Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is an English actor.

McDowell was born Malcolm John Taylor on 13 June 1943 in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of hotelier Edna (née McDowell) and RAF officer (and later pub owner) Charles Taylor.

He has an older sister named Gloria and a younger sister named Judy.

He made his film debut as school rebel Mick Travis in if.... (1968) by British director Lindsay Anderson.

McDowell's next roles were in Figures in a Landscape (1970) and The Raging Moon (1971).

McDowell regularly appeared on British television productions in the 1970s in adaptations of theatre classics, one example being with Laurence Olivier in The Collection (1976), as part of the series Laurence Olivier Presents.

He is known for portraying Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange (1971), and as the title character in Lindsay Anderson's Mick Travis trilogy: if.... (1968), O Lucky Man! (1973), and Britannia Hospital (1982).

It was his performance as a rebel schoolboy in if.... that prompted Stanley Kubrick to cast him in A Clockwork Orange.

Other notable film credits include The Raging Moon (1971), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Time After Time (1979), Caligula (1979), Cat People (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), The Caller (1987), Star Trek Generations (1994), Tank Girl (1995), Mr. Magoo (1997), Gangster No. 1 (2000), I Spy (2002), I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003), The Company (2003), Evilenko (2004), Doomsday (2008), Easy A (2010), The Artist (2011), and Bombshell (2019).

His performance in if.... caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who cast McDowell for the lead in A Clockwork Orange (1971), adapted from the novel by Anthony Burgess.

He gained massive acclaim for his performance as Alex DeLarge, a young, antisocial hoodlum who undergoes brainwashing by the British government in a near future society.

He was nominated for a Golden Globe, a National Society of Film Critics Award, and a New York Film Critics Circle Award as Best Actor.

He worked with Anderson again for O Lucky Man! (1973, also wrote), which was inspired by McDowell's experience working as a coffee salesman, and Britannia Hospital (1982).

He starred in Aces High (1976) and co-starred in Voyage of the Damned (1976), and as Dornford Yates' gentleman hero Richard Chandos in She Fell Among Thieves (1978) and the title character in Caligula (1979).

Outside film, McDowell appeared as Dornford Yates' gentleman hero Richard Chandos in the 1978 BBC adaptation of She Fell Among Thieves.

He made his Hollywood debut as H. G. Wells in Time After Time (1979).

He has often portrayed antagonists, later remarking on his career playing film villains: "I suppose I'm primarily known for that but in fact, that would only be half of my career if I was to top it all up".

In his biography Anthony Burgess: A Life, author Roger Lewis commented on McDowell's later career: "his pretty-boy looks faded and he was condemned to playing villains in straight-to-video films that turn up on Channel 5".

McDowell appeared in the action film Blue Thunder (1983) as F.E. Cochrane, and the horror remake Cat People (1982).

In 1983, he starred in Get Crazy as Reggie Wanker, a parody of Mick Jagger.

Also in 1983, McDowell starred as the Wolf (Reginald von Lupen) in Faerie Tale Theatre's rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" (his wife at that time, Mary Steenburgen, played Little Red Riding Hood).

In 1984, he narrated the documentary The Compleat Beatles.

He is known in Star Trek circles as "the man who killed Captain Kirk", appearing in the film Star Trek Generations (1994) in which he played the mad scientist Dr. Tolian Soran, and several overzealous Star Trek fans even issued death threats for this.

McDowell appeared in several computer games, most notably as Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn in the Wing Commander series of computer games.

His appearance in Wing Commander III marked the series transition from 2D pre-rendered cutscenes to live-action cutscenes.

His appearance in Wing Commander IV was during the final days of video game live action cutscenes.

In 1995, he co-starred with actress and artist Lori Petty in the science fiction/action comedy film Tank Girl.

Here, he played the villain Dr. Kesslee, the evil director of the global Water and Power Company, whose main goal in the story was to control the planet's entire water supply on a future desert-like, post-apocalyptic Earth.

McDowell appeared in a 2000 episode of the animated series South Park, which was a comedic retelling of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.

He had recurring roles on Entourage (2005–2011) and Heroes (2006–2007), starring roles on Franklin & Bash (2011–2014) and Mozart in the Jungle (2014–2018), and has played Patrick "Pop" Critch on the Canadian series Son of a Critch since 2022.

He has also voiced characters in various animated shows, films and video games, including Metallo on Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, Vater Orlaag in Metalocalypse, Dr. Calico in Bolt, President Eden in Fallout 3, Molag Bal in The Elder Scrolls Online, and Dr. Monty in Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

McDowell is the recipient of an Evening Standard British Film Award, alongside nominations for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

He also played Dr. Samuel Loomis in the 2007 remake of Halloween and its sequel, Halloween II (2009).

Gloria later had a son, actor Alexander Siddig, alongside whom McDowell would appear in the film Doomsday (2008).

The family moved to Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, where McDowell's father was stationed at the nearby RAF Carnaby.

They then moved to Liverpool, where McDowell grew up and as a teenager took a job in a Planters nut factory in nearby Aintree, as well as working at his father's pub, The Bull and Dog, in Burscough, Lancashire.

He began taking acting classes while in school, later moving to London in order to train as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

McDowell initially secured work as an extra with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

A landmark of British countercultural cinema, the BFI named if.... the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century.