fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Paul John McGann (/məˈɡæn/;[1] born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial The Monocled Mutineer (1986), then starred in the dark comedy Withnail and I (1987), which was a critical success and developed a cult following. McGann later became more widely known for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television film. He is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush in the series Hornblower.

Paul McGann
McGann at the 2015 Florida Supercon
Born	Paul John McGann (1959-11-14) 14 November 1959 (age 63) Liverpool, England
Education	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Annie Milner ​ (separated)​
Children	Joseph Jake
Relatives	Joe McGann (brother) Mark McGann (brother) Stephen McGann (brother) Heidi Thomas (sister-in-law)

Early life

Paul John McGann was born in Liverpool on 14 November 1959,[2] into a Roman Catholic family. His ancestors were immigrants to England in the late 19 century, having left due to the potato famine.[3][4] His mother, Clare, was a teacher, and his father Joe who died in 1984 was a metallurgist.[5][6][7] His cousin, Ritchie Routledge, was in the 1960s band The Cryin' Shames.[8] He has an older brother, Joe, and three younger siblings: brothers Mark and Stephen and sister Clare.[5][6] All three of his brothers are also actors and the four of them played brothers in the 1995 TV serial The Hanging Gale. The same year, McGann also played Grigori Potemkin in the television film Catherine the Great alongside Mark and Stephen.

McGann attended Cardinal Allen Grammar School in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby. He was 17 and working in a shoe shop when he acted on the advice of one of his teachers and successfully auditioned for a place on the acting course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[8] In 1980, the Principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, selected a scene from an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, which McGann co-wrote with Bruce Payne, to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II in one of her rare visits to the academy. Kenneth Branagh performed a soliloquy from Hamlet at the same event.[9]

Career

Early work and breakthrough

McGann's breakthrough role was in Give Us a Break, devised by Geoff McQueen, McGann played a good snooker player who got into scrapes with Robert Lindsay, who played his wideboy manager. The series was a comedy drama in the vein of the popular ITV series of the time, Minder. The series only lasted for one season and it was concluded by a one-off special. His first major dramatic role was the British World War I deserter and criminal Percy Toplis in the 1986 BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer. The film was based on the 1978 book of the same name, written by William Alison and John Fairley.[10]

Following on from the part of Percy Toplis, McGann sought ^{[citation needed]} a less controversial and more comedic role for his next project. In 1986, he was cast as the anonymous main character (Marwood) in Bruce Robinson's cult film, Withnail and I. He also starred as Anton Skrebensky in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow. McGann's other early film appearances include The Monk, Dealers, Tree of Hands and the epic war film Empire of the Sun. McGann and other young British actors who were becoming established film actors such as Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bruce Payne were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.[11][12]

Since 1989, McGann has concentrated primarily on television work, including Nice Town and Nature Boy for the BBC, and The One That Got Away and the second series of Hornblower for ITV. However, he has had small roles in a number of high-profile American films like The Three Musketeers and Alien 3. His role in Alien 3 was originally larger, but much of it was edited out of the final print. The cut footage can be seen in the extended version of the film.

In 1992, he was cast as Richard Sharpe, the lead character in the Sharpe series of made-for-TV films based on Bernard Cornwell's novels; however he injured his knee while playing football just days into filming Sharpe's Rifles in Ukraine. He was replaced by Sean Bean and the role effectively kick-started Bean's career and is the one that he is most closely identified with.

Doctor Who

McGann played the eighth incarnation of the Doctor, in the Doctor Who 1996 television film. The television film also starred Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook and featured the outgoing Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. McGann's brother, Mark McGann, also auditioned for the title role.

The Doctor Who television film was a joint venture between the BBC, Universal Studios and the Fox Broadcasting Network. McGann had signed a contract to appear as the Eighth Doctor in a new Doctor Who series, if Fox or Universal exercised their option. Thus, the television film was supposed to be a "back door pilot" in that, if it obtained respectable ratings, the new series would continue to be produced. The film was shown on 14 May 1996 in the US and on 27 May 1996 in the UK. Although it had 9.08 million viewers and was very successful in the UK, ratings were very low in the United States. As a consequence, Fox did not exercise its option to pick up the series and Universal could not find another network interested in airing a new Doctor Who series. Thus no new series was produced until 2005, after all the contractual rights had returned to the BBC.

McGann gave permission for his likeness to be used on the covers of the BBC's Eighth Doctor novels and he has reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in an extensive series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions. A number of these plays have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 7 (later BBC Radio 4 Extra).

