Michael Kitchen
Encyclopedia
Michael Kitchen is an English
actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS
Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War
.
. He worked with the National Youth Theatre
and the Belgrade Theatre
in Coventry
before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
. In 1969, while still at RADA, he won the "Emile Littler Award" for 'outstanding talent and aptitude for the professional theatre'.
Since the early 1970s, Kitchen has been a fixture of UK television. His early appearances include roles in Play for Today
(Hell's Angels by David Agnew
, 1971), Thriller
and Beasts
. He then played the role of Martin in the original production of Dennis Potter
's Brimstone and Treacle
; Peter in Stephen Poliakoff
's Caught on a Train
; Edmund in the BBC Television Shakespeare
production of King Lear
; the Antipholi in the same series' production of The Comedy of Errors
; Private Bamforth in the 1979 BBC television play of The Long and the Short and the Tall
; Rochus Misch
in The Bunker
; Berkeley Cole in Out of Africa, the King of the United Kingdom in To Play the King
(1996) (a character recognisably modeled on Prince Charles); and a recurring role as Bill Tanner
in the Pierce Brosnan
Bond movies
GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough
. Other films include Enchanted April
(1992), Fatherland (1994), The Hanging Gale (1995), Kidnapped
(1995), Mrs. Dalloway (1997), The Railway Children
(1999) and Proof of Life
(2000) as Ian Havery.
From 2002-2010, Kitchen starred in the ITV
mystery-drama Foyle's War
as the lead character, DCS Christopher Foyle. He was also a producer for the show.
Other noted appearances include Dandelion Dead
(1994), A Royal Scandal
(1996), The Last Contract (1998), Paul Abbott
's Alibi in 2003, Andrew Davies
' dramatisation of Falling in 2005, and ITV's three-part drama series Mobile
(2007). He has guest-starred in roles in other popular British television shows such as The Professionals
, Minder
, Chancer
, Inspector Morse
, A Touch of Frost
, Between The Lines, Pie in the Sky and Dalziel and Pascoe
.
Kitchen played Richard Crane in RECKLESS. His portrayal of a cheating, cuckolded husband is superb and allows the otherwise stiff-upperlipped Kitchen rare emotional range.
at the Belgrade in 1966 to Will in Howard Brenton
's Magnificence
at the Royal Court
in 1973, to William Hogarth in Nick Dear
's The Art of Success in 1986/87. He is also well known for his part in Enchanted April
.
He played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet
for the RSC at Stratford and was a member of The National Theatre Company and the Young Vic, where he played Iago in Othello
.
In 1974 he appeared at Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre
in the play Spring Awakening, opposite Peter Firth
, Jenny Agutter
, Beryl Reid
and Cyril Cusack
. Later he appeared opposite Sir Ralph Richardson
and Sir John Gielgud
in Harold Pinter
's No Man's Land
, directed by Peter Hall. In 1981 he played Melchior, the manservant of Zangler, in Tom Stoppard's play On the Razzle
. In 1984 he played the cabin steward Dvornicheck in Tom Stoppard's play Rough Crossing
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS
Chief Superintendent
Chief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces organised on the British model.- United Kingdom :In the British police, a chief superintendent is senior to a superintendent and junior to an assistant chief constable .The highest rank below Chief Officer level, chief...
Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War
Foyle's War
Foyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during World War II, created by screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, and was commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000. It has aired on ITV since 2002...
.
Early life
Kitchen was born in LeicesterLeicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. He worked with the National Youth Theatre
National Youth Theatre
The National Youth Theatre is a registered charity in London, Great Britain, committed to creative, personal and social development of young people through the medium of creative arts....
and the Belgrade Theatre
Belgrade Theatre
The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance venue seating 858 and situated in Coventry, England. It was the first civic theatre to be built after the Second World War in Britain and as such was more than a place of entertainment...
in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal 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...
. In 1969, while still at RADA, he won the "Emile Littler Award" for 'outstanding talent and aptitude for the professional theatre'.
Television and film
Michael Kitchen was discovered at RADA by Top Talent Agent Peter Froggatt of Plant & Froggatt Ltd.Since the early 1970s, Kitchen has been a fixture of UK television. His early appearances include roles in Play for Today
Play for Today
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted...
