Paul Shelley
Encyclopedia
Paul Shelley is an English actor.
Shelley trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
) and has mainly worked in the theatre as a classical actor. He has worked extensively with the Royal National Theatre
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
and has appeared in several West End productions.
His work for television includes Secret Army
(1978–79) as Major Nicholas Bradley, Special Branch (1974), Blake's 7
(1979), A Tale of Two Cities (1980), Doctor Who
(1982), Inspector Morse
(1990), Paradise Postponed
(1986) based on book by John Mortimer
(audiobook-recorded by Paul Shelley as well) and its sequel Titmuss Regained (1991, also audiobook), The Fourth Arm (1983), Revelations (1994–95), Heartbeat (2002) and Crossroads (2003). In the popular ITV detective drama Midsomer Murders
episode "The Creeper" (2009) Shelley performed as Inspector Barnaby's boss, Chief Constable Richard Lovell and appeared as Jed Gray in several episodes in BBC TV series Doctors (2010).
Films include: Oh, What a Lovely War! (1969), It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1975), Polanski's Macbeth (1971) and God's Outlaw (1986).
Shelley played Duncan in Rupert Goold
’s production of Macbeth (“the Macbeth of a lifetime” according to critics) which after its sell out runs at Chichester Festival Theatre
in summer 2007 was transferred to the West End in the autumn and then to New York from February to May 2008. During the Chichester season 2007 he also played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night.
Other notable roles are: at Shakespeare’s Globe: Julius Caesar (title role), Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, three Tom Stoppard
plays in the West End The Invention of Love (Oscar Wilde), Arcadia (Bernard), The Real Thing (Henry), at Royal National Theatre: The Secret Rapture
(Tom French), Hedda Gabler (Tesman), The Crucible (Hale), Lady in the Dark (Kendal), at Royal Shakespeare Company: Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt), King Lear (Edmund), The Winter’s Tale (Leontes), Troilus and Cressida (Achilles), Les liaisons dangereuses (Valmont). Shelley has also often worked at the Orange Tree Theatre
in Richmond, as an actor and director, on such plays as Uncle Vanya and King Lear. For nine months he played Arthur Kipps in the thriller The Woman in Black
at the Fortune Theatre
(2006/07).
Shelley played Elyot Chase in Noël Coward
’s Private Lives
at the York Theatre Royal
and returned to York to direct Robert Bolt
’s A Man For All Seasons
, in June 2008. He played the Duke of Norfolk in A Man For All Seasons, on tour and at Haymarket
in 2005/2006. In a Donmar Warehouse
production of T. S. Eliot
's The Family Reunion he played Colonel Gerald Piper in a run from November 2008 to January 2009. At York Theatre Royal from 30 May - 20 June 2009 Paul played Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming
. A Voyage Around My Father, by John Mortimer, with Paul Shelley playing the Father, was a Salisbury Playhouse
production in autumn 2010. Rose Theatre, Kingston
in March 2011 showed Shakespeare's As you like it with Paul Shelley in the dual roles of Duke Frederick and Duke Senior. After that he played Ralph in Harold Pinter's 'Moonlight' at Donmar Warehouse. "Earthquakes in London" by Mike Bartlett and directed by Rupert Goold is on UK tour until 12 November 2011 with Paul Shelley performing as the father, Robert.
He is also an audiobook narrator and has recorded some thirty audiobooks, among them John Fowles
’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kingsley Amis
’ Lucky Jim, several of Robert Goddard
’s novels, Nicholas Crane
’s Two Degrees West and Staying On by Paul Scott. He has been called “the best reader there is” and has three times won the Audiofile Earphones Award.
Paul Shelley has toured and taught at universities in the USA. He is married to actress Paula Stockbridge and has two sons from his previous marriage. His elder brother Francis Matthews
is also an actor.
Shelley trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
) and has mainly worked in the theatre as a classical actor. He has worked extensively with the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
and has appeared in several West End productions.
His work for television includes Secret Army
Secret Army (TV series)
Secret Army is a television drama series made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT created by Gerard Glaister. The series chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the...
(1978–79) as Major Nicholas Bradley, Special Branch (1974), Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
(1979), A Tale of Two Cities (1980), Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
(1982), Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
(1990), Paradise Postponed
Paradise Postponed
Paradise Postponed is a 1986 TV serial based on a novel by John Mortimer. The plot focused on inquires into why the leftist Reverend Simeon Simcox left the Simcox brewery millions to the loathsome Leslie Titmuss, a city developer and Conservative cabinet minister...
(1986) based on book by John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
(audiobook-recorded by Paul Shelley as well) and its sequel Titmuss Regained (1991, also audiobook), The Fourth Arm (1983), Revelations (1994–95), Heartbeat (2002) and Crossroads (2003). In the popular ITV detective drama Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
episode "The Creeper" (2009) Shelley performed as Inspector Barnaby's boss, Chief Constable Richard Lovell and appeared as Jed Gray in several episodes in BBC TV series Doctors (2010).
