Job: Actor. Simon was appointed CBE in 1999 and is an honorary doctor of Queen’s University Belfast, Birmingham University and the Open University, and a Fellow of the University of the Arts London. He has performed at the Royal Court Theatre, at the National Theatre, and at the Bush Theatre and the Southwark Playhouse. He has written twelve books, including a biography of Oscar Wilde. His films include Amadeus, A Room with A View, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Phantom of the Opera and Thunderpants. He has directed over thirty plays, musicals and operas, including the original West End production of Shirley Valentine, the première of Single Spies at the National Theatre and The Magic Flute at Holland Park Opera, with designs by Tom Phillips. He directed the film of The Ballad of the Sad Café, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger, in 1990.
Background: Simon lived in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) for three years as a boy. In 1967, after leaving school he went to work in the Box Office of Sir Laurence Olivier’s Old Vic Theatre. In 1968 he went to Queen’s University in Belfast, but after nine months he ran away to become an actor.
