John Simm
Encyclopedia
John Simm is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 stage and screen actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler
Sam Tyler
DCI/DI Sam Tyler is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars.In the original British version of Life on Mars, Tyler is played by John Simm and in the American version he is played by Jason O'Mara....

 in the detective drama Life on Mars
Life on Mars (TV series)
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural....

and as The Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....

 in the revival of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television dramas such as The Lakes
The Lakes (TV series)
The Lakes is the title of a television drama series in the United Kingdom, made by the BBC and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997...

, Cracker
Cracker (UK TV series)
Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...

, State of Play, Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...

, Clocking Off
Clocking Off
Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott...

and Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...

and films such as Human Traffic
Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film explores themes of coming of age, drug and club cultures, as well as relationships. It includes scenes provoking social commentary and the use of archive footage to provide political...

, Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...

and 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...

. As a stage actor, he is an Olivier award nominee, and in 2010, he played 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...

at the Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....

.

Early life

Simm was born in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. The eldest of three, he grew up in Nelson
Nelson, Lancashire
Nelson is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 28,998 in 2001. It lies 4 miles north of Burnley on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal....

 Lancashire, the family lived in a series of places around the northwest, including Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, Colne
Colne
Colne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of 20,118. It lies at the eastern end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire...

, Burnley
Burnley
Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun....

 and Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

. His father, Ronald Simm, was a musician, and from the age of 12, Simm joined his father on stage in the working men’s clubs singing and playing the guitar.

In 1986 Simm enroled at the Blackpool and The Fylde College
Blackpool and The Fylde College
Blackpool and The Fylde College is a university college linked to the University of Lancaster.It has 49 buildings spread over the towns of Blackpool, St Annes, Bispham and three locations in Fleetwood. The college brands itself an "associate college of Lancaster University".The College offers...

 in Lytham St. Annes for three years and starred in Guys and Dolls and West Side Story at The 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
Billy Liar
Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, which was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and featured in a number of popular songs....

and Amadeus
Amadeus
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...

. He then moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to train at the Drama Centre London at the age of 19, where he studied the Stanislavski School of acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....

, and graduated in 1992.

Career

Independently of his acting, throughout the 1990s, Simm was a founding member, songwriter and guitarist with the rock band Magic Alex (named after the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 self-styled electronics wizard "Magic Alex" Mardas
Magic Alex
Yanni Alexis Mardas , better known as Magic Alex, the name given him by The Beatles when he knew the group between 1965 and 1969, is a self-styled electronics wizard and one-time head of The Beatles' Apple Electronics.Mardas arrived in England in 1965, exhibiting his Kinetic Light Sculptures at...

). The group played support on two British tours with Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk band, formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut...

. Plus, Simm plays guitar on the album Slideling
Slideling
Slideling is the third solo album by British singer Ian McCulloch and was released in 2003. The album features guest appearances by Coldplay singer Chris Martin, who provides backing vocals and piano on "Sliding" as well as piano on "Arthur"; Coldplay lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, who plays guitar...

, by his friend Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk band, formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut...

 singer Ian McCulloch
Ian McCulloch (singer)
Ian Stephen McCulloch is an English singer, born in Liverpool, and is best known as the frontman for the rock group Echo & the Bunnymen.-Career:...

. Simm also played lead guitar on a few of McCulloch's solo live shows, including one at Wembley arena as main support to Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...

. 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
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...

(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
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

, 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
Men of the World
Men of the World was a 1990s BBC One situation comedy which starred David Threlfall and John Simm.-Production details:Written by Daniel Peacock — who also appeared as the character Gilby Watson. — Men of the World was directed by Terry Kinane and produced for Alomo Productions by Laurence Marks,...

, playing the lead role of Kendle Bains opposite David Threlfall
David Threlfall
David Threlfall is an English stage, film and television actor and director best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show.-Early life:...

. His next project saw him take the role of Gary Kingston, a deluded murderer, in Chiller
Chiller
A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid via a vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycle. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool air or equipment as required.-Use in air conditioning:...

.

In 1995, Simm played the troubled teenager Bill Preece in the "Best Boys" episodes of the acclaimed ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 police drama, Cracker
Cracker (UK TV series)
Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...

, opposite Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane
Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...

. This is considered his breakthrough role. The series was created by Jimmy McGovern but Simm's episode was written by producer Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless,...

