Malcolm McDowell Biography
Born: June 13, 1943
Blue-eyed British actor Malcolm McDowell has a history of playing angry, cruel characters that still managed to be charming. Born in working-class Leeds, England, he sold coffee around Yorkshire before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late '60s. By 1967, he had made his big-screen debut in Poor_Cow, the first feature-length film from director Ken_Loach. Moving to New York, McDowell met director Lindsay_Anderson and appeared in his off-Broadway production of +Look Back in Anger. (He would reprise his role of angry young man Jimmy Porter in the 1980 film version.) He then played Mick Travis, the rebellious boarding school student in If.... (1968), a role he would continue in Anderson's next two films, O_Lucky_Man! (which he co-wrote) and Britannia_Hospital (1982). Director Stanley_Kubrick took notice of his work with Anderson and gave McDowell his international breakthrough with A_Clockwork_Orange, based upon the novel by Anthony_Burgess. His portrayal of the sadistic Alex earned him two Best Actor nominations, but also cemented a dark image that would persist throughout his career. He would occasionally get breaks with characters such as Captain Flashman, the hero in the adventure satire Royal_Flash or the naïve fighter in the WWI drama Aces_High. But his unscrupulous reputation was reinforced in 1979, when he starred in the title role as the Roman emperor in Bob_Guccione's notorious production of Caligula. He made his first American film the same year, playing H.G. Wells in Time_After_Time alongside young actress Mary_Steenburgen (they were married from 1980-1990). McDowell went on to star in the horror remake Cat_People, the action-adventure Blue_Thunder, and the rock musical-comedy Get_Crazy. McDowell made several TV movies toward the late '80s, including Gulag, Arthur the King, and Monte_Carlo. After a serious bout with a persistent drug problem, his hair turned white and he started playing regular villains in largely forgettable U.S. releases. He had better casting luck abroad, such as the leading role in the Russian film Assassin of the Tsar. After a cameo in The_Player in 1992, the actor started lending his voice talent to cartoons, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman:_The_Animated_Series, Biker Mice From Mars, and the features The Fist of the North Star and Happily_Ever_After. He also provided the voice of Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn for the *Wing Commander video game series and subsequent cartoon. His villainous roles started to gravitate toward science fiction with Tank_Girl, Cyborg 3: The Recycler, and, most notably, Dr. Soran in Star_Trek:_Generations. On television, he played the evil Benny Barrett on the BBC series Our Friends in the North and the sinister Mr. Roarke on the ABC revival series Fantasy_Island. In the late '90s, he appeared in a lot of direct-to-video and made-for-cable movies before making a return to U.K. theatrical features with the family drama My_Life_So_Far in 1999 and Gangster_No._1 in 2000. In 2003, he appeared in the horseracing film Hidalgo, Robert_Altman's The_Company, and the Russian film Evilenko as serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
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