Malcolm McDowell

Malcolm McDowell (born Malcolm John Taylor; 13 June 1943) is a British actor, producer, and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Alex DeLarge in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' He was born in the Horsforth suburb of Leeds and raised in Liverpool. He later trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before embarking on an acting career that has spanned over 50 years.

He is also known for playing the title character in ''Caligula'' (1979), and Mick Travis in the trilogy of '' if....'' (1968), ''O Lucky Man!'' (1973), and '' Britannia Hospital'' (1982). He has also appeared in films such as '' Time After Time'' (1979), '' Cat People'' (1982), ''Blue Thunder'' (1983), '' Star Trek Generations'' (1994), '' Tank Girl'' (1995), '' Gangster No. 1'' (2000), '' Easy A'' (2010), '' The Artist'' (2011) and '' Bombshell'' (2019). He also appeared as Dr. Samuel Loomis in the 2007 remake ''Halloween'' and its 2009 sequel, '' Halloween II''.

McDowell has also had a string of roles on television series such as recurring roles on '' Entourage'' (2005–2011) and '' Heroes'' (2006–2007), and starring roles on '' Franklin & Bash'' (2011–2014) and '' Mozart in the Jungle'' (2014–2018). Later in his career, he became a prolific voice actor in films, television series and video games such as '' Metalocalypse'' (2007–2012), '' Bolt'' (2008), '' Fallout 3'' (2008), ''God of War III'' (2010), ''The Elder Scrolls Online'' (2014), '' Call of Duty: Black Ops III'' (2015) and ''Castlevania'' (2020). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
He is having a reprise in the Canadian comedy series '' Son of a Critch'' set in 1980s Newfoundland and Labrador, where he plays the mischievous patriarch and grandfather in the family who has to share a room with his youngest grandson. It airs on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC).

Early life

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. 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).

Career

Acting

McDowell initially secured work as an extra with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He made his film debut as school rebel Mick Travis in '' if....'' (1968) by British director Lindsay Anderson. A landmark of British countercultural cinema, the BFI named ''if....'' the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century. McDowell's next roles were in '' Figures in a Landscape'' (1970) and ''The Raging Moon'' (1971). 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 sadist 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). 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 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). 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''. In the episode, McDowell played the real-life narrator of the story in live action, introducing himself simply as "a British person," in a parody of '' Masterpiece Theatre'', and its ex-host, Alistair Cooke

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