. He also made his feature film debut in Boston Kickout
Boston Kickout
Boston Kickout is a 1995 British drama feature film written and directed by Paul Hills. It won the Euskal Media Prize at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, Best Actor at the Cinema Jove International Film Festival in Valencia and Best Film at the Bermuda International Film...

beating Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

 to the Best Actor award at the Valencia Film Festival.

In 1996, he made his professional stage debut in the Simon Bent
Simon Bent
Simon Bent is a British screenwriter and playwright, notable for film and tv work including Beau Brummell: This Charming Man and the theatre adaptations of A Prayer for Owen Meany , Royal National Theatre and in America in Washington, Boston, Philadelphia...

 play Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...

, directed by Paul Miller
Paul Miller (director)
Paul D. Miller is a director, best known for his work as director of Saturday Night Live in the 1980s.. ] Paul D. Miller is a director, best known for his work as director of Saturday Night Live in the 1980s.(11 October 1990). ] Paul D. Miller is a director, best known for his work as director of...

.

In 1997, he won the lead role of Danny Kavanagh in the first series of The Lakes
The Lakes (TV series)
The Lakes is the title of a television drama series in the United Kingdom, made by the BBC and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997...

, a BBC series written by Jimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern is a BAFTA award-winning English television scriptwriter from Liverpool.-Early career:McGovern started his career working on Channel 4's soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.-Successes:...

. 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
Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film explores themes of coming of age, drug and club cultures, as well as relationships. It includes scenes provoking social commentary and the use of archive footage to provide political...

and Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom
Michael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features...

's acclaimed Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...

.

In 2000, he starred in the opening episode of the BBC drama Clocking Off
Clocking Off
Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott...

, written by Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott
Paul Abbott is a BAFTA award-winning English television screenwriter and producer. Abbott has become one of the most critically and commercially successful television writers working in Britain today, following his work on many popular series, including Coronation Street, Cracker and Shameless,...

, 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. Both these series also feature Philip Glenister
Philip Glenister
Philip Haywood Glenister is an English actor, known for his role as DCI Gene Hunt in British television series Life On Mars and its sequel Ashes To Ashes.-Television and films:...

, with whom he would later star in Life on Mars
Life on Mars (TV series)
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural....

and Mad Dogs
Mad Dogs (TV series)
Mad Dogs is a four-part British black comedy and psychological thriller television series created by Cris Cole that started broadcast on Sky1 on 10 February 2011. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley and...

. Simm also played the lead role of loan shark John Parlour in Tony Marchant's Never Never for Channel 4.

In 2001, he played Oz in a Caleb Lindsay film, Understanding Jane.

In 2002, Simm featured in another Michael Winterbottom film, 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...

, as New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...

 frontman Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner , also known as Bernard Dickin, Bernard Dicken and Bernard Albrecht is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and producer....

. At a live concert in Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park is a 46 hectare public park in the London Borough of Haringey. Officially part of the London area of Harringay, it is also adjacent to Stroud Green, the Finsbury Park district and Manor House. It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian...

 that same year, Simm sang the Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

 song "Digital" onstage with New Order (a few years later, he would be chosen by the band to induct Joy Division/New Order into the rock and roll hall of fame). It was also this year that he played Raskolnikov
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the fictional protagonist of Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoyevsky. The name Raskolnikov derives from the Russian raskolnik meaning "schismatic"...

 in the BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...

adapted by Tony Marchant. Marchant also wrote The Knight's Tale
The Knight's Tale
"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas. The story is written in iambic pentameter end-rhymed couplets.-Story:...

, one of a series of modern reworkings of The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...

, in which Simm played Ace opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...

 and Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes is an English actress and model, known for many television roles. She is best known for her roles as Zoe Reynolds in Spooks and Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in the remake of Upstairs, Downstairs...

. Later that year Simm starred opposite Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...

 and John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...

 in the film Miranda
Miranda (2002 film)
Miranda is a 2002 British comedy film starring Christina Ricci, Kyle MacLachlan, John Simm, John Hurt, Tamsin Greig and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Classified as a Romance/Thriller according to IMDb.-Plot:...

.

In 2004, he played the researcher and charity investigator Daniel Appleton in the BAFTA award-winning Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 drama Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...

