Douglas Hodge

Douglas Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director, and musician who trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[2] Hodge is a council member of the National Youth Theatre for which, in 1989, he co-wrote Pacha Mama's Blessing about the Amazon rain forests staged at the Almeida Theatre.[3][4]

For the businessman, see Douglas Hodge (businessman).

Douglas Hodge
Born	(1960-02-25) 25 February 1960 Plymouth, Devon, England
Occupation	Actor, director, musician
Years active	1985–present
Partner(s)	Tessa Peake-Jones (1984/1985–2013)[1]
Children	2

Career

Theatre

Harold Pinter

Hodge has achieved success on stage in plays by Harold Pinter, including No Man's Land at the Comedy Theatre in February 1993; Moonlight at the Almeida Theatre in September 1993; A Kind of Alaska, The Lover and The Collection at the Donmar Warehouse in May 1998; as Jerry in Betrayal at the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre, in November 1998; and as Aston in The Caretaker at the Comedy Theatre in November 2000, co-starring Michael Gambon (Davies) and Rupert Graves (Mick), directed by Patrick Marber – for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award.

Hodge admired Pinter and has spoken and written very highly of the man and his work, and offered himself as a "birthday present" on his 70th birthday, among many other things offering "My own complete friendship, loyalty and thanks. Manners, civility, celerity, precision, class and clarity."[5]

As his directorial debut at the Oxford Playhouse in 2004 Hodge chose a double bill of The Dumb Waiter and Other Pieces (the 1957 one-act play plus six of Pinter's sketches). In 2015, Hodge made his debut as a Broadway director, helming a revival of Pinter's 1971 play Old Times. The production starred Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly. It opened at the American Airlines Theatre.

Other work

For the National Theatre in May 1994 Hodge played the title role in Phyllida Lloyd's Olivier Theatre staging of Shakespeare's Pericles; and Al' in Stephen Poliakoff's Blinded by the Sun directed by Ron Daniels at the Cottesloe Theatre in May 1997.

He played Leontes in an RSC revival of The Winter's Tale at the Roundhouse in April 2002.[6] Directed by Matthew Warchus, it was set in a world of film noir and country music, in a version of the play originally planned for American production. "Shaven-headed Hodge, a tyrannical Leontes chopping up the verse into tiny spiteful pieces, is a dead-ringer for Orson Welles, bald and fuming, in the penultimate reel of Citizen Kane – even when he comes on in flat cap and plus-fours as a Chicago heavy, dressed for a round of golf."[7]

In April 2003 he portrayed Andrei in Michael Blakemore's revival of Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Playhouse Theatre. The following year he made his Royal Court debut as Barry in Joe Penhall's study of entrapment journalism Dumb Show, directed by Terry Johnson, which opened in September 2004 to positive reviews, particularly for Hodge's performance as a television comedian whose career is on the skids.[8]

Hodge appeared in the 2005 revival of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre playing Nathan Detroit opposite Ewan McGregor playing Sky Masterson.[9] He received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance.

During the summer of 2006, he took the title role in a bloodstained revival of Titus Andronicus, at Shakespeare's Globe.[10][11] Simultaneously he was also making his West End directorial debut with See How They Run, a 1940s wartime farce by Philip King, preceded by a successful UK tour.[12] When his production opened in the West End Nancy Carroll took over from Hattie Morahan in the role of the vicar's young wife.[13]

In May 2007 he revealed a fine lyric tenor voice as Frank, the neurosurgeon in A Matter of Life and Death with the Kneehigh Theatre company at the National Theatre, a spectacular production with music, based on events in the film of the same name.[14] Also in 2007 he guest starred in the Doctor Who audio dramas Urban Myths and Son of the Dragon.

In 2008, Hodge starred as Albin in the hugely acclaimed London revival of La Cage aux Folles which played originally at the Menier Chocolate Factory.[15] He later reprised this role at the Playhouse Theatre in the West End to great critical acclaim and won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Maddy Costa noted in her Guardian profile of Hodge:

Before he became a bona fide actor, Douglas Hodge did impersonations of comedians and other famous people in working men's clubs, an act he once toured round NATO bases in Europe. There, he shared the stage with a troupe of dancing girls, the memory of which makes his blue eyes glitter. "The girls running off stage, with their fishnets and high heels and spidery eyelashes, chucking their clothes on the floor, the smell of them, the coarseness of it, was the sexiest thing." He pauses, frowns. "And now I'm backstage with the dancing girls doing all that."

