Christopher Malcolm

Christopher Malcolm
Born	(1946-08-19)19 August 1946 Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Died	London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, director and producer
Years active	1968-2011
Spouse(s)	Judy Malcolm
Children	Marlon Malcolm Nell Malcolm Morgan Malcolm
Website	http://www.christophermalcolm.co.uk

Christopher "Chris" Malcolm (19 August 1946 – 15 February 2014) was a Scottish television and film actor, director and producer. He first achieved notability for his role as Brad Majors in the original stage production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Biography

Early life and education

Malcolm was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and was brought up in Canada after his family emigrated to British Columbia in the late 1940s. He attended the University of British Columbia, where he worked and studied theatre.

Career

After university, he returned to the UK and began his professional career with the Royal Shakespeare Company (1966–68). He appeared in at least ten productions and worked with directors including Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and John Barton. Throughout the 1970s, he worked continuously in theatre and film, appearing in many Royal Court productions including the award-winning musical, The Rocky Horror Show creating the role of Brad Majors. He appeared in films including The Empire Strikes Back, Reds, Ragtime, Labyrinth and Highlander.

In 1978, Malcolm began his producing career with Pal Joey, which was successfully transferred to the West End in 1980 and was nominated for best Musical Revival in the Laurence Olivier Awards. He followed this success with the Best Comedy award in 1981 for Nell Dunn's Steaming, which went on to play for two years at the Comedy Theatre and around the world. Other productions in London included Frankie and Johnny, When I Was A Young Girl I Used To Scream And Shout, as well as five Steven Berkoff plays, including Decadence, Greek and Metamorphosis.

In 1990, Malcolm co-produced a new production of The Rocky Horror Show at the Piccadilly Theatre, in partnership with Howard Panter of the Ambassador Theatre Group. This Olivier nominated production went on to huge success throughout the UK, enjoying 4 nationwide tours over the next 10 years as well as many productions throughout the world. He oversaw these productions on behalf of The Rocky Horror Company Ltd, a company formed by the producers and the play's author Richard O'Brien to look after this much loved musical. The show finally reached Broadway in 2000 in a Tony Award-nominated production co-produced with Jordan Roth Productions at the Circle in the Square theatre.

Other British productions throughout this time include The Pajama Game, Footloose the Musical, and the award-winning Single Spies written by Alan Bennett which had a very successful year at the Queen's Theatre. He co-produced the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical which premiered at the Plymouth Theatre Royal in 2008, toured the UK and presented at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2010. He had maintained his interest in acting as well, appearing on 11 episodes of Absolutely Fabulous as Saffy's father, Justin, and in the BBC2 film, Daphne as Nelson Doubleday.

Personal life

Malcolm lived in London with his wife Judy, an actress. She survives him with their three children Nell, Morgan (a playwright and screenwriter) and Marlon and one grandson.

His daughter reported his death from cancer, aged 67, on 15 February 2014, via Twitter.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1972	The Adventures of Barry McKenzie	Sean
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Rebel Force Zev Senesca (Rogue 2)
1981	Reds	Party member
1986	Highlander	Kirk Matunas
	Labyrinth	Father

Television

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1983	Only Fools and Horses	Chief of security
1984-1990	The Comic Strip	Various
1992-2011	Absolutely Fabulous	Justin
1994	Lovejoy	Texas Greenberg

External links

• Official website
• Christopher Malcolm at the Internet Movie Database