(Hell's Angels by David Agnew
David Agnew
"David Agnew" was a particular kind of pen name, employed exclusively on BBC television drama programmes of the 1970s. It was used only as a scriptwriting credit.-Conditions of use:...
, 1971), Thriller
Thriller (UK TV series)
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast...
and Beasts
Beasts (TV series)
Beasts is a series of six television plays by Manx writer Nigel Kneale, unconnected but for a bestial horror theme, made by ATV for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in 1976.-Episodes:-External links:* at the BFI's Screenonline...
. He then played the role of Martin in the original production of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
's Brimstone and Treacle
Brimstone and Treacle
-Potter on Brimstone and Treacle:In 1978, Potter said:I had written Brimstone and Treacle in difficult personal circumstances. Years of acute psoriatic arthropathy—unpleasantly affecting skin and joints—had not only taken their toll in physical damage but had also, and perhaps inevitably, mediated...
; Peter in Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.-Early life and career:...
's Caught on a Train
Caught on a Train
Caught On A Train is a British television play written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Peter Duffell, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey Poliakoff had himself made from London to Vienna...
; Edmund in the BBC Television Shakespeare
BBC Television Shakespeare
The BBC Television Shakespeare was a set of television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985.-Origins:...
production of King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
; the Antipholi in the same series' production of The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
; Private Bamforth in the 1979 BBC television play of The Long and the Short and the Tall
The Long and the Short and the Tall (play)
The Long and the Short and the Tall is a play written by British playwright Willis Hall. Set in World War II, the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in January 1959; it was directed by Lindsay Anderson and starred Peter O'Toole and Robert Shaw. It was Anderson's first major...
; Rochus Misch
Rochus Misch
Rochus Misch is a former Oberscharführer in the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during World War II. He served as a courier, bodyguard and telephone operator for German leader Adolf Hitler from 1940 to 1945...
in The Bunker
The Bunker (1981 film)
The Bunker is a 1981 CBS television film, Time/Life production based on the book The Bunker. The movie makes significant deviations from James O'Donnell's book--published in 1978. The deviations are mainly due to an effort to clarify the events, and allowing the actors license to interpret some of...
; Berkeley Cole in Out of Africa, the King of the United Kingdom in To Play the King
To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
(1996) (a character recognisably modeled on Prince Charles); and a recurring role as Bill Tanner
Bill Tanner
Bill Tanner is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel series.-Character summary:Superb in a crisis, and blessed with a dry sense of humour, Tanner is M's Chief of Staff. He is also Bond's staunchest ally in the Service, and they often enjoy a round of golf when off-duty...
in the Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
Bond movies
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough
The World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond film series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It...
. Other films include Enchanted April
Enchanted April
Enchanted April is the second film adaptation Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel, The Enchanted April. The novel was adapted as a Broadway play in 1925, and as an RKO Radio film in 1935 - both using the same title as the novel. The 1992 film release received several Golden Globe and Academy Award...
(1992), Fatherland (1994), The Hanging Gale (1995), Kidnapped
Kidnapped (1995 film)
Kidnapped is a 1995 TV adventure film directed by Ivan Passer and starring Armand Assante as Highlander Alan Breck and Brian McCardie as Lowlander David Balfour. Among the supporting actors are Michael Kitchen and Brian Blessed...
(1995), Mrs. Dalloway (1997), The Railway Children
The Railway Children
The Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906...
(1999) and Proof of Life
Proof of Life
Proof of Life is a 2000 American film, directed by Taylor Hackford. The title refers to a phrase commonly used to indicate proof that a kidnap victim is still alive...
(2000) as Ian Havery.
From 2002-2010, Kitchen starred in the 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...
mystery-drama Foyle's War
Foyle's War
Foyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during World War II, created by screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, and was commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000. It has aired on ITV since 2002...
as the lead character, DCS Christopher Foyle. He was also a producer for the show.
Other noted appearances include Dandelion Dead
Dandelion Dead
Dandelion Dead is the title of a British TV mini-series produced in 1994, telling the true story of Herbert Rowse Armstrong, a practising solicitor in the provincial town of Hay-on-Wye, Wales, who was convicted and hanged in May 1922 for the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of a fellow...