. This hard-hitting two-parter followed the plight of two young Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

n sisters sold into sexual slavery. After reuniting with Shaun Parkes
Shaun Parkes
Shaun Parkes is an English actor currently appearing in the ITV drama Identity.-Biography:At 16 he enrolled at Seltec College to study drama, two years later he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Career:...

 in Howard Davies
Howard Davies
Howard Davies is the name of:* Howard Davies , Wales rugby union international* Sir Howard Davies , Former Director of the London School of Economics and former British financial regulator...

' production of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange
BLUE/ORANGE
Blue/Orange is a play by written by English dramatist, Joe Penhall. A sardonically comic piece which touches on race, mental illness, and 21st century British life, it premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre in April 2000, starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor...

, in which he played Dr Bruce Flaherty opposite Brian Cox, Simm starred as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler
Sam Tyler
DCI/DI Sam Tyler is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars.In the original British version of Life on Mars, Tyler is played by John Simm and in the American version he is played by Jason O'Mara....

 in the 2006 BBC series Life on Mars
Life on Mars (TV series)
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural....

playing a police officer apparently sent back in time to 1973. The show won the Pioneer Audience Award for Best Programme at the 2007 BAFTA TV Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...

, Simm was nominated but lost out on the award for Best Actor. He decided to leave after series two (2007), stating that he felt he had taken the role as far as he could.

His next project, in March 2007, was The Yellow House for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

, 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
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

 (Simm) and Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

 (John Lynch
John Lynch (actor)
John Lynch is an Irish actor from Northern Ireland.-Biography:John Lynch was born in the United Kingdom and moved to his father's native home in Corrinshego, County Armagh, near Newry, County Down in Northern Ireland as a child. He attended St Colman's College, Newry, a Catholic school...

).

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
Elling (play)
Elling is a 2007 theatre adaptation by Simon Bent of the film of the same name. It was produced at the Bush Theatre, London, and then transferred to the West End at Trafalgar Studios with John Simm, Adrian Bower, Ingrid Lacey, Jonathan Cecil & Keir Charles. The play premiered on Broadway on...

, a comedy about two men just out of 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
Trafalgar Studios
Trafalgar Studios, formerly The Whitehall Theatre until 2004, is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London....

 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
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....

, the nemesis of The Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

 in the long-running BBC series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

. He appeared in the final three episodes of series three: "Utopia
Utopia (Doctor Who)
"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...

", "The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...

" and "Last of the Time Lords
Last of the Time Lords
"Last of the Time Lords" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2007, and is the thirteenth and final episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...

". He reprised that role in the 2009 "The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...

" two-part special.

In 2008, Simm played Edward Sexby
Edward Sexby
Colonel Edward Sexby or Saxby was an English Puritan soldier and Leveller in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Later he turned against Cromwell and plotted his assassination.-Life:...

 in The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore is a four-part television series set during the English Civil War, produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4 in 2008. It centres on the adventures of the fictional Angelica Fanshawe, and the historical Leveller soldier Edward Sexby...

, a four-part English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 epic for Channel 4, written by Peter Flannery. Shot on location in South Africa, the drama also features Dominic West
Dominic West
Dominic Gerard Fe West is an English actor best known for his role as Detective Jimmy McNulty in the HBO drama series The Wire.-Film and TV:...

 as Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

 and Andrea Riseborough
Andrea Riseborough
-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....

 in the title role. He performed at The Royal Variety Performance with Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and starred in the film Skellig
Skellig (film)
Skellig known in North America as Skellig: The Owl Man is a 2009 British fantasy, drama film directed by Annabel Jankel and starring Tim Roth and Bill Milner...

, with Tim Roth and Kelly Macdonald, broadcast on Sky1 in April 2009.

Simm is involved in an ongoing project with director Michael Winterbottom, the working title is Seven Days, and it's being filmed in real time over five years.

He returned to the west end stage in Autumn of 2009 to critical acclaim, starring opposite Ian Hart, Lucy Cohu and Kerry Fox in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues, at the Duke of York's theatre.

In September 2010 John Simm played 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...

 at the Sheffield Crucible The production was a sellout and broke box office records for the Theatre.

