Simon MacCorkindale

Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale (12 February 1952 – 14 October 2010) was a British actor, film director, writer, and producer.

He spent much of his childhood moving around owing to his father's career as an officer with the Royal Air Force.

Poor eyesight prevented him from following a similar career in the RAF, so he instead planned to become a theatre director.

MacCorkindale was born on 12 February 1952 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, to Scottish parents Gilliver Mary (née Pendered) and Peter Bernard MacCorkindale OBE, who died in September 2007.

Simon had a brother, Duncan.

Their father was an RAF Group Captain station commander.

MacCorkindale spent some of his childhood in Edinburgh, where his father was stationed for a period, although Peter MacCorkindale's changing postings necessitated 17 moves to places across Europe.

He attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College from 1965 to 1970, where he was Head Boy and a member of the Air Training Corps.

Originally intending to enlist in the RAF, he abandoned this plan at the age of 13 when his eyesight began to deteriorate.

MacCorkindale considered joining the diplomatic corps to become an ambassador, but instead opted to become a stage director after developing an interest in theatre.

MacCorkindale had been a fan of theatre since writing a play at the age of eight, joking that it was "unproduceable" because "it required an enormous cast and a considerable amount of rum drinking."

Making his acting debut at the same age, he went on to appear on stage and work behind the scenes of numerous school and theatre group productions throughout his childhood.

Persuading his parents that he would find a "sensible job" if a career as a director was not sustaining him financially by the age of 25, MacCorkindale decided not to study at university and instead attended the Studio 68 drama school at the Theatre of Arts in London.

MacCorkindale opted to continue acting after graduating from the Theatre of Arts; he decided to amass more experience in the role to have better confidence as a director.

MacCorkindale started his acting career in theatre, touring the United Kingdom with a repertory theatre group.

His first professional stage performance was in a 1973 run of A Bequest to the Nation at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.

In 1973, the series Hawkeye, The Pathfinder had given MacCorkindale his first TV credit.

He went on to appear in a number of other TV series, including Within These Walls, Sutherland's Law, I, Claudius (as Lucius Caesar) and Jesus of Nazareth.

Training at Studio 68 of Theatre Arts in London, he started work as an actor, making his West End debut in 1974.

He made his West End theatre debut in a production of Pygmalion in 1974, appearing alongside Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg in the role of "Sarcastic Bystander".

MacCorkindale's film debut came in 1974 with Juggernaut.

He went on to appear in numerous roles in television, including the series I, Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, before starring as Simon Doyle in the film Death on the Nile (1978).

This proved to be a breakthrough role and allowed him to move to the United States.

He was cast as Simon Doyle in the 1978 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile at the age of 25.

The role boosted MacCorkindale's public profile and he considered it to be his career break.

He won the London Evening Standard Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for this part.

He appeared in a variety of films and TV series including Quatermass (1979), The Riddle of the Sands (1979), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) and Jaws 3-D (1983).

MacCorkindale went on to star as sailor and spy Arthur Davies in The Riddle of the Sands (1979), the film adaptation of the celebrated Erskine Childers' novel.

MacCorkindale played astronomer Joe Kapp in Nigel Kneale's TV serial Quatermass (1979), starring alongside John Mills.

He had previously starred in an episode of Kneale's series Beasts and enjoyed appearing in the role of Kapp, finding it a change from the typecast romantic roles that he had become accustomed to playing, while noting that it was "challenging" conveying the character's strong Jewish faith.

Kneale later expressed disappointment with MacCorkindale's performance, commenting, "We had him in Beasts playing an idiot and he was very good at that".

Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s he directed and produced many stage, TV and film productions through his company Amy International Artists, such as the film Stealing Heaven (1988).

Moving to Canada, he starred as Peter Sinclair in the series Counterstrike for three years.

Following the success of Death on the Nile, MacCorkindale moved to the United States in 1980.

Although warned that it would limit his chance of finding work, MacCorkindale refused to adopt an American accent when auditioning, believing that his British diction would help fill a "niche".

However, for two years he failed at the audition stage for all major parts on account of his nationality.

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) told MacCorkindale that he was not an "eight o'clock actor", which he took to mean that "at that time of night they didn't want viewers watching someone who sounded intellectual or who had an accent that was alien to their ears and, therefore, hard work when it came to listening."

During this time he appeared in single-episode roles in series such as Dynasty, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Matt Houston and The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as playing David Clement, an aristocrat, in the mini-series Manions of America.

In 1983, MacCorkindale starred in the short-lived series Manimal as the lead character, Dr. Jonathan Chase, before taking up the longer-running role of lawyer Greg Reardon in Falcon Crest.

He returned to the United Kingdom in 2002 and joined the cast of the BBC medical drama Casualty, appearing in the role of Harry Harper for six years until 2008.