Rumours abounded that McGann would reprise the role of the Eighth Doctor in a new series of television films, alongside the current television series.[13] McGann has denied these rumours on the grounds of not having been asked back to play the part, but if he were to be asked, would be interested as long as he "didn't have to wear a wig".[14]

After months of speculation, on 14 November 2013 (coincidentally McGann's birthday), as part of the show's 50th Anniversary celebrations, McGann finally reprised his role as the Eighth Doctor, in the mini-episode The Night of the Doctor. In this appearance his incarnation of the Doctor finally regenerates, 17 years after his first television appearance, into a previously unknown Doctor played by John Hurt.

In November 2013, McGann briefly appeared in the 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.[15]

He made his first appearance on the main television series in a surprise cameo in the 2022 special The Power of the Doctor, alongside other past Doctors.[16][17] He also featured in the documentary film Doctor Who Am I, supporting TV movie director Matthew Jacobs' embrace of the Doctor Who fandom and its conventions.[18]

Later career

In the years following his appearance as the Doctor, McGann continued to diversify his acting portfolio with the television and film roles he accepted. In 1997 he appeared as a concerned father in the film FairyTale: A True Story and later that same year as Rob in Downtime, then in 1998 he appeared as Capt. Greville in The Dance of Shiva.

In the 2000s McGann's film appearances began to increase with films like My Kingdom (2001), Listening (2003) and Gypo (2005). Perhaps his most iconic role since Doctor Who came in 2002, when McGann appeared in the film adaptation of the third story from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, Queen of the Damned. McGann played the part of David Talbot, a member of the secret organisation the Talamasca, which researches and investigates the supernatural. Talbot has appeared in many of Rice's novels and has become a central character over the years. The film also starred Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau and R&B singer Aaliyah. McGann has also been in demand for voice-over work in Britain in recent years, particularly on television documentaries and commercials.

He also gained acclaim for his portrayal of William Bush in the final four instalments of the ITV/A&E television series Hornblower, based on the Horatio Hornblower books by C.S. Forrester. He initially appears in the 2001 episode "Mutiny", with Bush being the 2nd Lieutenant of HMS Renown (and Hornblower's superior). In the 7th episode, "Loyalty", he agrees to join Hornblower as his 1st Lieutenant when Hornblower takes command of HMS Hotspur. McGann again portrays Bush in the 2003 finale of the series, "Duty".

In 2006, he appeared in the television drama Tripping Over. In 2007, McGann starred alongside Dervla Kirwan, Lorraine Ashbourne and David Bradley in BBC One drama True Dare Kiss, written by Debbie Horsfield. In 2010, McGann played a major role in a feature-length episode of long-running BBC mystery series Jonathan Creek, as well as appearing as a regular in the crime drama Luther. In 2011, McGann played a major role as an Assistant Commissioner with something to hide in the final episode of Waking the Dead and also featured in Simon Gray's Butley alongside Dominic West at the Duchess Theatre in London.[19][20]

In 2017, McGann joined the cast of the long-running BBC series Holby City, playing neurosurgeon John Gaskell. In 2021, he hosted the British Podcast Awards Gold-winning Noiser podcast production Real Dictators, a history show about the up to date facts on dictators of the past.

Audio books and voice work

McGann is also known for audiobook narration having read several Pat Barker and Bernard Cornwell novels. He narrated the abridged audiobook of Jeff Noon's 1993 cyberpunk classic Vurt.

McGann continues to play the Eighth Doctor on audio. McGann's first Big Finish audio play appearance was in 2001 in the story Storm Warning. It was through the Big Finish audio plays that McGann's Doctor faced many classic Doctor Who villains like the Daleks (in various different audio plays, the first of which being The Time of the Daleks) and the Cybermen (first encountered by the Eighth Doctor on audio in Sword of Orion).

Five Eighth Doctor dramas were broadcast in BBC 7's The 7th Dimension slot between August 2005 and January 2006. They were in release order, starting with Storm Warning, although Minuet in Hell was judged unsuitable for the timeslot, and skipped. Two more Eighth Doctor audios, Shada and The Chimes of Midnight were broadcast in December 2005 and January 2006; all six of these stories were rebroadcast on BBC7 beginning in July 2006. In 2007 and 2008, a series of audio plays starring McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Sheridan Smith as companion Lucie Miller was broadcast on BBC7.

His voice also featured in the 1997 video game Ceremony of Innocence, together with those of Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley.

After hearing him sing in The Monocled Mutineer, composer Bernard J. Taylor invited McGann to create the role of Benedict in the concept studio recording of the Much Ado, a musical based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

McGann portrayed Ambassador Durian in The Minister of Chance, a fantasy audio drama released in six parts from 2011 to 2013. The series is a spin-off of the Doctor Who audio drama Death Comes to Time, but has no official connection to the franchise. In February 2014, a crowdfunded short film based on the first instalment of The Minister of Chance was released to those who had helped fund it.[21]

McGann portrays antagonist Noah Shackleton in the audio drama adaptation of The Phoenix Files. The Australian production is the largest audio drama ever produced in Australia with a cast of 42 actors. McGann appears in all three instalments of the science-fiction dystopian thriller series.[22]

McGann has done audio narration for BBC documentaries, including the 2014 BBC Scotland production, Apples, Pears and Paint: How to Make a Still Life Painting.[23]

McGann is chief narrator in the popular A short history of… podcast series, which explores various historical topics in easily accessible episodes.

