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David Suchet |
| David Suchet | |||||||
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 David Suchet in 2003 |
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| Born | David Suchet 2 May 1946 London, England |
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| Occupation | Actor | ||||||
| Years active | 1970-present | ||||||
| Spouse(s) | Sheila Ferris (1976-present) | ||||||
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David Suchet (pronunced "soo-shay" /ˈsuːʃeɪ/), OBE (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination.
He is perhaps best known though, for his role as the main character, Hercule Poirot in the British TV drama Poirot, alongside Hugh Fraser and Pauline Moran.123
He is also the younger brother of British Newsreader and TV Presenter, John Suchet.
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Suchet was born in London, the son of Joan (née Jarché), an actress, and Jack Suchet, a doctor who emigrated from South Africa in the 1930s.45 Suchet's father was Jewish and his mother was an Anglican; Suchet was raised in the Anglican religion.647 His brother is John Suchet.
After attending the Wellington School in Somerset, he took an interest in acting and joined the National Youth Theatre at eighteen. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he now serves as a council member.
Suchet began his acting career at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, Berkshire, and retains a great affection for the place, saying that it "fulfils my vision of a perfect theatre". In 1973, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.
After making his first TV appearance in 1970, he made his first appearance on the big screen in the 1980 film version of A Tale of Two Cities. In 1985, he played Blott in the television series Blott on the Landscape. Suchet appeared as Inspector Japp in the 1985 film adaptation of Lord Edgware Dies, screen-name Thirteen at Dinner, with Peter Ustinov portraying Poirot. In 1989 he took the title role himself for the long-running television series Agatha Christie's Poirot.
In 2003, he played ambitious 16th century Englishman Cardinal Wolsey in the 2-part ITV drama Henry VIII opposite Ray Winstone as Henry VIII and Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn.
In May 2006, he played the role of the fallen press baron Robert Maxwell in Maxwell, a BBC2 dramatisation of the final 18 months of Maxwell's life.23 During the same year, he voiced Poirot in the adventure game Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express.
In December 2006, he appeared on the ITV programme Extinct, presented by Sir Trevor McDonald and Zoe Ball, which saw Suchet and seven other well-known celebrities visit critically endangered species of animals and try and plead their case for the viewers so that they would pick up the phone and vote for the animal. The animal with the most votes would receive a large sum of money which would be used to try and save them. Suchet and his animal, the Giant Panda, did not win; however, they finished in the top three. The winners were Pauline Collins and the Bengal Tiger.
At Christmas 2006, he played the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in a BBC adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. From 27 April to 19 May 2007, Suchet performed at The Chichester Festival Theatre in the play The Last Confession.8 He appears in the disaster film Flood, released in August 2007, as the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at a time when London is devastated by flooding. Suchet appeared on daytime TV chat show Loose Women on 6 February 2008 to talk about his film The Bank Job, in which he played Lew Vogel, alongside Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows.
In 2008, he took part in the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, and discovered facts about his family history. Suchet will also be starring in the 11th season of the British TV drama Poirot.
Suchet is due to appear in the British film thriller Act of God as Benjamin Cisco, alongside Max Brown and Jenny Agutter.
Suchet provided the voice of Aslan in Focus on the Family's radio version of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia.
Recently, Suchet performed as the voice of the villainous Dr. Julius No in BBC Radio 4's radio adaptation of Fleming's 5th novel Dr. No.
Suchet also does a number of small appearances and voiceovers for religious dramatic works in accord with his own Christian faith.9
Suchet is vice-president of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust, whose most challenging achievement to date has been securing funding (both via an appeal and from influencing government decisions) concerning the building of the new M6 Toll motorway where it cuts the lines of the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal, both of which the Trust wishes to see reopened. He has also been officially voted in as chairman of the River Thames Alliance in November 2005.10 At the July 2006 Annual General Meeting of the River Thames Alliance, he agreed to continue being chairman for another year.
Suchet's first major award was the Royal Television Society's award for best male actor for A Song for Europe in 1985. His performance as Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot in the television series Poirot earned him a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination. In preparation for the role he says that he has read every novel and short story and compiled an extensive file on Poirot.123
Suchet was given a Variety Club Award in 1994 for best actor for portraying John in David Mamet's play Oleanna at the Royal Court Theatre, London. He later won another Variety Club Award (as well as a 2000 Tony nomination for best performance by a leading actor in a play) for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in a revival of Amadeus.
Suchet was nominated for another Royal Television Society award in 2002 for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now, which also earned him a BAFTA nomination. The same year, he was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
On the 10th October 2008, Suchet was awarded an honorary degree for his contributions to the Arts, from the University of Chichester. This was presented by the Vice Chancellor at The Chichester Festival Theatre.
One of his hobbies is photography. His maternal grandfather, James Jarché, was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of the Siege of Sidney Street. Suchet first got into photography when his grandfather gave him a Kodak camera as a present. Suchet also plays the clarinet, taught by Maurice Cowlin.
He affectionately calls his fat suit for Hercule Poirot his "armadillo padding".
He lived in Pinner, a suburb in Greater London for many years.
Suchet has one son, Robert, and a daughter, Katharine, with wife Sheila Ferris. Suchet is the brother of John Suchet, a national news presenter for ITN.
His maternal grandfather was James Jarché, a pioneering photographer.11 The Jarche family was originally Jarchy and were Russian Jews.12 Suchet's maternal grandfather's parents were also Eastern European Jews4 and his paternal grandfather Isidor Shokhet (from shochet, meaning kosher butcher in Hebrew) lived in Kretinga, a city in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (now in Lithuania), and changed his surname to the Germanised Suchedowitz after escaping to Memel, Prussia, and then to Suchet after moving to Cape Town, South Africa.1312
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Suchet, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | English actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2 May 1946 (age 62) |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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