Michael Roy Kitchen (born 31 October 1948) is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as
Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the
ITV drama ''
Foyle's War'', which comprised eight series between 2002 and 2015. He also played the role of
Bill Tanner in two
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
films opposite
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...
, and that of John Farrow in
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 's comedy series ''
Brian Pern''.
Early life
Michael Roy Kitchen was born in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
, to parents Arthur and Betty Kitchen.
He attended the
City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School,
where he appeared on stage in a production of ''
Cymbeline
''Cymbeline'' (), also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in British Iron Age, Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concer ...
''.
He is the firstborn son. His brother, Jeffrey, was born three years later in 1951. He grew up at 102 Wilberforce Rd, west of the current De Montfort campus. He was a senior scout in the 57th Leicester Scout group. Aged 15, he was selected to a few weeks training at the National Youth Theatre. He completed a year after school at the
Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.
An opportunity arose when
Leicester City Council offered him a grant to study at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
(RADA) in London,
which he gratefully accepted, graduating in 1969, with an Acting (RADA Diploma).
Career
Television and film
Kitchen's film career started in 1971 with an appearance in the film ''
Unman, Wittering and Zigo'' (1971),
and the
Hammer
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
film ''
Dracula A.D. 1972'' (1972).
[
His early TV appearances include roles in '' Man at the Top'' (episode 4 "The Prime of Life", 1970),]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 ...
'' (''Hell's Angels'' by David Agnew, 1971),Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff (born 1 December 1952) is a British playwright, Film director, director and screenwriter. In 2006 Gerard Gilbert of ''The Independent'' described him as the UK's "pre-eminent TV dramatist" and that he had "inherited Dennis Po ...
's '' Caught on a Train'',Edmund
Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings and nobles
*Ed ...
in the BBC Television Shakespeare
The ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' is a series of British television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to ...
production of ''King Lear
''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...
'',[ Also in 1979 Kitchen appeared in an episode ("Runner") of the hard-hitting police drama '' The Professionals''. He played the role of Duffy, a renegade former member of an organised crime network.
His other roles at this time include Larner in the film '' Breaking Glass'' (1980),][ Berkeley Cole in the film '' Out of Africa'' (1985),][ the King in '' To Play the King'' (1993), a performance for which he was nominated for a BAFTA,][ an English land agent during the Irish Famine in '' The Hanging Gale'' (1995), for which he won a Golden FIPA award in 1996, and a recurring role as Bill Tanner in the Bond films '']GoldenEye
''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent James Bond (lit ...
'' (1995)[ and '']The World Is Not Enough
''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent Jam ...
'' (1999).[ '']Fatherland
A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic nation ...
'' (1994),Mrs Dalloway
''Mrs Dalloway'' is a novel by Virginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925. It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional upper-class woman in post-First World War England.
The working title of ''Mrs Dalloway'' was ''The Hours ...
'' (1997), '' The Railway Children'' (2000),[ '' Proof of Life'' (2000),][ and '' My Week with Marilyn'' (2011).
Between 2002 and 2015, he starred in the award-winning ITV mystery-drama '' Foyle's War'' as the lead character Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle; he was also a producer for the show, which comprised eight series.][ His other noted appearances include '']The Buccaneers
''The Buccaneers'' is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. The story is set in the 1870s, around the time Wharton was a young girl. It was unfinished work, unfinished at the time of her death in 1937 and published in that form in 1938. Whar ...
'' as Sir Helmsley Thwaite (1995), '' Dandelion Dead'' (1994), '' A Royal Scandal'' (1996),Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...
, Paul Abbott's ''Alibi'' in 2003,Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
's phone hacking comedy telemovie ''Hacks'' (2012).
Kitchen has guest-starred in roles in other popular British television shows such as '' Minder'',[ '']Chancer
''Chancer'' is a British television crime drama serial, produced by Central Independent Television for ITV, that first broadcast on 6 March 1990. Starring Clive Owen in the title role of Stephen Crane, ''Chancer'' tells the story of a likable c ...
'', ''Inspector Morse
Endeavour Morse, GM, is the namesake character of the series of "Morse" detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, a Detective Chief Inspector in the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England.
On television he was portrayed by John ...
'',[ '' A Touch of Frost'',][ '' Between the Lines'',][ He played Richard Crane in '' Reckless'']
Theatre
Kitchen is also a noted theatre actor. His roles have ranged from Ptolemy in '' Caesar and Cleopatra'' at the Belgrade Theatre in 1966, to Will in Howard Brenton
Howard John Brenton FRSL (born 13 December 1942) is an English playwright and screenwriter, often ranked alongside contemporaries such as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, and David Hare.
Early years
Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, so ...
's '' Magnificence'' at the Royal Court
A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word ''court'' may also be app ...
in 1973, to William Hogarth in Nick Dear's '' The Art of Success'' in 1986–87.
He played Mercutio in ''Romeo and Juliet
''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
'' for the RSC at Stratford and was a member of the National Theatre Company and the Young Vic, where he played Iago in ''Othello
''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...
''. In 1974 he appeared at Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
'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
Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Britis ...
in Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...
's '' No Man's Land'', directed by Peter Hall. In 1981 he played Melchior, the manservant of Zangler, in Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
's play '' On the Razzle''. In 1984 he played the cabin steward Dvornicheck in Stoppard's play '' Rough Crossing''.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
Michael Kitchen
BFI
Michael Kitchen Messageboard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchen, Michael
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
English male film actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
People educated at City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School
Male actors from Leicester
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
National Youth Theatre members
English male Shakespearean actors