Peter Egan | |
---|---|
Born | Peter Joseph Egan 28 September 1946 |
Occupation(s) | Actor, activist |
Years active | 1967–present |
Spouse | |
Children | Rebecca Egan (step-daughter) [1] |
Website | peter-egan |
Peter Joseph Egan (born 28 September 1946) is a British actor.
He is known for his television roles, including Hogarth in Big Breadwinner Hog , the future George IV of the United Kingdom in Prince Regent (1979); smooth neighbour Paul Ryman in the sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89); and Hugh "Shrimpie" MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire, in Downton Abbey (2012–15).
Egan was born on 28 September 1946 in Hampstead, London, the son of Doris (née Pick) and Michael Thomas Egan, who is of Irish descent. [2] [3] He was educated at St George's Catholic School, Maida Vale. [4] He also attended the London Oratory School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. [4] [5]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2024) |
Egan's first stage performance was in Charlie Girl. His first television role was as the sex-and-cinema-obsessed Seth Starkadder in a BBC serialisation of Cold Comfort Farm (1968). In 1969, he had come to notoriety as the acid-throwing gangster Hogarth in the controversial Granada series Big Breadwinner Hog . Later, he had other starring roles: as John Everett Millais in the BBC serial The Love School (1975); as Oscar Wilde in the serial Lillie (1978), starring Francesca Annis as Lillie Langtry; as Magnus Pym in the BBC dramatisation of John le Carré's A Perfect Spy (1987) and another BBC sitcom, Joint Account (1989–90).
Egan played the title role in the BBC series Prince Regent (1979), and was a sinister immortal Knight Templar in Michael J. Bird's BBC series The Dark Side of the Sun (1983). Egan also played Fothergill in the television series Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). In 1986, he had the role of Henry Simcox in the television dramatization of John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed .
In 1988, he narrated the Video 125 drivers eye view 1066DC, which was a cab ride in a Network Southeast class 411 4CEP EMU from Hastings to London. He also guest-starred in episodes of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries ("A New Lease of Death," 1991) and A Touch of Frost ("Private Lives," 1999).
Other roles have included the character Michael Cochrane in the programme The Ambassador (1998), and (on film) as the suave secret agent Meres in television spin-off Callan (1974), and the Duke of Sutherland in Chariots of Fire (1981). In 2007, Egan took the role of Victor in the film Death at a Funeral . In 2009, he toured as lead Sir Hugo Latymer in Nikolai Foster's revival of Noël Coward's A Song at Twilight . [6] He is the narrator for the US and UK versions of Forza Motorsport 3 and its sequel, Forza Motorsport 4 .
In 2012, Egan first appeared as Hugh "Shrimpie" MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire, in the Christmas special episode of ITV's Downton Abbey . For the drama's fifth series, Shrimpie became a recurring character; he also briefly appeared in series six. Later that same year, Egan appeared in Alan Bennett's People , alongside Frances de la Tour, at the National Theatre.
Also in 2012, he narrated a new recording of Rick Wakeman's album, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, based on the story by Jules Verne. [7]
Egan is a longtime animal lover and vegan. Starting in 2010, he began to campaign publicly on behalf of animal rights. [8]
Egan is an ambassador for the dog rescue Saving Suffering Strays in Sarajevo, Bosnia. He and his wife Myra adopted their Bosnian dog Tidus from this dog rescue. He continues to give support to stray street dogs of Sarajevo and their lone rescuer Milena Malesevic. [9]
Egan is an active ambassador for the Animals Asia Foundation, which is a charity that works to end cruelty to animals in Asia. [10] He is also patron of "All Dogs Matter", a dog rescue and rehoming charity in and around London and Norfolk. [11] He is also an ambassador for the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon, a wildlife sanctuary for animals rescued from the illegal bushmeat and pet trades. [12]
In May 2015, Egan became Patron of Chaldon Animal Sanctuary, a charity that offers homes for life for dogs and cats. Egan personally took one of the Bosnian dogs now named Crusoe to the sanctuary in May. [13] Three months later, Egan was announced as patron of the science-based campaign For Life On Earth (FLOE), which fights against animal testing in the field of human medical research. [14]
In January 2016, Egan participated in Veganuary, and has remained vegan. [15]
In 2018 Peter Egan joined Animal Equality UK inside a foie gras farm in France to document the process of force-feeding. [16] Since then, he has supported the animal protection organisation on its campaign to ban the import of foie gras made by force-feeding in the UK. [17]
Egan was married to former actress Myra Frances for 49 years until her death from cancer on 30 March 2021. His stepdaughter is Rebecca Egan. [1]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1971 | One Brief Summer | Bill Denton | |
1971 | Elizabeth R | Earl of Southampton | episode: "Sweet England's Pride" |
1972 | The Organization | Pershore | 7 episodes |
1973 | The Hireling | Captain Hugh Cantrip | BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles |
1974 | Callan | Toby Meres | |
1975 | Hennessy | Williams | |
1978 | Lillie | Oscar Wilde | |
1981 | Chariots of Fire | Duke of Sutherland | |
1983 | The Dark Side of the Sun | Raoul Lavallière | 6 episodes |
1984 | To Catch a King | Reinhard Heydrich | |
1984–1989 | Ever Decreasing Circles | Paul Ryman | 27 episodes |
1985 | A Woman of Substance | Adam Fairley | 3 episodes |
1989–1990 | Joint Account | David Braithwaite | 16 episodes |
1987 | A Perfect Spy | Magnus Pym | 5 episodes |
1997 | Bean | Lord Walton | |
1999 | A Touch of Frost | Richard Darrow | Episode "Private Lives" |
2000 | 2001: A Space Travesty | Griffin Pratt | |
2002 | The King's Beard | King Cuthbert | voice |
2004 | The I Inside | Doctor Truman | |
2005 | The Wedding Date | Victor Ellis | |
2005 | Man to Man | Gyllenhaal | |
2007 | Death at a Funeral | Victor | |
2011 | The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings | King Henselt | voice (video game, English version) |
2011 | Midsomer Murders | Norman Swanscombe | Episode: “Not in My Back Yard” |
2012 | National Theatre Live: People | Theodore | |
2012–2015 | Downton Abbey | Hugh 'Shrimpie' MacClare, Marquess of Flintshire | 4 episodes |
2014 | Grantchester | Archie Johnson | 1 episode |
2015–2021 | Unforgotten | Martin Hughes | 24 episodes |
2018 | Midsomer Murders | Grady Palmerston | Episode: “Death of the Small Coppers” |
2018–2019 | Hold the Sunset | Dr Dugdale | 12 episodes |
2020–2022 | After Life | Paul | 6 episodes |
2020 | The Spanish Princess | Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk | 3 episodes |
2024 | Truelove | David | 6 episodes |
Foie gras ; French:[fwaɡʁɑ], ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage.
