- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSimon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale
- Height5′ 11½″ (1.82 m)
- Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, the light-haired, aristocratically handsome Simon MacCorkindale's first career choice was to follow in his Air Force pilot father Peter's bootsteps by joining the Air Training Corps., but his deteriorating eyesight forced him to choose an alternative vocation. Taking drama classes following high school graduation, he attended the highly prestigious Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire in the late 60s. He subsequently put in much time on the repertory theatre stage, which culminated in a West End debut appearance in the highly acclaimed production of "Pygmalion" with Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg in 1974. Simon later appeared in several heralded TV miniseries productions such as I, Claudius (1976) and Jesus of Nazareth (1977).
His major breakthrough in film came with the role of the charming and cunning shipboard suspect in the all-star whodunnit Death on the Nile (1978), with similar shady roles in such films as The Riddle of the Sands (1979) keeping the momentum going. Hollywood became an option for him in the 80s and he found his patrician good looks well suited for TV, with series roles ranging from soap operas (Falcon Crest (1981)) to adventures (Manimal (1983)). Since then, Simon has delved into stage projects featuring him as both director and actor, more notably in "Macbeth" and "The Merchant of Venice". Much of the last decade was spent starring as a doctor in the British TV series Casualty (1999).
Divorced during his early career from actress Fiona Fullerton, he subsequently married Brit actress Susan George and produced a few of her films. They also raised Arabian horses together. He focused for a time as a producer/director/writer on a variety of personal projects, but has since concentrated again on performing. Simon lost his over four-year-old battle with bowel cancer in October 2010.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesSusan George(October 5, 1984 - October 14, 2010) (his death)Fiona Fullerton(July 10, 1976 - 1982) (divorced)
- ParentsPeter Bernard MacCorkindale
- His production company, "Amy International", is named after the character that his wife, Susan George, played in Straw Dogs (1971).
- He was offered the role of Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) before Scott Bakula was cast. However, he turned it down, opting to play Harry Harper in Casualty (1986) instead.
- In between marriages, he was romantically involved with actress Linda Purl. They worked together on TV and stage, where he directed her in the play "A Doll's House" in Los Angeles.
- Son of a Royal Air Force Group Captain, Peter Bernard MacCorkindale, OBE. MacCorkindale was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College before abandoning plans to follow his father into the air force due to declining eyesight. An early interest in theatre saw him first direct then act after attending Studio 68 at the Theatre Arts School in London.
- He died two days before the death of his Falcon Crest (1981) co-star Chao Li Chi.
- On his father's attitude to his son's acting career when he introduced him to Sir John Mills: Dad said 'I'm actually sitting here with someone who has a perfectly normal life. I guess it's perfectly possible for my son to not end up on skid row.'
- [on turning down the role of Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)] I was offered, not Captain Picard, but whatever the Captain would have been, so before I did Casualty (1986), I made a choice of doing Casualty (1986) as opposed to whatever the Captain would have been on "Star Trek". But I didn't want to do that, I can't do sci-fi. It just drives me up the wall, it's all rubbish and spouting that gibberish every day was no thank you very much. The thing I loved about Casualty (1986) was although there was a lot of gobbledygook at least it was all about real life and people and medical situations and that became the challenge. Actually talking about all the so called scientific stuff that really most of the time doesn't make any sense to anybody whatsoever, and looking at a whole bunch of silly people in makeup was just not what I wanted to do with my life so Captain Picard would not be a choice. Captain Pugwash might be rather appropriate.
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