Mckay. what's with all the radio thing going on? Must be my voice
wants it's own career. So I narrated a documentary for Sky entitled
the Mafia in America, running with the Gangster themed films this
year and presented on the Luxury Channel trying out Ulitimate Boys
Toys.
But hey let's talk Daleks. I just
finished shooting in Cardiff on Doctor Who? what a blast!
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So stay tuned and stay
centered.
With great respect and good wishes always |
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