Clive Francis
Encyclopedia
Early life
He is the son of actors Raymond FrancisRaymond Francis
Raymond Francis was an English actor best known for his role as Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart in the Associated-Rediffusion detective series Murder Bag, Crime Sheet and No Hiding Place...
and Margaret Towner. He was born in Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
.
His father played Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart in the 1960s series No Hiding Place
No Hiding Place
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967....
and his mother still acts today - most recently she played Jira, Anakin Skywalker's friend, in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the fourth film to be released in the Star Wars saga, as the first of a three-part prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as the first film in the saga in terms...
.
Career
Clive Francis began his acting career at the age of 16 as a Penguin Player and has acted on stage, radio, television and to a lesser extent, in films.He is also a noted caricaturist and has had several exhibitions. His caricatures have appeared on the covers for books written by actor Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
, for example and he's also had several books of caricatures published himself: There's Nothing Like A Dane (Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
), There's Nothing Like A Thane (Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
) and a book on John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
.
Movies
Francis appeared as Joe the Lodger in Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange (film)
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
(1971). He co-starred with Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
in Inspector Clouseau (1968) and co-starred in Girl Stroke Boy.
Television
Francis starred in the series The 10%ers; The Piglet FilesThe Piglet Files
The Piglet Files is a British sitcom produced by LWT .The show consisted of three series totaling twenty-one episodes that ran between 1990 and 1992....
(which used his caricatures in the credits) and May to December
May to December
May to December was a British sitcom which ran for 39 episodes, from 2 April 1989 to 27 May 1994 on BBC1. The series was written by Paul Mendelson and produced by Cinema Verity....
. He has guest-starred in dozens of other programmes, including Yes, Prime Minister, in which he played Luke, who, the Prime Minister is told, is a spy for the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
, whose policy is often in conflict with the PM's.
He also played Ross Poldark's cousin Francis in Poldark
Poldark
Poldark is a BBC television series based on the novels written by Winston Graham which was first transmitted in the UK between 1975 and 1977.-Outline:...
, the popular BBC series.
In addition Francis appeared opposite Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
in Saturday, Sunday, Monday, a play which was part of the Laurence Olivier Presents
Laurence Olivier Presents
Laurence Olivier Presents is a British television series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978.The plays, with the exception of Hindle Wakes, all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on productions staged at the National Theatre during the period when Olivier was...
series for Granada TV.
He followed his father into television's re-creation of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (TV series)
Scotland Yard is a half-hour ABC crime/drama television series, which uses police files from the British Scotland Yard investigative force in the shaping of each episode. The series aired on Sunday evenings in the 1957-1958 season, having premiered on November 17, 1957, but the sixty-three episodes...
when he played Det. Sgt. Dexter in New Scotland Yard
New Scotland Yard (TV series)
New Scotland Yard was a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television of the ITV network between 1972 and 1974. It featured the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with...
in 1974
He guest starred in episode five, "The Man with the Twisted Lip," of the series Sherlock Holmes as Neville St Clair.
Theatre
His first West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
appearance was in There's A Girl In My Soup
There's A Girl In My Soup (comedy)
There's A Girl In My Soup is a stage comedy written by Terence Frisby.It opened in 1966 at the Globe Theatre and ran for six and half years until 1973 - over a thousand performances - to become the longest-running comedy in the history of the West End. After three and a half years at the Globe, the...
opposite Sir Donald Sinden.
He regularly tours his one-man version of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
, as well as his anthology Merely Players (also with Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
).
In December 2007, he performed his one-man version of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
at the Théâtre Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
as part of the British Theatre Season, Monaco.
Selected filmography
- Inspector Clouseau (1968)
- The Man Who Had Power Over WomenThe Man Who Had Power Over WomenThe Man Who Had Power Over Women is a 1970 British comedy film directed by John Krish and starring Rod Taylor, Carol White and James Booth. A successful Australian talent agent grows disenchanted with his life, which includes includes a failing marriage and having to represent a troublesome rock...
(1970) - Girl Stroke BoyGirl Stroke BoyGirl Stroke Boy is a 1971 British comedy drama film directed by Bob Kellett and starring Joan Greenwood, Michael Hordern and Clive Francis. It was based on the play Girl Friend by David Percival.-Cast:* Joan Greenwood - Lettice Mason...
(1971) - VillainVillain (1971 film)Villain is a 1971 gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, T. P. McKenna and Donald Sinden.-Plot:...
(1971) - A Clockwork OrangeA Clockwork OrangeA Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....
(1971) - PierrepointPierrepoint (film)Pierrepoint , is a 2005 British film directed by Adrian Shergold about the life of British executioner Albert Pierrepoint....
(2005)