Leigh Lawson

Last updated

Leigh Lawson
Born (1945-07-21) 21 July 1945 (age 78)
Atherstone, Warwickshire, England
Occupation(s)Actor, director, writer
Years active1969–present
Spouse
​
(m. 1988)​
Partner Hayley Mills (1975–1984)
Children2

Allan Leigh Lawson (born 21 July 1945) is an English actor, director and writer.

Contents

Life and career

Lawson was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire. He initially studied at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts [1] before training further at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, and has directed plays in the West End and on Broadway. He has worked with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and with film directors such as Roman Polanski and Franco Zeffirelli. He has been quoted as saying that the only time in his career when he didn't feel he should be somewhere else doing something else was when he was with the RSC. [2] Lawson's portrayals in films include Bernardo in Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972) and Alec d'Urberville in Tess (1979). He played the leading role as Alan Lomax in the television drama series Travelling Man (1984–85), and guest starred in television series such as The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), Disraeli (1978), Feuer und Schwert - Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde (1982), The Ray Bradbury Theatre (1988) and Silent Witness (2005–2007). He also guested, with his wife Twiggy, playing themselves in an episode of the comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous (2001).

In 1999 Lawson co-wrote and directed the musical If Love Were All, which tells of the friendship between Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward. The Dream: An Actor's Story, a theatrical memoir about the day-to-day life of a working actor, was published in September 2009. ( ISBN   978-1-84002-867-6)

Personal life

In 1976, Lawson and his first wife, Mondy, were divorced. He met the actress Hayley Mills in 1975, when they performed in London's West End in A Touch of Spring; the following year, they had a son, Jason. [3] Lawson also served as a stepfather to Crispian Mills, Mills's son with director Roy Boulting. During that time, he appeared with Mills's father, John Mills, in the film The Devil's Advocate (1977). Lawson and Mills ended their relationship in the mid-1980s.

Lawson met the model Twiggy in 1984. In 1988, they both worked in the film Madame Sousatzka and were married on 23 September that year, in Tony Walton's back yard in Sag Harbor, Long Island. [4] The couple reside in West London and also own a home in Southwold, Suffolk. [5]

He adopted Twiggy's daughter, Carly, who took his surname. [6] Lawson has played a large part in the lives of his children and of his nephew, Saul Dismont, who is the son of Lawson's sister and Bermuda politician Russell Dismont. [7]

Partial filmography

Stage appearances

Directed

Related Research Articles

<i>Tess of the dUrbervilles</i> 1891 novel by Thomas Hardy

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, then in book form in three volumes in 1891, and as a single volume in 1892. Although now considered a major novel of the 19th century, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England. Tess was portrayed as a fighter for her rights and for the rights of others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Kendal</span> English actress

Felicity Ann Kendal is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, but the role that brought attention to her career was that of Barbara Good in the 1975 television series The Good Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twiggy</span> British model, actress and singer (born 1949)

Dame Lesley Lawson is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliet Mills</span> British-American actress

Juliet Maryon Mills is a British-American actress. She is the daughter of actor Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and the eldest of three siblings; her younger siblings are actress Hayley Mills and director Jonathan Mills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayley Mills</span> English actress (born 1946)

Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is an English actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinéad Cusack</span> Irish stage, television and film actress

Sinéad Moira Cusack is an Irish actress. Her first acting roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, before moving to London in 1969 to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has won the Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for her performance in Sebastian Barry's Our Lady of Sligo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Groener</span> German-born American actor and dancer (born 1951)

Harry Groener is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsay Duncan</span> Scottish actress (born 1950)

Lindsay Vere Duncan is a Scottish actress. She is the recipient of three BAFTA nominations and one Scottish BAFTA nomination, as well as two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her work on stage. She has starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Duncan's film credits include Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Reflecting Skin (1990), City Hall (1996), An Ideal Husband, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Mansfield Park, Under the Tuscan Sun, AfterLife, Starter for 10 (2006), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), About Time (2013), Birdman (2014), and Blackbird (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Godley</span> English actor (b. 1964)

Adam Godley is a British / American actor. He has been nominated for two Tony Awards and four Laurence Olivier Awards for his performances on the New York and London stages, including Private Lives in 2001, The Pillowman in 2002, Anything Goes in 2011, and The Lehman Trilogy in 2019. He made his Broadway debut in 2002 in a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives for which he earned a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway debut. In 2011, he returned to Broadway in the musical Anything Goes for which he earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination. In 2021, The Lehman Trilogy made its Broadway transfer to great critical acclaim, and securing Godley another Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play.

Reece Dinsdale is an English actor and director of stage, film and television. He is a Huddersfield Town fan. In 2017 he became a patron of the Square Chapel, an arts centre in Halifax. He is also an honorary patron of The Old Courts multi-arts centre in Wigan

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Walter</span> British actress (born 1950)

Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. Known for her extensive work in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company productions, Walter has received an Olivier Award as well as nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Sinclair (actor)</span> British actor

Malcolm Sinclair is a British stage and television actor and former President of Trade Union, Equity 2010–18 when he stood down after 4 terms and was replaced by Maureen Beattie. He played Assistant Chief Constable Freddy Fisher in the television series Pie in the Sky from 1994 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Pasco</span> British actor

Richard Edward Pasco, was a British stage, screen and TV actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Fielding</span> English actress

Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding is an English actress.

Thea Sharrock is an English theatre and film director. In 2001, when at age 24 she became artistic director of London's Southwark Playhouse, she was the youngest artistic director in British theatre.

Bríd Brennan is an Irish actress who is known for her film, TV and theatre work. She originated the role of Agnes in the Brian Friel play Dancing at Lughnasa, for which she won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She is also a three-time Olivier Award nominee; for Rutherford and Son (1995), The Little Foxes (2002) and The Ferryman (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Urquhart (actor)</span> Scottish actor (1921–1995)

Robert Urquhart was a Scottish character actor who worked on the stage, for British television, and in film. His breakthrough role was Paul Krempe in The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, along with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

<i>Pretty Polly</i> (film) 1967 British film

Pretty Polly is a 1967 British comedy film directed by Guy Green and based on the short story Pretty Polly Barlow by Noël Coward. It stars Hayley Mills, Shashi Kapoor, Trevor Howard and Brenda De Banzie. The film is largely set in Singapore.

Russell Dismont was from a respected black Bermudian family of the time. Despite racial discrimination typical of that period, his father Albert Hilgrove Dismont had become a successful businessman and was the first black man to own a property and business in the totally white-owned city of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital. In 1988, his other son Cecil became the first black Mayor of the city. In 2003, the road 'Dismont Drive' was named in his honour, in recognition of his service and the family's contribution to Bermuda.

Allan George Davis was an Anglo-Australian actor, director for film and theatre, and producer for film and television.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.