Robert Lindsay Stevenson (born 13 December 1949), known professionally as Robert Lindsay, is an English actor. He has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in musical theatre, and is the recipient of a British Academy Television Award, a Tony Award, and two Laurence Olivier Awards.
Lindsay's most notable roles on television were playing Wolfie in Citizen Smith (1977–1980), Micky Noades in Give Us a Break (1983–1984), and Ben Harper in My Family (2000–2011). His other screen credits include Get Some In! (1975–1977), Much Ado About Nothing (1984), Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989), G.B.H. (1991), Hornblower (1998–2003), Jericho (2005), Friends and Crocodiles (2006), and Gideon's Daughter (2006).
Early life
Lindsay was born 13 December 1949, in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, to Joyce (née Dunmore) and Norman Stevenson, a joiner. He was one of three children and his father was a World War II veteran, having been on a minesweeper.
Lindsay attended Gladstone Boys' School, in Ilkeston, then enrolled in the drama department of Clarendon College in Nottingham. His friends at Nottingham Playhouse encouraged him to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and in 1968, and he was accepted there with the aid of a government grant. He graduated in 1970 with an Acting (RADA Diploma).
Career
Lindsay's early career included roles in British films such as That'll Be The Day (1973), Three for All (1975), and Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976). He came to prominence as the cockney Teddy Boy Jakey Smith in the ITV comedy series Get Some In! (1975–1977), that was based on National Service life in the RAF. In 1977, he landed the starring role as delusional revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith (1977–1980). He had now become a television star watched by 24 million people.
Lindsay won roles in the BBC Television Shakespeare series, including Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981), Fabian in Twelfth Night (1980), and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1984). He played Edmund in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983).
He played the role of Bill Snibson alongside Emma Thompson in the 1984 London revival of Me and My Girl, for which he won an Olivier Award, which subsequently transferred to Broadway, earning him a Tony Award.
He played the starring role in the film Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989), and appeared in the James Scott-directed Strike It Rich (1990), alongside Molly Ringwald and John Gielgud. He continued to have success on television, and played the leading role in Alan Bleasdale's dark comedy serial G.B.H. (1991), winning the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance as Michael Murray.
Lindsay was also in Bleasdale's Jake's Progress (1995), the tale of a couple played by Lindsay and Julie Walters who were struggling to cope with a 'difficult' child (Barclay Wright). Both Bleasdale serials were screened by Channel 4, as was the surreal Channel 4 sitcom Nightingales (1990–1993), which also featured David Threlfall and James Ellis. In 1996, Lindsay played the title role of Becket, the play by Jean Anouilh, opposite Derek Jacobi as King Henry II for which was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. In 1997, Lindsay played the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's London revival of Oliver! at the London Palladium, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Lindsay appeared alongside John Cleese, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis in the comedy film Fierce Creatures (1997). In 1998, he appeared in Divorcing Jack (1998). The same year, he was cast in the recurring role of Captain Pellew in the ITV mini-series Hornblower, based on the novels by C.S. Forester which ran until 2003.
He later appeared as Fagin in the 1999 ITV Oliver Twist miniseries. His longest-running role has been Ben Harper in the popular BBC sitcom My Family (2000–2011), playing the role for over a decade.
In October 2005, he starred in ITV drama series Jericho about a Scotland Yard detective investigating murder and kidnapping in London's Soho in the 1950s. In January and February 2006, he was the only actor (as Sneath) to appear in two loosely linked Stephen Poliakoff dramas, Friends and Crocodiles, and Gideon's Daughter, shown on BBC One.
Lindsay portrayed Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Channel 4 satires A Very Social Secretary and The Trial of Tony Blair. In 2003, he appeared in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, playing the character of Pete, an old musician boyfriend of Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), and narrated the BBC documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World (2003).
He appeared in the 8th Ricky Gervais Video Podcast, in which Gervais announced that Lindsay would be in the second series of Extras, appearing in the last episode of the 2006 series as an arrogant, mean-spirited version of himself. Lindsay also appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon, as the tennis club manager who hires Peter Colt. In 2007, at the Old Vic Theatre, Lindsay played Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer, a role first performed by Olivier in 1957. In 2009, he played the protagonist, Maddox, from the Radio 4 comedy Electric Ink by Alistair Beaton.
In 2010, Lindsay starred in the title role of Derby Live's production of Onassis before its transfer to London's West End. He played the same role in Grace of Monaco. In November 2011, he starred as Henry in a revival of The Lion in Winter by James Goldman at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, a production which also featured Joanna Lumley as Eleanor, and was directed by Trevor Nunn. In 2011, he starred as The Examiner in the British sitcom Spy.
In 2012, Lindsay appeared in the Sky detective series Falcón, episode "The Silent and the Damned", as Pablo Ortega. In 2014, Lindsay starred as Lawrence in the UK première production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Savoy Theatre London, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.
In 2016, Lindsay recurred on the second season of the ABC fairy tale-themed musical comedy series Galavant as Chester Wormwood, an evil wizard/wedding planner.
In 2017, Lindsay played Hermann Einstein in the National Geographic TV series Genius. He also played Jack Cardiff in Prism at the Hampstead Theatre.
In 2019, Lindsay played supporting role of King John in Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. The film starred Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and was released on 18 October 2019. In 2020, he appeared in the series McDonald & Dodds.
Lindsay starred as Moonface Martin in a revival of Anything Goes, directed by Kathleen Marshall, at the Barbican Theatre from July to November 2021. He received his fourth Olivier Award nomination, which was his third for Best Actor in a Musical, in 2022.
Personal life
In 1974, Lindsay married Cheryl Hall, who later appeared opposite him in Citizen Smith. They divorced in 1980, when he started a long-term relationship with actress Diana Weston, with whom he has a daughter, Sydney Laura Stevenson, and who co-starred with him in three episodes of My Family. He married English actress, dancer, and television presenter Rosemarie Ford on 31 December 2006.
On 13 September 2006, Lindsay researched his family tree in the third series of Who Do You Think You Are? He travelled to his hometown and to Turkey, where his grandfather, Raymond Dunmore, had taken part in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I.
Lindsay is a lifelong supporter of Derby County F.C., which he revealed in a short section on the CBBC programme Newsround entitled "My Team".
Lindsay is known for his left-wing political beliefs, usually describing himself as a staunch socialist, and has marched in support of miners. He is a passionate supporter of the Labour Party, but an outspoken critic of then Prime Minister Tony Blair's controversial decisions to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, saying that he was "furious" and feeling…