Mark Umbers

Mark Umbers
Born	(1973-06-17) 17 June 1973 (age 50) Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Nationality	English
Education	Malsis School Sedbergh School
Alma mater	Oxford University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1995–present

Mark Umbers (born 17 June 1973) is an English theatre, film and television actor.

Early life and education

Born in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, Umbers was brought up in Wetherby and was educated at Malsis School before attending Sedbergh School. In 1995 he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Latin and Greek Literature and Philosophy.

Career

Umbers' first professional engagements were in 1997 in the BBC dramas The Student Prince and Berkeley Square . ^[1] His theatre debut was the lead role in a production of The Pirates of Penzance which transferred to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. ^{[2] [3]}

Trevor Nunn and John Caird cast Umbers in their multi-award-winning 1999 season at the Royal National Theatre, where he appeared in productions including The Merchant of Venice , which was later filmed for broadcast by the BBC. ^[4] After playing Lord Sidney opposite Richard E. Grant in the BBC series The Scarlet Pimpernel , ^[5] Umbers returned to the National to play Freddy in the acclaimed 2001 revival of My Fair Lady, later transferring to Theatre Royal Drury Lane. ^[6] In her Evening Standard review, Zoe Williams suggested that Umbers was ‘known throughout the western world as the most beautiful man ever seen’. ^[7]

In 2002 Umbers appeared alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor in The Vortex, Michael Grandage's inaugural production at the Donmar Warehouse. ^[8]

In 2004, he was cast opposite Scarlett Johansson in A Good Woman . ^[9]

In 2005, he played the lead role of Perkin Warbeck in Channel 4's historical drama Princes in the Tower. ^[10] After playing opposite Anjelica Huston and Lauren Bacall in These Foolish Things , ^{[11] [12]} his third role that year was alongside John Malkovich in Colour Me Kubrick . ^{[13] [14]} He then played Lt. Robert Maynard in the mini-series Blackbeard (2006) opposite Jessica Chastain. ^[15]

In 2007, Umbers played the Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie alongside Jessica Lange in the West End to critical acclaim. ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]} Later that year Steven Soderbergh cast Umbers as Roth in Che: Part Two . ^[20] The following year, he starred in the second series of the BBC drama Mistresses ^[21] and the BBC film of The Turn of the Screw , playing the Master opposite Michelle Dockery. ^[22]

The Menier Chocolate Factory cast Umbers in their revival of Sweet Charity , the first production of the show to have only one leading man, ^[23] with Umbers playing all the love-interest roles. The production transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2010. ^{[24] [25]} Of Umbers' performance, Michael Coveney wrote in The Independent that "it's unusual to have such a level of performance in a musical...and it raises everyone else's game." ^[26]

After appearing in the ITV drama Eternal Law, in 2011 Umbers played Frank Hunter in The Browning Version opposite Anna Chancellor at Chichester Festival Theatre. The play was performed in a double bill with David Hare's new play South Downs and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London in April 2012. ^{[27] [28]}

Umbers returned to the Menier Chocolate Factory in November 2012, to play the central role of Franklin Shepard in Maria Friedman's multi-award-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along . ^{[29] [30] [31]} The production transferred with its original cast to the Harold Pinter Theatre on 1 May 2013, ^{[32] [33] [34]} receiving (at that time) more 5 star reviews than any other production in West End history, ^[35] along with the Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and the Olivier Award for Best Musical revival. The production was filmed and subsequently screened in cinemas worldwide. ^[36]

Between 2014 and 2016, Umbers played Wing Commander Nick Lucas in the ITV and PBS World War Two drama Home Fires. After playing the lead role of Georg in She Loves Me at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2016, ^[37] he played Robert Walsh in David Hare's Netflix series Collateral alongside Carey Mulligan. ^[38]

In August 2017, he reprised his role as Franklin Shepard in Merrily We Roll Along for Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, again directed by Friedman. The Boston Globe described his performance as "simply extraordinary". ^[39] HuffPost cited Stephen Sondheim as having said that Umbers was the best in the role that he had ever seen. ^[40] Ben Brantley wrote in the New York Times: "For the first time in my experience, Frank is the beating, shattered heart of the show...a consequence Mr. Umbers’s startlingly sympathetic performance of a (usually unsympathetic) man to whom fame happens." ^[41]

Umbers played Roger Moore in the HBO Hervé Villechaize biopic My Dinner with Hervé . Umbers and Peter Dinklage recreated the fight scene between James Bond and villain Nick Nack from The Man with the Golden Gun for the film. ^{[42] [43]}

