Mark McGann
Encyclopedia
Mark McGann is an English
actor, director and musician.
and the London Astoria
where he portrayed John Lennon
, role which won him the first of his two Olivier Award nominations for best actor in a West End
show. He was later to reprise this role in two other productions, Imagine and the film John and Yoko: A Love Story
for NBC
television in the United States.
His first television appearance was as 'Mad Dog' in Scully
by Alan Bleasdale
in 1983 with Cathy Tyson
and Elvis Costello
. A long career in TV followed seeing him play a wide variety of characters including 'Marcus Bannerman' in the World War I era drama series by Russell T. Davies The Grand
in 1999; 'Joseph Bazalgette' the great Victorian industrial engineer in the award winning factual drama/doc Seven Great Industrial Wonders of the World in 2002; and 'Tom Crean' the Irish companion of Ernest Shackleton in Shackleton opposite Kenneth Branagh; and 'Niven Craig' in Peter Medak's Let Him Have It
.
He also received acclaim for his role as 'Conor Phelan' in The Hanging Gale a BBC drama set against the backdrop of the Irish Potato Famine of 1846 in which he appeared with his three brothers.
McGann has appeared in many theatre productions including Blood Brothers by Willy Russell in 1984 in which he played 'Mickey', An Inspector Calls
by J. B. Priestley
for the National Theatre in which he played 'Inspector Goole', and also at the National Theatre in Alan Bleasdale's On the Ledge for which he played 'Upright'; other theatre appearances include Macbeth
in Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
and Mosca in Volpone
by Ben Jonson
.
and Felicity Montagu
) in the musical Up On The Roof
, which started out at The Donmar Warehouse
before transferring in to the West End and for which he received his second Olivier Award nomination. He went on to star as Gethin Price in Comedians
by Trevor Griffiths
at the Young Vic; Killers at the Royal Court, and as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni at Greenwich.
McGann is also a songwriter who has written many original compositions including the original song for the show Up On The Roof and all the original songs on the album The McGanns which he made in 1999 with his brothers Joe and Steve for Coalition/Warner Bros.
He has recently directed versions of new plays by South African writer Peter Krummeck and English writers Colin Swash and Neil A.Edwards for the Oval Theatre London, Andover Lights Theatre Hampshire and Greenwich Theatre respectively. McGann also runs two businesses, Drama Direct and Screen Direct, offering professional insets, projects and workshops to the education sector. He has recently designed an educational project called 'Gadfly' based on the life, trial and execution of the Greek philosopher, Socrates.
, Paul
and Stephen
— are all professional actors.
He now lives in Frome, Somerset with his wife Caroline.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor, director and musician.
Acting career
McGann first appeared on stage in 1981 in the production Lennon at the Everyman TheatreEveryman Theatre
The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Established in 1964 in a former cinema, it encouraged local talent and played a part in the development of new artistes and writers. The theatre was rebuilt between 1975 and 1977, and was closed again for...
and the London Astoria
London Astoria
The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished...
where he portrayed John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, role which won him the first of his two Olivier Award nominations for best actor in a West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
show. He was later to reprise this role in two other productions, Imagine and the film John and Yoko: A Love Story
John and Yoko: A Love Story
John and Yoko: A Love Story is a 1985 television drama that chronicles the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, beginning just before they met in 1966 and concluding with Lennon's assassination in 1980. The movie was made with the co-operation with Yoko Ono, who controlled the song rights...
for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television in the United States.
His first television appearance was as 'Mad Dog' in Scully
Scully (TV series)
Scully was a British television drama with some comedy elements set in the city of Liverpool, England, it originated from a BBC Play For Today episode "Scully's New Years Eve" . Originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour...
by Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
in 1983 with Cathy Tyson
Cathy Tyson
Catherine "Cathy" Tyson is an English stage, film and television actress.-Early life:The daughter of a Trinidadian barrister father and an English social worker mother, Tyson and her family moved to Liverpool when she was approximately two years old.-Career:Tyson attended the Everyman Youth...
and Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
. A long career in TV followed seeing him play a wide variety of characters including 'Marcus Bannerman' in the World War I era drama series by Russell T. Davies The Grand
The Grand (TV series)
The Grand was a British television drama series first broadcast on ITV in 1997-1998. It was written by Russell T Davies and set in a hotel in Manchester in the 1920s....