In 2011 Simm co-starred in Mad Dogs
Mad Dogs (TV series)
Mad Dogs is a four-part British black comedy and psychological thriller television series created by Cris Cole that started broadcast on Sky1 on 10 February 2011. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley and...

on Sky1 directed by Adrian Shergold. Simm plays Baxter in a project that reunited him with Philip Glenister and Marc Warren
Marc Warren
Marc Warren is an English actor, known for his British television roles as Danny Blue in Hustle, Dougie Raymond in The Vice and Dominic Foy in State of Play.-Career:...

 along with Max Beesley
Max Beesley
Maxton Gig Beesley Jr. , known simply as Max Beesley, is an English actor and musician.Beesley rose to fame for his role of Andy Simpson in Every Woman, Every Man from 1993 to 1998, and has since appeared in a variety of television shows including Bodies, Hotel Babylon, London Ink, Survivors and...

 and Ben Chaplin
Ben Chaplin
Ben Chaplin , is an English actor.-Early life:Chaplin, the youngest of four children, was born in London, the son of Cynthia , a drama teacher, and Peter Greenwood, an engineer. He took his stage name after his mother's maiden name. He was raised in Windsor, Berkshire, England and attended Hurtwood...

. Mad Dogs became a critical and ratings success and received a BAFTA nomination for best Drama serial, a second and third series was commissioned. .

Broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 from 1-3 May 2011, Simm starred In Exile
Exile (TV series)
Exile is a British psychological thriller television series dealing with the topic of Alzheimer's disease against a background of corruption. It stars John Simm and Jim Broadbent and was broadcast on BBC One...

with Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...

 playing his father. Simm takes the lead role of "Tom Rondstadt". Exile is a 3 part drama set in Manchester and the north west
North West England
North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

, produced by Abbottvision and written by Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst is a BAFTA and International Emmy -winning English screenwriter. Brocklehurst worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a full-time screenwriter.He has written acclaimed television drama...

, from an idea by Paul Abott.

Mad Dogs 2 was shot in Mallorca and Ibiza June/July/Aug 2011, and is scheduled to appear on Sky 1 in January 2012.

Personal life

Simm married actress Kate Magowan
Kate Magowan
Katie Victoria "Kate" Magowan is an English actress. She has been in film, theatre, television and radio productions.-Early life:...

 in April 2004 in the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...

, they have a son and daughter.

Simm is a passionate supporter of Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

 football club.

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1992 Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...

Joby Jonson Series 7, Episode 4, "Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson"
1993 Oasis
Oasis (TV series)
Oasis was a short lived CITV drama series which was about a group of children who ran an inner city farm. It's best known for featuring John Simm and Dean Gaffney, who later went on to be in the BBC soap Eastenders...

Posh Robert Episodes 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10
Heartbeat Richard Francis Series 2, Episode 9, "Wall of Silence"
The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

Paul Jeffries Season 9, Episode 95, "Blind Spot"
Men of the World
Men of the World
Men of the World was a 1990s BBC One situation comedy which starred David Threlfall and John Simm.-Production details:Written by Daniel Peacock — who also appeared as the character Gilby Watson. — Men of the World was directed by Terry Kinane and produced for Alomo Productions by Laurence Marks,...

Kendle Bains Series 1 & 2, 12 episodes
1994 A Pinch of Snuff Clint Heppelwhite
Meat Cecil
1995 Chiller Gary Kingston Series 1, Episode 3, "Here Comes the Mirror Man"
1995 'Cracker' Bill Nash Series 3, Episode 2, "Best Boys"
1997 The Locksmith Paul
1997–1999 The Lakes
The Lakes (TV series)
The Lakes is the title of a television drama series in the United Kingdom, made by the BBC and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997...

Danny Kavanagh Series 1 & 2, 14 episodes
2000 Forgive and Forget Theo
Clocking Off
Clocking Off
Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott...

Stuart Leach Series 1, Episode 1, "The Leaches' Story"
Meet Ricky Gervais
Meet Ricky Gervais
Meet Ricky Gervais was a chat show written and hosted by the comedy writer and performer Ricky Gervais. It was produced by Talkback for Channel 4 in 2000 and ran for one series on Friday nights....

Himself Episode 6
Never Never John Parlour
2001 Spaced
Spaced
Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...

Stephen Edwards Series 2, Episode 1, "Back"
2002 Magic Hour Alex
Crime & Punishment
Crime & Punishment
Crime & Punishment is a 2002 reality television spin-off of the Law & Order franchise. It premiered on NBC on Sunday, June 16, 2002, and ran through the summers of 2002, 2003, and 2004.-Description:...

Raskolnikov
White Teeth
White Teeth
White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London...

Mr. Hero (cameo)
2003 State of Play Cal McCaffrey 6 episodes
Canterbury Tales Ace The Knight's Tale
The Knight's Tale
"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The story introduces many typical aspects of knighthood such as courtly love and ethical dilemmas. The story is written in iambic pentameter end-rhymed couplets.-Story:...