Personal life

McGann is married to Annie Milner,[3] from whom he is separated. They have two sons: music producer Joseph and voice actor Jake.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Withnail and I	"I"
	Empire of the Sun	Lt. Price
1989	Tree of Hands	Barry
	Streets of Yesterday	Yosef Raz
	The Rainbow	Anton Skrebensky
	Dealers	Daniel Pascoe
1990	The Monk	Father Lorenzo Rojas
	Paper Mask	Matthew Harris
1991	Afraid of the Dark	Tony Dalton
1992	Alien 3	Golic
1993	The Three Musketeers	Girard / Jussac
1995	Catherine the Great	Grigory Potyomkin
1996	Doctor Who	The Doctor
1997	FairyTale: A True Story	Arthur Wright
	Downtime	Rob
1998	The Dance of Shiva	Capt. Greville	Short film
2001	My Kingdom	Dean
2002	Queen of the Damned	David Talbot
2003	Listening	The Man	Short film
	Otherworld	King Matholwch	Voice role
2005	Gypo	Paul
2006	Poppies	Tony Hudson
2007	Always Crashing in the Same Car	Bill Mackinnon	Short film
	Voice from Afar	Actor
2009	Lesbian Vampire Killers	Vicar
2010	Godard & Others	Torrence
2011	Moving Target	Mr. Johnson
2012	Notes from the Underground	Photographer
2013	Art Is...	Lulu's Dad
	A Little Place Off the Edgware Road	James Craven	Short film
2014	The Minister of Chance	Ambassador Durian
2015	Absence	Man
2016	Brakes	Peter
	Letters from Baghdad	Henry Cadogan	Voice role
2017	B&B	Josh
	Perplexed Music	Man	Short film
2021	Swallow Your Dreams	James
2022	Mia and the Dragon Princess	Walsh

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Gaskin	Graham Gaskin	TV film
1983–1984	Give Us a Break	Mo Morris	8 episodes
1986	The Importance of Being Earnest	John Worthing	TV film
	The Monocled Mutineer	Percy Toplis	4 episodes
1990	Screen Two	Colin	Episode: "Drowning in the Shallow End"
1992	Nice Town	Joe Thompson	3 episodes
1995	Catherine the Great	Grigory Potyomkin	TV film
	The Hanging Gale	Liam Phelan	4 episodes
1996	The One That Got Away	Chris Ryan	TV film
	The Merchant of Venice	Bassanio
1998	Our Mutual Friend	Eugene Wrayburn	4 episodes
1999	Forgotten	Ben Turner	3 episodes
2000	Nature Boy	Steve Witton	4 episodes
	Fish	Jonathan Vishnevski	6 episodes
2001	Hotel!	Ben Carter	TV film
	Sweet Revenge	Patrick Vine	2 episodes
2002	Blood Strangers	DC David Ingram	2 episodes
	The Biographer	Andrew Morton	TV film
2001–2003	Hornblower	Lieutenant Bush	4 episodes
2003	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Dr. Peter Lord	Episode: "Sad Cypress"
2004	Lie With Me	Gerry Henson	2 episodes
2005	Kidnapped	Colonel MacNab	2 episodes
2005	Fables of Forgotten Things	Clarence	TV short film
	Agatha Christie's Marple	Dickie Erskine	Episode: "Sleeping Murder"
2006	Tripping Over	Jeremy	6 episodes
	Sea of Souls	Christopher Chambers	Episode: "Rebound"
	If I Had You	Philip Andrews	TV film
2007	True Dare Kiss	Nash McKinnon	6 episodes
2009	Collision	Richard Reeves	5 episodes
2010	Jonathan Creek	Hugo Doré	Episode: "The Judas Tree"
2010–2011, 2019	Luther	Mark North	10 episodes
2011	Waking the Dead	ACC Tony Nicholson	Episodes: "Waterloo", Parts 1 & 2
	New Tricks	DCI James Larson	Episode: "Object of Desire"
2012	Save Our Souls: The Titanic Inquiry	Sir Rufus Isaacs	TV film
	A Mother's Son	David	2 episodes
2013	Ripper Street	Stanley J. Bone	Episode: "The Good of This City"
	Moving On	Phil	Episode: "Blood Ties"
2013, 2022	Doctor Who	Eighth Doctor	Episodes: "The Night of the Doctor" & "The Power of the Doctor"
2013	The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot	Paul McGann	TV film
2014	The Bletchley Circle	John Richards	Episode: "Blood on Their Hands: Part 1"
2016	Moving On	None	Directed episodes "Passengers" and "Zero"
	The Musketeers	St. Pierre	Episode: "The Queen's Diamonds"
2017–2018	Holby City	John Gaskell	40 episodes
2021	Annika	Dr. Jake Strathearn	3 episodes
2022	Anne	Sir Malcolm Thornton	Episode: #1.2
	McDonald & Dodds	Archie Addington	Episode: "A Billion Beats"

