Leigh Lawson
Encyclopedia
Leigh Lawson is a film
and stage actor
, director, and writer.
. Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, directed plays in the West End and on Broadway
. He worked with National Theatre
, Royal Shakespeare Company
(RSC), and with film directors such as Roman Polanski
and Franco Zeffirelli
. He was quoted as saying that the only time in his career when he didn't feel he should be somewhere else doing something else was when he was with the RSC. Lawson's portrayals in films include Bernardo in Brother Sun, Sister Moon
(1972) and Alec d'Urberville in Tess
(1979). He played the leading role as Alan Lomax in the television drama series, Travelling Man (1984–1985), and guest starred in a variety of television series, such as The Duchess of Duke Street
(1976), Disraeli (1978), Feuer und Schwert - Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde (1982), The Ray Bradbury Theatre (1988), and Silent Witness
(2005–2007).
Lawson's talents also lay in writing and directing. In 1999, he co-wrote and directed the musical If Love Were All, which tells of the friendship between Gertrude Lawrence
and Noël Coward
. Most recently, Lawson authored The Dream: An Actor's Story, a theatrical memoir about the day-to-day life of a working actor, which was published in September 2009. (ISBN 978-1-84002-867-6)
He also co-starred with his wife Twiggy
in 2001, playing themselves in an episode of the British hit comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous
.
in 1975 when they performed in London's West End in A Touch of Spring, and the following year, she bore him a son, Jason. Lawson also became stepfather to Crispian Mills
, Hayley's son with director Roy Boulting. Lawson and Mills' liaison ended in the early 1980s.
He met former model Twiggy
in 1984. In 1988, they both worked in the film Madame Sousatzka
, and were married on 23 September that year in Tony Walton's back yard in Sag Harbor, Long Island. The couple resides in west London
, where Lawson looks after his wife's business affairs and her involvement with Littlewoods catalogue. Lawson and Twiggy also own a home in Southwold, Suffolk.
He adopted Twiggy's daughter Carly, who took his surname. Lawson has played an active role in his children's lives, including his nephew, club DJ Saul Dismont, who is the son of Lawson's sister and Bermuda politician Russell Dismont
.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and stage 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...
, director, and writer.
Career
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic ArtRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
. Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, directed plays in the West End and on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. He worked with National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, 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...
(RSC), and with film directors such as Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
and Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
. He was quoted as saying that the only time in his career when he didn't feel he should be somewhere else doing something else was when he was with the RSC. Lawson's portrayals in films include Bernardo in Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Brother Sun, Sister Moon is a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Graham Faulkner and Judi Bowker. The film is a biopic of Saint Francis of Assisi.-Plot:...
(1972) and Alec d'Urberville in Tess
Tess (film)
Tess is a 1980 romance film directed by Roman Polanski, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. It tells the story of a strong-willed, young peasant girl who finds out she has title connections by way of her old aristocratic surname and who is raped by her wealthy...
(1979). He played the leading role as Alan Lomax in the television drama series, Travelling Man (1984–1985), and guest starred in a variety of television series, such as The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess Of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1935. It was created by John Hawkesworth, the former producer of the highly successful ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
(1976), Disraeli (1978), Feuer und Schwert - Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde (1982), The Ray Bradbury Theatre (1988), and Silent Witness
Silent Witness
Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...
(2005–2007).
Lawson's talents also lay in writing and directing. In 1999, he co-wrote and directed the musical If Love Were All, which tells of the friendship between Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
and Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
. Most recently, Lawson authored The Dream: An Actor's Story, a theatrical memoir about the day-to-day life of a working actor, which was published in September 2009. (ISBN 978-1-84002-867-6)
He also co-starred with his wife Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
in 2001, playing themselves in an episode of the British hit comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...
.
Personal life
In 1976, Lawson and his first wife, Mondy, were divorced. He met actress Hayley MillsHayley Mills
Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...
in 1975 when they performed in London's West End in A Touch of Spring, and the following year, she bore him a son, Jason. Lawson also became stepfather to Crispian Mills
Crispian Mills
Crispian Mills is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the son of actress Hayley Mills and director Roy Boulting, the grandson of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell , nephew of Juliet Mills and Jonathan Mills, and half-brother to Jason "Ace" Lawson...
, Hayley's son with director Roy Boulting. Lawson and Mills' liaison ended in the early 1980s.
He met former model Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
in 1984. In 1988, they both worked in the film Madame Sousatzka
Madame Sousatzka
Madame Sousatzka is a 1988 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens.-Plot synopsis:...
, and were married on 23 September that year in Tony Walton's back yard in Sag Harbor, Long Island. The couple resides in west 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...
, where Lawson looks after his wife's business affairs and her involvement with Littlewoods catalogue. Lawson and Twiggy also own a home in Southwold, Suffolk.
He adopted Twiggy's daughter Carly, who took his surname. Lawson has played an active role in his children's lives, including his nephew, club DJ Saul Dismont, who is the son of Lawson's sister and Bermuda politician Russell Dismont
Russell Dismont
Russell Dismont was from a respected black Bermudian family of the time. Despite racial discrimination typical of that period, his father Albert Hilgrove Dismont had become a successful business man and was the first black man to own a property and business in the totally white owned city of...