(1994), A Royal Scandal
A Royal Scandal
A Royal Scandal is a 1996 British television docudrama produced and directed by Sheree Folkson. The teleplay by Stanley Price focuses on the ill-fated marriage of George IV and Duchess Caroline of Brunswick. Dialogue from actual historical records reveals how each party tries to humiliate the...
(1996), The Last Contract (1998), 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,...
's Alibi in 2003, Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
' dramatisation of Falling in 2005, and ITV's three-part drama series Mobile
Mobile (TV series)
Mobile is a 3-part British television drama series with an interweaving plot based around a fictional mobile phone operator and the adverse-effect of mobile phone radiation to health. The series was screened by ITV in the UK, during March 2007. The cast includes Jamie Draven, Neil Fitzmaurice,...
(2007). He has guest-starred in roles in other popular British television shows such as The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
, Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Chancer
Chancer
Chancer is a British television serial produced by Central Television for ITV. It tells the story of a likable conman and rogue at the end of the yuppie eighties...
, Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
, A Touch of Frost
A Touch of Frost (TV series)
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R. D. Wingfield....
, Between The Lines, Pie in the Sky and Dalziel and Pascoe
Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)
Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...
.
Kitchen played Richard Crane in RECKLESS. His portrayal of a cheating, cuckolded husband is superb and allows the otherwise stiff-upperlipped Kitchen rare emotional range.
Theatre
Kitchen is also a noted actor in British theatre. His roles have ranged from Ptolemy in Caesar and CleopatraCaesar and Cleopatra (play)
Caesar and Cleopatra, a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw, was first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his 1901 collection, Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed at Newcastle-on-Tyne on March 15, 1899...
at the Belgrade in 1966 to Will in Howard Brenton
Howard Brenton
-Early years:Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of Methodist minister Donald Henry Brenton and his wife Rose Lilian . He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1964 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal...
's Magnificence
Magnificence (play)
Magnificence is a 1973 play by English playwright Howard Brenton. It has two plotlines. Firstly, five far-left revolutionaries squat an unoccupied house in London. Secondly, a Conservative cabinet MP loses faith in himself...
at the Royal Court
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
in 1973, to William Hogarth in Nick Dear
Nick Dear
Nick Dear is a writer for stage, screen and radio. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit, a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion....
's The Art of Success in 1986/87. He is also well known for his part in Enchanted April
Enchanted April
Enchanted April is the second film adaptation Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel, The Enchanted April. The novel was adapted as a Broadway play in 1925, and as an RKO Radio film in 1935 - both using the same title as the novel. The 1992 film release received several Golden Globe and Academy Award...
.
He played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
for the RSC at Stratford and was a member of The National Theatre Company and the Young Vic, where he played Iago in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
.
In 1974 he appeared at Sir Laurence Olivier's 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...
in the play Spring Awakening, opposite Peter Firth
Peter Firth
Peter Firth is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC show Spooks, of which he is the only actor to have starred in every episode of the show's 10 series lifespan...
, Jenny Agutter
Jenny Agutter
Jennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...
, Beryl Reid
Beryl Reid
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE was a British actress of stage and screen.-Early life:Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.-Career:Reid applied for and was accepted in a revue in...
and Cyril Cusack
Cyril Cusack
Cyril James Cusack was an Irish actor, who appeared in more than 90 films.-Early life:Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, the son of Alice Violet , an actress, and James Walter Cusack, a sergeant in the Natal mounted police. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took...
. Later he appeared opposite Sir Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
and Sir 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...
in Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
's No Man's Land
No Man's Land (play)
No Man's Land is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first produced and published in 1975. Its original production was at the Old Vic Theatre in London by the National Theatre on 23 April 1975, and it later transferred to Wyndhams Theatre, July 1975 - January 1976, the Lyttelton Theatre...
, directed by Peter Hall. In 1981 he played Melchior, the manservant of Zangler, in Tom Stoppard's play On the Razzle
On the Razzle (play)
On the Razzle is a play by Tom Stoppard. It is an adaptation of the Viennese play Einen Jux will er sich machen by Johann Nestroy, which previously was adapted twice by Thornton Wilder...
. In 1984 he played the cabin steward Dvornicheck in Tom Stoppard's play Rough Crossing
Rough Crossing
Rough Crossing is a 1984 comedic play by British playwright Tom Stoppard, "freely adapted from Ferenc Molnár's Play at the Castle." Set on board the S.S...
.