Gerald Charles Dickens (actor)
Encyclopedia
Gerald Rhoderick Charles Dickens (born 9 October 1963) is a British
actor and performer known in the United Kingdom
and the United States
for his one man shows based on the novels
of his great great grandfather, Charles Dickens
. He was the President of the Dickens Fellowship
from 2005 to 2007.
The son of David Kenneth Charles Dickens (1925–2005) and his wife Betty (1927–2010), he is the grandson of Sir Gerald Charles Dickens
RN
(after whom he was named) and the great grandson of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens
KC
; he is also the cousin
of author Monica Dickens
, biographer and writer Lucinda Hawksley
and actor Harry Lloyd
. Dickens attended Huntleys Secondary School for Boys in Tunbridge Wells in Kent
.
Inspired by a performance of Nicholas Nickleby
by the Royal Shakespeare Company
to become an actor, Gerald Dickens first performed his solo version of A Christmas Carol
in America
in 1993, returning annually to perform at historic hotels, libraries, theatres and Dickens
festivals. In 2009, Dickens' American tour included such Christmas companies as Vaillancourt Folk Art
and Byers Choice and has yielded national and local press.
Based on the readings performed by Charles Dickens himself during his own British and American tours, Gerald Dickens performs extracts from The Pickwick Papers
, David Copperfield
, Oliver Twist
, Great Expectations
, Nicholas Nickleby and A Christmas Carol
among others, in the latter creating 26 characters in a performance described by The New York Times
as "a once in a lifetime brush with literary history."
Dickens has recorded unabridged audiobooks of The Pickwick Papers
and Nicholas Nickleby. In December 2011 he appeared on the BBC
's Songs of Praise
.
Originally from Goudhurst
in Kent
, Dickens now lives in Abingdon
in Oxfordshire
with his partner Liz Hayes. With his former wife he has a son, Cameron Thomas Charles Dickens (born in 1999).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actor and performer known in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for his one man shows based on the novels
English novel
The English novel is an important part of English literature.-Early novels in English:A number of works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English. See the article First novel in English.-Romantic novel:...
of his great great grandfather, 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...
. He was the President of the Dickens Fellowship
Dickens Fellowship
The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902, and is an international association of people from all walks of life who share an interest in the life and works of Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens....
from 2005 to 2007.
The son of David Kenneth Charles Dickens (1925–2005) and his wife Betty (1927–2010), he is the grandson of Sir Gerald Charles Dickens
Gerald Charles Dickens
Admiral Sir Gerald Louis Charles Dickens, KCVO, CB, CMG, RN, was a senior Royal Navy officer and the grandson of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens.-Early career:...
RN
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
(after whom he was named) and the great grandson of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens
Henry Fielding Dickens
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC was the eighth of ten children born to British author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years.-Early...
KC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
; he is also the cousin
Cousin
In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
of author Monica Dickens
Monica Dickens
Monica Enid Dickens, MBE was an English writer, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.-Biography:...
, biographer and writer Lucinda Hawksley
Lucinda Hawksley
Lucinda Anne Dickens Hawksley is a British biographer, author and lecturer.The daughter of Henry Dickens Hawksley and Susan Jane , and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine, Hawksley is an award-winning travel writer.Originally Hawksley...
and actor Harry Lloyd
Harry Lloyd
Harry Lloyd is an English actor. He played Will Scarlet in the first two seasons of the BBC drama Robin Hood which began in 2006...
. Dickens attended Huntleys Secondary School for Boys in Tunbridge Wells in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Inspired by a performance of Nicholas Nickleby
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (play)
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is an eight-hour stage play, presented over two performances, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel of the same name by David Edgar. Directed by John Caird and Trevor Nunn, it opened on 5 June 1980 at the Aldwych Theatre in London. The music and lyrics...
by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
to become an actor, Gerald Dickens first performed his solo version of 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...
in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1993, returning annually to perform at historic hotels, libraries, theatres and 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...
festivals. In 2009, Dickens' American tour included such Christmas companies as Vaillancourt Folk Art
Vaillancourt Folk Art
Vaillancourt Folk Art is a family owned and operated wholesale and retail company based in Sutton, Massachusetts that manufactures highly detailed, hand-painted collectible chalkware collectibles. The company's mission is to create an American-made, high-quality, family heirloom that will be...
and Byers Choice and has yielded national and local press.
Based on the readings performed by Charles Dickens himself during his own British and American tours, Gerald Dickens performs extracts from The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
, David Copperfield
David Copperfield (novel)
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...
, Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
, Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
, Nicholas Nickleby and 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...
among others, in the latter creating 26 characters in a performance described by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as "a once in a lifetime brush with literary history."
Dickens has recorded unabridged audiobooks of The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
and Nicholas Nickleby. In December 2011 he appeared on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional Christian hymns. It is a widely watched and long-running religious television programme, one of the few peak-time free-to-air religious programmes in Europe Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional...
.
Originally from Goudhurst
Goudhurst
Goudhurst is a village in Kent on the Weald, about south of Maidstone.It stands on a crossroads , where there is a large village pond. It is also in the Cranbrook School catchment area....
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Dickens now lives in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
with his partner Liz Hayes. With his former wife he has a son, Cameron Thomas Charles Dickens (born in 1999).
External links
- Dickens's official website
- Dickens's biography on Jackprises.com
- http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/19/news/mn-183Dickens interviewed in the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
] - http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/12/15/dickens_feature.shtmlInterview with Dickens on the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
website] - http://huntsville.about.com/od/entertainment/ss/dickens.htmDickens performs A Christmas CarolA Christmas CarolA 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...
] - Dickens in the footsteps of Charles Dickens
- Dickens performs at the Dickens Festival in Lowell, MA
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/03/080324_dickens_nh_sl.shtmlGerald Dickens and the controversy over Dickens memorials BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
World Service] - Gerald Dickens tour 1999 - 2005