2004 The All Star Comedy Show Various Roles
London Friedrich Engels
Imperium: Nerone Caligula
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic
Sex Traffic is a British-Canadian two-part television drama directed by David Yates, written by Abi Morgan and produced by Veronica Castillo and Derek Wax...

Daniel Appleton
2005 Blue/Orange
BLUE/ORANGE
Blue/Orange is a play by written by English dramatist, Joe Penhall. A sardonically comic piece which touches on race, mental illness, and 21st century British life, it premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre in April 2000, starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor...

Dr. Bruce Flaherty
2006–2007 Life on Mars
Life on Mars (TV series)
Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between January 2006 and April 2007. The series combines elements of science fiction and police procedural....

Sam Tyler
Sam Tyler
DCI/DI Sam Tyler is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars.In the original British version of Life on Mars, Tyler is played by John Simm and in the American version he is played by Jason O'Mara....

 
16 episodes
2007 The Yellow House Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

 
2007, 2009-10 Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

The Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....

 
Episodes: "Utopia
Utopia (Doctor Who)
"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...

"
"The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...

"
"Last of the Time Lords
Last of the Time Lords
"Last of the Time Lords" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2007, and is the thirteenth and final episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...

"
"The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...

" Parts 1 and 2
2008 The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore is a four-part television series set during the English Civil War, produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4 in 2008. It centres on the adventures of the fictional Angelica Fanshawe, and the historical Leveller soldier Edward Sexby...

Edward Sexby
2009 Skellig Dave
2010 Moving On
Moving On (TV series)
Moving On is a British television series consisting of standalone contemporary dramas first shown on daytime BBC One. Although originally broadcast in an early-afternoon slot, less than a month after the initial airing the first series was repeated to an evening audience...

Moose/Mike Series 2, episode 4, "Malaise"
2011 Mad Dogs
Mad Dogs (TV series)
Mad Dogs is a four-part British black comedy and psychological thriller television series created by Cris Cole that started broadcast on Sky1 on 10 February 2011. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley and...

Baxter 4 Episodes
Exile
Exile (TV series)
Exile is a British psychological thriller television series dealing with the topic of Alzheimer's disease against a background of corruption. It stars John Simm and Jim Broadbent and was broadcast on BBC One...

Tom Ronstadt 3 Episodes

Film

Year Title Role
1995 Boston Kickout Phil
1999 Human Traffic
Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film explores themes of coming of age, drug and club cultures, as well as relationships. It includes scenes provoking social commentary and the use of archive footage to provide political...

Jip
Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...

Eddie
2001 Understanding Jane Oz
2002 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...

Bernard
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner , also known as Bernard Dickin, Bernard Dicken and Bernard Albrecht is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and producer....

Miranda
Miranda (2002 film)
Miranda is a 2002 British comedy film starring Christina Ricci, Kyle MacLachlan, John Simm, John Hurt, Tamsin Greig and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Classified as a Romance/Thriller according to IMDb.-Plot:...

Frank
2008 Skellig
Skellig
Skellig is a novel by David Almond, for which Almond was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1998 and also the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. The book won the 2000 Michael L. Printz Honor from YALSA in the United States...

Dave
2008 Tuesday
2012 Seven Days

Theatre

  • Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre
    Bush Theatre
    The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...

    , London, 1996.
  • Elling
    Elling (play)
    Elling is a 2007 theatre adaptation by Simon Bent of the film of the same name. It was produced at the Bush Theatre, London, and then transferred to the West End at Trafalgar Studios with John Simm, Adrian Bower, Ingrid Lacey, Jonathan Cecil & Keir Charles. The play premiered on Broadway on...

    at Bush Theatre, London, 27 April 2007 – 26 May 2007, and at Trafalgar Studios
    Trafalgar Studios
    Trafalgar Studios, formerly The Whitehall Theatre until 2004, is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London....

     1, London, 6 July 2007 – 6 October 2007.
  • Speaking in Tongues at Duke of York's Theatre
    Duke of York's Theatre
    The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935. It opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, with Wedding...

    , London, 18 September 2009 – 12 December 2009.
  • 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...

    at the Crucible Theatre
    Crucible Theatre
    The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....

    , Sheffield, 16 September 2010 – 23 October 2010,

External links

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