.
Partial filmography
- Brother Sun, Sister MoonBrother Sun, Sister MoonBrother Sun, Sister Moon is a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Graham Faulkner and Judi Bowker. The film is a biopic of Saint Francis of Assisi.-Plot:...
(1972) - Percy's ProgressPercy's ProgressPercy's Progress is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas. It was written by Sid Colin, Harry H. Corbett and Ian Le Frenais. It was released in the United States under the title It's Not the Size That Counts...
(1974) - Love Among the RuinsLove Among the Ruins (film)Love Among the Ruins is a 1975 British television film directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier....
(1975) - Duchess of Duke Street (1976) Episode 8
- Golden RendezvousGolden RendezvousGolden Rendezvous is a 1977 South African thriller film directed by Ashley Lazarus and starring Richard Harris, Ann Turkel and Gordon Jackson. A luxury cruise ship is hijacked by terrorists. It was based on the 1962 novel The Golden Rendezvous by Alistair MacLean.-Cast:* Richard Harris - John...
(1977) - TessTess (film)Tess is a 1980 romance film directed by Roman Polanski, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. It tells the story of a strong-willed, young peasant girl who finds out she has title connections by way of her old aristocratic surname and who is raped by her wealthy...
(1979) - Why Didn't They Ask Evans?Why Didn't They Ask Evans?Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in September 1934 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1935 under the title of The Boomerang Clue.The UK edition retailed at seven shillings...
(1980) - Fire and Sword (1982)
- Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green KnightSword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green KnightSword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 1984 film starring Miles O'Keeffe, Cyrielle Claire, Leigh Lawson, and Sean Connery. The film is based on the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written in the late 14th century, but the narrative differs...
(1984) - Madame SousatzkaMadame SousatzkaMadame Sousatzka is a 1988 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is based upon the novel of the same name by Bernice Rubens.-Plot synopsis:...
(1988) - Out of Depth (2000)
- Back to the Secret GardenBack to the Secret GardenBack To The Secret Garden is a 2001 family fantasy film. Produced for television, the film serves as a sequel to Francis Hodgson Burnett's classic novel The Secret Garden...
(2001) - Being JuliaBeing JuliaBeing Julia is a 2004 drama film with comic undertones directed by István Szabó and starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons. The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham...
(2004) - Casanova (2005)
- Silence Becomes YouSilence Becomes YouSilence Becomes You is a 2005 British thriller film starring Alicia Silverstone, Sienna Guillory and Joe Anderson.- Plot :The film tells the tale of two sisters, Violet and Grace, who live a sheltered life within a secluded New England mansion, inherited from their parents...
(2005) - The Courageous Heart of Irena SendlerThe Courageous Heart of Irena SendlerThe Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler is a 2009 television film directed by John Kent Harrison. The film is a co-production between United States and Poland companies...
(2009)
Stage appearances
- Ivan Kaliayev, The Price of Justice, Mermaid Theatre, London, (1972).
- A Touch of Spring, with Hayley Mills, Comedy Theatre, London's West End, (1975–78).
- Aubrey Tanqueray, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, Royal National Theatre (1981).
- Louis Dubedat, The Doctor's Dilemma, Greenwich Theatre, London, 1981
- Amnon, Yonadab, directed by Peter Hall, Royal National Theatre (1985).
- Antonio, The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
in London's West End and on Broadway (1989). - Oberon, A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
, produced by Adrian Noble, Royal Shakespeare Company, (1990). - Loveless, The RelapseThe RelapseThe Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded....
, Royal Shakespeare Company, (1996). - Marc, ArtArtArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, London's West End and UK Tour, (2002). - Lloyd, Noises OffNoises OffNoises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
, London's West End and on Broadway (2003). - Death and the MaidenDeath and the Maiden (play)Death and the Maiden is a 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. The world premiere was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner...
, King's Head Theatre, London (2004). - Nicholas Nickleby, Chichester Festival Theatre, (2006).
- Shoreditch Madonna, with Francesca Annis, Soho Theatre, (2006).
- Messerschmann, Ring Round the MoonRing Round the MoonRing Round the Moon is a 1950 adaptation by the English dramatist Christopher Fry of Jean Anouilh's Invitation to the Castle . Peter Brook commissioned Fry to adapt the play and the first production of Ring Round the Moon was given at the Globe Theatre...
, Playhouse Theatre, London, (2008)
Directed
- If Love Were All, (1999), opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater with Twiggy as Gertrude Lawrence and Harry Groener as Noël Coward, written by Sheridan Morley & Leigh Lawson, directed by Leigh Lawson.
- The RestaurantThe RestaurantThe Restaurant is a reality television series that aired on NBC in 2003, with a second season broadcasting in 2004. The series had encore presentations on CNBC and Bravo....
, New York - The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
, USA - Death and the MaidenDeath and the Maiden (play)Death and the Maiden is a 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. The world premiere was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 9 July 1991, directed by Lindsay Posner...
, King's Head Theatre, Islington, (2004) - Jack and the BeanstalkJack and the BeanstalkJack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
, Pantomime, Brighton Theatre Royal, (2005), starring Twiggy