Films include: Oh, What a Lovely War! (1969), It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1975), Polanski's Macbeth (1971) and God's Outlaw (1986).
Shelley played Duncan in Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold is an English theatre director. He is the artistic director of Headlong Theatre and from 2010 he will be an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company.- Early years :...
’s production of Macbeth (“the Macbeth of a lifetime” according to critics) which after its sell out runs at Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
in summer 2007 was transferred to the West End in the autumn and then to New York from February to May 2008. During the Chichester season 2007 he also played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night.
Other notable roles are: at Shakespeare’s Globe: Julius Caesar (title role), Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, three Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
plays in the West End The Invention of Love (Oscar Wilde), Arcadia (Bernard), The Real Thing (Henry), at Royal National Theatre: The Secret Rapture
The Secret Rapture (play)
The Secret Rapture is a 1988 British play by David Hare. Its premiere in the Lyttelton auditorium of the Royal National Theatre was directed by Howard Davies. British revivals of the play have included one at the Salisbury Playhouse in 2001 and at the Lyric Theatre, London in 2003...
(Tom French), Hedda Gabler (Tesman), The Crucible (Hale), Lady in the Dark (Kendal), at Royal Shakespeare Company: Romeo and Juliet (Tybalt), King Lear (Edmund), The Winter’s Tale (Leontes), Troilus and Cressida (Achilles), Les liaisons dangereuses (Valmont). Shelley has also often worked at the Orange Tree Theatre
Orange Tree Theatre
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 172-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south west London, built specifically as a theatre in the round....
in Richmond, as an actor and director, on such plays as Uncle Vanya and King Lear. For nine months he played Arthur Kipps in the thriller The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black is a 1983 thriller fiction novel by Susan Hill about a menacing spectre that haunts a small English town.It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt...
at the Fortune Theatre
Fortune Theatre
The Fortune Theatre is a 432 seat West End theatre in Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, built in 1922-4 by Ernest Schaufelberg for impresario Laurence Cowen. The façade is principally bush hammered concrete, with brick piers supporting the roof...
(2006/07).
Shelley played Elyot Chase in Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
’s Private Lives
Private Lives
Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
at the York Theatre Royal
York Theatre Royal
The York Theatre Royal is a theatre in St. Leonard's Place, York, England, which dates back to 1744. The theatre currently seats 847 people. This reduced capacity takes into account removal of the mixing position seats and the stage side boxes which are normally not sold...
and returned to York to direct Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...
’s A Man For All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...
, in June 2008. He played the Duke of Norfolk in A Man For All Seasons, on tour and at Haymarket
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in 2005/2006. In a 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...
production of T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's The Family Reunion he played Colonel Gerald Piper in a run from November 2008 to January 2009. At York Theatre Royal from 30 May - 20 June 2009 Paul played Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming
The Homecoming
The Homecoming is a two-act play written in 1964 by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter and first published in 1965. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Play and its 40th-anniversary Broadway production at the Cort Theatre was nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for "Best Revival...
. A Voyage Around My Father, by John Mortimer, with Paul Shelley playing the Father, was a Salisbury Playhouse
Salisbury Playhouse
Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the county of Wiltshire, it was built in 1976 and has two theatre spaces – the Main House and Salberg Studio ....
production in autumn 2010. Rose Theatre, Kingston
Rose Theatre, Kingston
The Rose Theatre, Kingston is a theatre on Kingston High Street in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The theatre seats 899 around a wide, lozenge shaped stage....
in March 2011 showed Shakespeare's As you like it with Paul Shelley in the dual roles of Duke Frederick and Duke Senior. After that he played Ralph in Harold Pinter's 'Moonlight' at Donmar Warehouse. "Earthquakes in London" by Mike Bartlett and directed by Rupert Goold is on UK tour until 12 November 2011 with Paul Shelley performing as the father, Robert.
He is also an audiobook narrator and has recorded some thirty audiobooks, among them John Fowles
John Fowles
John Robert Fowles was an English novelist and essayist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Fowles among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Birth and family:...
’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
’ Lucky Jim, several of Robert Goddard
Robert Goddard (novelist)
Robert Francis Goddard is a British novelist.-Life and career:Goddard was educated at Wallisdean County Junior School and Price's Grammar School in Fareham before going on to study history at the University of Cambridge...
’s novels, Nicholas Crane
Nicholas Crane
Nicholas Crane is an English geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster. Since 2004, he has written and presented four notable television series for BBC Two: Coast, Great British Journeys, Map Man and Town....
’s Two Degrees West and Staying On by Paul Scott. He has been called “the best reader there is” and has three times won the Audiofile Earphones Award.
Paul Shelley has toured and taught at universities in the USA. He is married to actress Paula Stockbridge and has two sons from his previous marriage. His elder brother Francis Matthews
Francis Matthews (actor)
-Early life:Matthews attended St Michael's Jesuit College, Leeds and started his acting career with Leeds repertory theatre before service in the Royal Navy.-Career:...
is also an actor.