As of 2023, Umbers is currently playing Cecil Ainsworth in the ITV drama Hotel Portofino.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon	PC Denham
2004	A Good Woman	Robert Windemere
2005	Colour Me Kubrick	Piers
2005	These Foolish Things	Douglas Middleton
2017	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword	Baron #2
2020	Dolittle	Lieutenant

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	The Prince of Hearts	Elliot	Television movie
1998	Silent Witness	Male Student	Episodes: "An Academic Exercise: Parts 1 & 2"
1998	Berkeley Square	Sidney Chambers	Episode: "Gone a'Hunting"
1998	Casualty	Nick Worthington	Episodes: "Internal Inferno: Parts 1 & 2"
1999	The Bill	David Webster	Episode: "Long Term Investment"
2000	Trust	Simon	Television movie
2000	The Scarlet Pimpernel	Lord Sidney	Episode: "A Good Name"
2001	Masterpiece Theatre	Solanio	Episode: "The Merchant of Venice"
2003	Foyle's War	Rex Talbot	Episode: "Among the Few"
2004	Midsomer Murders	Neville Williams	Episode: "Sins of Commission"
2005	Princes in the Tower	Perkin Warbeck	Television movie
2006	Pirates:The True Story of Blackbeard	Lt. Robert Maynard	3 episodes Television miniseries
2007	Heartbeat	Jimbo Brady	Episode: "Out of Africa"
2008	Midsomer Murders	Harry Fitzroy	Episode: "Blood Wedding"
2008	Harley Street	James Davison	Episode: #1.4
2009	Mistresses	Dan Tate	6 episodes
2009	The Turn of the Screw	Master	Television movie
2012	Eternal Law	Major John Parker	2 episodes
2014	Agatha Christie: Ordeal by Innocence	Calgary	3 episodes Television miniseries
2015–2016	Home Fires	Nick Lucas	11 episodes
2018	Collateral	Robert Walsh	2 episodes Television miniseries
2018	My Dinner with Hervé	Roger Moore	Television movie
2019	Father Brown	Nicholai Solovey	Episode: "The Honourable Thief"
2020	Grantchester	Wyatt Rogers	Episode: #5.3
2020	Brave New World	Warden Cortez	Episode: "Want & Consequence"
2022	Hotel Portofino	Cecil Ainsworth	Main role

References

1. IMDb, Mark Umbers
2. Miles Kington article in The Independent 1998
3. Michael Billington's Guardian review of The Pirates of Penzance, 2000
4. Masterpiece Theater, The Merchant of Venice
5. IMDb The Scarlet Pimpernel: A Good Name
6. Variety review "My Fair Lady" 20 March 2001
7. "Fair Lady fails to impress all". 10 April 2012.
8. Shenton, Mark (11 December 2002). "In the grip of the Vortex". BBC. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
9. Washington Post review of A Good Woman 2006
10. Sydney Morning Herald interview with Mark Umbers, 2008
11. IMDb credits, These Foolish Things
12. "These foolish things".
13. IMDb credits, Color Me Kubrick
14. Austin Chronicle review, Color Me Kubrick
15. Laura Fries review of Blackbeard, Variety 2006
16. Financial Times review The Glass Menagerie 2007
17. Review round-up The Glass Menagerie 2007
18. Evening Standard review The Glass Menagerie 2007
19. "'The Entertainer' outshines 2 other revivals on London stage (Published 2007)". The New York Times .
20. IMDb credits, Che: Part Two
21. BBC press release: Mistresses
22. BBC press release: The Turn of the Screw, 2009
23. Official London Theatre interview, 2010
24. The Spectator review Sweet Charity 2009
25. The Independent review Sweet Charity 2009
26. The Independent review Sweet Charity 2010
27. "South Downs/The Browning Version, Harold Pinter Theatre, review". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 22 October 2021.
28. The Arts Desk review The Browning Version 2012
29. "Merrily We Roll Along – review". The Guardian . 28 November 2012. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022.
30. The Arts Desk review Merrily We Roll Along 2012
31. "London Theater Journal: Memory Plays". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 8 March 2022.
32. "Merrily We Roll Along, The Harold Pinter Theatre, review". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 7 April 2023.
33. The Independent review Merrily We Roll Along 2013
34. Daily Express review Merrily We Roll Along 2013
35. Official London Theatre, 2013
36. New York Times article by Ben Brantley, October 2013
37. The Observer review of She Loves Me, 2016
38. Digital Spy, 2018
39. Boston Globe review of Merrily We Roll Along, September 2017
40. HuffPost interview with Mark Umbers, August 2017
41. Ben Brantley's New York Times review of Merrily We Roll Along, October 2017
42. Sir Roger Moore on Twitter, 2017
43. Mark Umbers interview, October 2018

External links

• Mark Umbers at IMDb
• Profile, unitedagents.co.uk