in 1999; 'Joseph Bazalgette' the great Victorian industrial engineer in the award winning factual drama/doc Seven Great Industrial Wonders of the World in 2002; and 'Tom Crean' the Irish companion of Ernest Shackleton in Shackleton opposite Kenneth Branagh; and 'Niven Craig' in Peter Medak's Let Him Have It
Let Him Have It
Let Him Have It is a 1991 British film, which was based on the true story of the case against Derek Bentley, who was hanged for murder under controversial circumstances on 28 January 1953. While Bentley did not directly play a role in the murder of PC Sidney Miles, he received the greater...
.
He also received acclaim for his role as 'Conor Phelan' in The Hanging Gale a BBC drama set against the backdrop of the Irish Potato Famine of 1846 in which he appeared with his three brothers.
McGann has appeared in many theatre productions including Blood Brothers by Willy Russell in 1984 in which he played 'Mickey', An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK. It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...
by J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
for the National Theatre in which he played 'Inspector Goole', and also at the National Theatre in Alan Bleasdale's On the Ledge for which he played 'Upright'; other theatre appearances include Macbeth
Macbeth (character)
Macbeth is the title character in William Shakespeare's Macbeth . The character is based on the historical king Macbeth of Scotland, and is derived largely from the account in Holinshed's Chronicles , a history of Britain. Macbeth is a Scottish noble and a valiant military man. He is portrayed...
in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and Mosca in Volpone
Volpone
Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and beast fable...
by Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
.
Production career
McGann was musical director and principal actor, (along with Gary OlsenGary Olsen
Gary Olsen was an English actor.Olsen was born in London and lived with an aunt and uncle, after losing both his parents at an early age. He attended the Archbishop Tenison's Church of England School in Kennington...
and Felicity Montagu
Felicity Montagu
Felicity Montagu is an English actress, known for her performances in radio and television comedy series and films.Educated at Loughborough University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Felicity Montagu has played the foil to a series of prominent comedy characters.-Television:Montagu...
) in the musical Up On The Roof
Up on the Roof
Up on the Roof is a musical by Simon Moore and Jane Prowse, which follows a decade in the lives of five friends who form an a cappella singing group at university....
, which started out at The Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
before transferring in to the West End and for which he received his second Olivier Award nomination. He went on to star as Gethin Price in Comedians
Comedians (play)
Comedians is a play by Trevor Griffiths, set in a Manchester evening class for aspiring working-class comedians. It was first performed at the Nottingham Playhouse on 20 February 1975, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as the main character, Gethin Price,...
by Trevor Griffiths
Trevor Griffiths
Trevor Griffiths is an English dramatist.Raised as a Roman Catholic, he attended Saint Bede's College, before being accepted into Manchester University in 1952 to read English...
at the Young Vic; Killers at the Royal Court, and as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni at Greenwich.
McGann is also a songwriter who has written many original compositions including the original song for the show Up On The Roof and all the original songs on the album The McGanns which he made in 1999 with his brothers Joe and Steve for Coalition/Warner Bros.
He has recently directed versions of new plays by South African writer Peter Krummeck and English writers Colin Swash and Neil A.Edwards for the Oval Theatre London, Andover Lights Theatre Hampshire and Greenwich Theatre respectively. McGann also runs two businesses, Drama Direct and Screen Direct, offering professional insets, projects and workshops to the education sector. He has recently designed an educational project called 'Gadfly' based on the life, trial and execution of the Greek philosopher, Socrates.
Personal life and family
His three brothers — JoeJoe McGann
Joseph 'Joe' McGann is an English actor. His most well known role is the lead role of Charlie Burrows, the "housekeeper" in the TV comedy series The Upper Hand . He is also known as a television reporter on the BBC's South Today programme, reporting on local events in the south of England...
, Paul
Paul McGann
Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...
and Stephen
Stephen McGann
Stephen McGann is an English actor - one of a family of acting brothers including Joe, Paul and Mark. He began his professional career in 1982, starring in the West End musical Yakety Yak. He has since worked extensively in British theatre and on screen.In 1989 he starred as Mickey in the West End...
— are all professional actors.
He now lives in Frome, Somerset with his wife Caroline.