Robert Lindsay
Robert Lindsay was born Robert Lindsay Stevenson on December 13 1949 and grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire as one of three children in a close-knit family.
Robert’s father, Mr Norman Stevenson, is a retired carpenter. Robert has often talked affectionately about his father in interviews and has described him as a “very blunt and direct” man. “I’m very proud of my dad. He was a trade unionist, very outspoken. I think I’ve inherited that.” Mr Stevenson is also a veteran of World War II. He has served in the Royal Navy and was on a minesweeper that was one of the first boats to land during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. On the 50th anniversary of D-Day, Robert and his brother took their father to attend the celebrations. “He spent the most precious time of his life in the Navy, from 17-21 and we went out there to experience that with him, to try to understand it as he did”.
Sadly, his mother Mrs Joyce Stevenson passed away in January 2000. She was a well-known and liked member of the Ilkeston community. Robert describes her as “a wonderful mother to her three children” and “a life-force, incredibly vital. She saw all of my work many times. She was very honest when there were things she did not like”. Remembering her love of laughter, he urged mourners at her funeral to also remember her with a smile.
Growing up, Robert mentions being influenced by D H Lawrence, who was born in Eastwood, only five miles from Ilkeston. “D H Lawrence taught English in Room 1 of my old school, Gladstone Boys… I identified with Lawrence early on because he, too, had aspirations to do something else, to get out and travel.” Robert also mentions that as a teenager, his favourite author was Joseph Conrad.
Robert went to a secondary modern school for boys and his career options would have been limited to mining or following his father’s trade, had it not been for his art teacher, who recognizing his potential, introduced and steered him toward the performing arts. After graduating from high-school and encouraged by his parents, Robert enrolled in the drama department of a technical college in Nottingham. He had intended to become a drama teacher; however on the urging of his friends at the Nottingham Playhouse, he decided to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA). He borrowed £5 from a friend, to travel to London for the auditions and was accepted in 1968 on a government grant. At RADA, Robert displayed a special interest in mime and improvisation and also felt the need to lose his Derbyshire accent. He graduated two years later with a thorough training in movement and voice.
Robert’s first job was as a dialect coach with a repertory company in Exeter and later on, he joined a regional theatre group. Soon afterwards, he moved on to the West End and to television roles. He first became a household name in the UK, as Wolfie in the 1977 sitcom Citizen Smith. Since then, he has appeared in numerous and diverse TV series, feature films and stage productions and has won not just an impressive list of acting awards on both sides of the Atlantic, but a well-deserved reputation as a pre-eminent British Actor – brilliant and inimitable.
Although Robert now lives in Buckinghamshire, he remains a popular figure in the Ilkeston community and an avid supporter of the local football team, The Robins. He has always been very attached to, and proud of, his background. “I do go home a lot, and I’m very aware of the divide, North and South.” In fact on the opening night of Me and My Girl on Broadway, he hung a banner decorated with British trade-union symbols in his dressing room (which was a gift from Emma Thompson, his leading lady), Robert was quoted saying that having the banner up was “Just to make sure I remember my roots”. There is no doubt that where he came from gave him the motivation and drove him forward. His father quotes, ‘Joyce (his mother) used to say:“It’s not what Robert has achieved, but what that achievement has not done to him that counts. It never changed him, he’s still our Robert’.”
Robert is involved in a great deal of charity work. He supports, in particular, Health Unlimited and S.A.N.E. However, he has recently been involved in a national appeal for the BBC and GOMA for victims of the volcano eruption in The Congo and a national television appeal for ‘Street Children of Bombay’.
In July 2001 Robert returned to British television screens in a new one-off drama called Hawkins. In this Robert plays Luke Hawkins, a lecturer who runs a secret website through which he gains access to the heart of the London underworld. The drama also starred Elizabeth McGovern and Danny Webb.
Robert started his film career in 1973 with That’ll Be the Day with David Essex, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon, followed by Three for All with Diana Dors, Edward Woodward and Paul Nicholas in 1974. In 1975 he played the part of Jakey Smith in the TV series Get Some In.
However, it was in 1977 when his career really began when he played Wolfie Smith in the popular TV series Citizen Smith. His character was a member of the ‘Tooting Popular Front’ and a would-be revolutionary. This was followed in 1981 by another TV series Seconds Out. In the 1980’s Robert also appeared in five BBC Shakespeare productions; Fabian in Twelfth Night, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Iachimo in Cymbeline; Edmund in King Lear and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1984 he appeared with Paul McGann in another TV series Give Us a Break and in 1989 he played Thomas Kelly in the TV film Confessional and Bert Rigby in Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool.
In 1990 he appeared in the comedy film Strike It Rich, and then returned to television for two comedies Nightingales and Alan Bleasdale’s GBH – for which he won the BAFTA award for Best Actor. He played the part of Otto Schatz in the film Genghis Cohn in 1993, working with Antony Sher and Diana Rigg. Next followed three more television series – The Wimbledon Poisoner (1994); Jake’s Progress (1995) for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor and The Office (1996). Next came the comedy Brazen Hussies in 1996 and the film Fierce Creatures in 1997, playing the role of Sydney Lotterby starring with John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin and Ronnie Corbett. In 1997 he also appeared in the film Remember Me? Robert’s most recent film is Divorcing Jack (1998), a black romantic comedy set around the troubled “peace process” and its effect on a cynical Belfast hack – filmed in Northern Ireland.
Robert also played Captain Pellew in the dramatisations of C S Forester’s, Horatio Hornblower novels – Hornblower, with Ioan Gruffudd. The character of Pellew is based on a real 18th century ‘man-o-war’ hero. Robert drew heavily on his father’s experiences in the navy for the series which was filmed in Plymouth where his father was based. Robert’s other work for television includes an appearance on a BBC holiday show which took him on a fishing trip to a river on Mount Kenya and regular narration of documentaries which is something he loves to do. Robert did have a real life adventure when he and his brother were stranded on top of Mount Kenya and the plane could not pick them up; this was a real exercise in survival! At the end of 1999 Robert finished a terrific year with his portrayal of Fagin in ITV’s production of Oliver Twist which was adaptd by Alan Bleasdale. Julie Walters also starred alongside Robert in this production.
Robert’s latest appearance on British television late in 2000/01 was when he played Ben, a dentist and father of three teenagers, in My Family. Zoë Wanamaker played Ben’s wife, Susan. He was also seen on Victoria Wood’s Christmas special for the BBC playing alongside many other stars, including Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Richard E Grant, Michael Parkinson and Alan Rickman in Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings.
Robert has also had a very active career in the theatre – roles include the lead role in Hamlet in the Royal Exchange production in 1983, which started out in Manchester and then went on a country-wide tour, finishing up on the sculpture court on the roof of the Barbican Centre in London. It was a brilliant production using no costumes, set or props and minimal music – just the cast and the audience in close proximity. This was followed by Henry II in Becket in 1991 and Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1992, both in the West End. He then appeared in the song and dance show Me and My Girl which went from the West End to Broadway and won him many of awards including an Olivier and a Tony. He played Fagin in Oliver, again in the West End for which he received an Olivier award for Best Actor. In 1988 Robert played Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company, having toured England, the play went on for a run in Stratford-upon-Avon and then continued to the West End in 1999.
Robert lives with TV presenter and dancer Rosemarie Ford and their sons Samuel (born 1999) and Jamie (born 2003). He also has a daughter, Sydney Laura (born 1988).