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Much Ado About Nothing	Dogberry	Horseshoe, Basingstoke
1997	Loot	Dennis	Ambassadors
1998	The Seagull	Constantine	Royal Court Theatre
1999	A Lie of the Mind	Frankie
2003	The Little Black Book	Jean-Jaques	Riverside Studios
	Mourning Becomes Electra	Captain Adam Brant	National Theatre
2005	The Gigli Concert	Jimmy	Finborough Theatre
2009	Helen	Menelaus	Shakespeare's Globe
2011	Butley	Reg	Duchess Theatre
2013	Major Barbara	Undershaft	Abbey Theatre
2014	Three Sisters	Alexander Vershinin	Southwark Playhouse
2017	Gabriel	Von Pfunz	Theatre 6
2022	The Forest	Man 2	Hampstead Theatre

Narration

Year	Title	Notes
2004	That'll Teach 'Em	Series 2 (5 episodes)
2005	Zero Hour	Series 2
2006–2007	Real Crime	Series 5–6
2011	Britain's Greatest Codebreaker
2013	Wildest Latin America	"Wildest Islands Vancouver Islands: Rivers of Life"
	Extraordinary People: The Boy with the Incredible Brain
2014	Apples, Pears and Paint: How to Make a Still Life Painting
	France: The Wild Side
	Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race [24]
2015	Shark [25]
	Hunt for the Arctic Ghost Ship [26]
2016	Wild Sri Lanka	Disney+
	Wildest Islands of Indonesia
2016–2017	Eden [27]	Series 1–2
2020	Real Dictators [28]	Podcast; Series 1
2021–2022	Short History Of... [29]	Podcast; Series 1–2 (41 episodes)[30]
2021	Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001–2011, 2021	Doctor Who: The Monthly Range	Eighth Doctor	32 releases
2007–2011	The Eighth Doctor Adventures
2012–2015	Dark Eyes
2015–2017	Doom Coalition
2015	The Diary of River Song		"The Rulers of the Universe"
2016–2017	Doctor Who: Classic Doctors, New Monsters		"The Sontaran Ordeal", "Day of the Vashta Nerada" and "If I Should Die Before I Wake"
2017–present	The Eighth Doctor: The Time War
2018–2019	Ravenous
2019	The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller
2020–2022	Stranded
2019	You're the Boss	Bill	Track 5 on "Shuffle" by Jamie Lenman, reading of a scene from "Always Crashing in the Same Car" (2007)
2011–2013	The Minister of Chance	Durian

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Ceremony of Innocence	Griffin Moss	Voice role
2015	Anno 2205	Virgil Drake

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
1987	British Academy Television Awards	Best Actor	The Monocled Mutineer	Nominated	[31]
1990	Barcelona Cinema Festival	Best Actor	Paper Mask	Won	[31]
1996	Saturn Awards	Best Actor on Television	Doctor Who	Nominated	[31]
2006	Torino Gay & Lesbian Film Festival	Special Mention (shared with the cast)	Gypo	Won	[31]
2013	Crime Thriller Awards	Best Supporting Actor	A Mother's Son	Nominated	[31]
2017	Horrible Imaginings Film Festival	Best Actor in a Feature Film	B&B	Won	[31]
2018	Global Independent Film Awards	Best Ensemble Cast (shared with the cast)		Won	[31]
2021	Liverpool Film Festival	Best Actor	Swallow Your Dreams	Won	[32]

References

External links

• Paul McGann at IMDb
• Paul McGann at the BFI's Screenonline
• Talking Shop: Paul McGann interview at the BBC News website

На других языках

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[de] Paul McGann

Paul McGann (* 14. November 1959 in Liverpool) ist ein britischer Schauspieler.

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- [en] Paul McGann

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[ru] Макганн, Пол

Пол Макганн (англ. Paul McGann, 14 ноября 1959 (1959-11-14)) — английский актёр, прославившийся главной ролью в сериале BBC «Мятежник с моноклем». Также известен благодаря роли в фильме «Уитнэйл и я» 1987 года и роли Восьмого Доктора в полнометражном фильме «Доктор Кто» 1996 года.

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