An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until they were claimed by their owners.
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is an animal rescue centre for dogs and cats. Battersea rescues dogs and cats until their owner or a new one can be found. It is one of the UK's oldest and best known animal rescue centres. It was established in Holloway, London, in 1860 and moved to Battersea in 1871.
Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) is a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organisation. It campaigns against the live export of animals, certain methods of livestock slaughter, and all systems of factory farming. It has received celebrity endorsements and been recognized by BBC Radio 4 for its campaigning. It has grown to a global movement with partners and supporters concerned about the welfare of farm animals.
An animal rescue group or animal rescue organization is a group dedicated to pet adoption. These groups take abandoned, abused, or stray pets and attempt to find suitable homes for them. Many rescue groups are created by and run by volunteers, who take animals into their homes and care for them—including training, playing, handling medical issues, and solving behavior problems—until a suitable permanent home can be found.
The Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) is an American grassroots animal rights organization, founded in 2003, based in California's San Diego and Orange Counties.
Myra Frances was a British actress known for her role in the drama series Survivors and in Doctor Who.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American animal law advocacy organization. Its stated mission is to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It accomplishes this by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm, providing free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes, supporting tough animal protection legislation and fighting legislation harmful to animals, and providing resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. In addition to their national headquarters in Cotati, California, the Animal Legal Defense Fund maintains an office in Portland, Oregon.
Dogs Trust, known until 2003 as the National Canine Defence League, is a British animal welfare charity and humane society which specialises in the well-being of dogs. It is the largest dog welfare charity in the United Kingdom, caring for over 15,000 animals each year. Dogs Trust's primary objective is to protect all dogs in the UK and elsewhere from maltreatment, cruelty and suffering. It focuses on the rehabilitation and rehoming of dogs which have been either abandoned or given up by their owners through rehoming services.
Wendy Turner-Webster is an English journalist, television presenter and animal rights activist.
Farm Sanctuary is an American animal protection organization, founded in 1986 as an advocate for farmed animals. It was America's first shelter for farmed animals. It promotes laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection, and veganism through rescue, education, and advocacy. Farm Sanctuary houses over 800 cows, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigs, sheep, and goats at a 300+ acre animal sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York and more than 100 animals at its location in Acton, California, near Los Angeles.
The production of foie gras involves the controversial force-feeding of birds with more food than they would eat in the wild, and more than they would voluntarily eat domestically. The feed, usually corn boiled with fat, deposits large amounts of fat in the liver, thereby producing the fatty consistency sought by some gastronomes.
Endal was a male Labrador Retriever in Britain whose abilities as a service dog and as an ambassador for service dog charitable work received worldwide news media coverage.
International Animal Rescue (IAR) is a British wildlife protection and conservation non-profit organization. IAR aims to implement strategies which protect and mitigate the threats to wildlife and habitats.
Peter (1941–1952) was a collie dog who in 1945 was awarded the Dickin Medal, considered to be the Victoria Cross for animals. During the later stages of the Second World War he served as a search and rescue dog in London. He attended the 1946 Civil Defence Stand–Down parade, where he was presented to the King and Queen, and Princess Elizabeth. His medal was auctioned in 2000 for £4,600 (US$6,964).
The Swan Sanctuary, Shepperton is a wildlife hospital dedicated to the treatment, care and rehabilitation of swans and wildfowl in the UK and is situated close to the village of Shepperton in area of Middlesex, England. The Swan Sanctuary is registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as Veterinary Premises No. 7002114 – Sally Goulden, B. Vet. Med., Cert. G.P. (SAM), MRCVS
Soi Dog Foundation is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving the welfare of stray dogs and cats across Asia. Its headquarters is in Phuket, Thailand, and it is a legally registered nonprofit organisation in Thailand, US, Canada, Australia, France, UK, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Its primary goal is to care for homeless and abused dogs in Thailand.
Rakesh Shukla is an Indian entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and animal welfare activist. He runs a home in Bangalore for over 700 rescued dogs.
The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) is an influential animal welfare organisation in the United Kingdom. According to The Daily Telegraph, "it is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the Tory Party."