The London production transferred to Broadway, opening on 18 April 2010 at the Longacre Theatre, with Hodge and Kelsey Grammer as Albin and Georges, respectively. Hodge won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance.

A 2011 revival of John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Donmar Theatre, London, offered Hodge another challenging role, as Maitland, the lawyer in crisis. Critics were unanimous in praise of Hodge's portrayal, "a great actor doing complete justice to a dark masterpiece", but some found Osborne's characterisation overdrawn and unrealistic, a flaw that Hodge's "enormous" performance could not redeem.[16] Hodge received an Olivier Award nomination for his performance.

In 2012, Hodge headed back to Broadway when he starred as Cyrano de Bergerac in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Cyrano de Bergerac which played a limited engagement at the American Airlines Theatre from 14 September 2012 – 25 November 2012.[17]

In October 2012, it was announced that Hodge had been cast as Willy Wonka in the new musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical on the West End, which previewed on 18 May 2013 and opened on 25 June 2013 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane London.[18]

Hodge wrote a musical with Aschlin Ditta, temporarily called Meantime. Josefina Gabrielle, Denis Lawson and several others participated in a cast recording, and actors including Rory Kinnear, Indira Varma and Cillian Murphy participated in a reading of the book.[19]

Hodge was commissioned to write a new musical for The Stable, a UK-based musical theatre company dedicated to bringing new works to the stage.[20]

Directing

He has parallel careers as a writer, director and composer, most recently directing Torch Song Trilogy at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012.[21] He was Associate Director at the Donmar Theatre directing Dimetos in 2009,[22] Absurdia in 2007,[23] and running numerous readings and workshops for new and classic work.

He directed the world premiere of Last Easter by Bryony Lavery at Birmingham Rep,[24] and See How They Run[25] which went straight to the West End after a sell-out tour.

Awards

Olivier Awards include 2012 Best Actor for Inadmissible Evidence[26] (nomination), 2009 Best Actor in a Musical for La Cage aux Folles[27] (winner), and 2006 Best Actor in a Musical for Guys and Dolls (nomination).[28] He was also nominated for Best Actor in the 2005 Evening Standard Awards for his role in Dumbshow at the Royal Court.[29]

Douglas starred as Albin in the Broadway transfer of La Cage aux Folles, for which his performance won him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical,[30] a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical,[31] and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.[32] He originally played the role in London in 2008 at the Menier Chocolate Factory and then at the Playhouse Theatre in the West End.[33]

Television

With Peter Searles he co-wrote Pacha Mama's Blessing and Forest People, about the Amazon Rainforest, performed by the National Youth Theatre on BBC Television in 1989. Hodge received critical and popular acclaim in 1994 as Dr. Tertius Lydgate in the BBC's award-winning production Middlemarch, adapted by Andrew Davies from the novel by George Eliot and directed by Anthony Page. In the US it aired on Masterpiece Theatre in 1994.

His other TV appearances include leading roles in Behaving Badly (1989); Capital City (1989–1990); A Fatal Inversion (1992); Bliss (1995); Only Fools and Horses (1996) The Uninvited (1997); The Scold's Bridle (1998); Shockers: Dance (1999); The Law (2000); the BBC serial adaptation of Trollope's The Way We Live Now (2001), as Roger Carbury; The Russian Bride (2001); Red Cap (2003–2004);[34] Spooks (2005); ITV's 2007 adaptation of Mansfield Park, as Sir Thomas Bertram; and the made-for-TV film Lift, directed by James Hawes, a 2007 Hartswood Films production for BBC Four, as Paul Sykes, "a constantly exasperated, highly-strung middle-aged businessman with commitments.".[35]

In 2010, he appeared in the episode "The Restaurant" of the third series of the popular BBC sitcom Outnumbered as Brick Bolenger, an American therapist who is married to Auntie Angela (played by Samantha Bond). The character is involved in a story line of the fourth series in 2011, but never appears on screen. In 2012, Hodge had a prominent role in the BBC drama One Night, he appeared in the conspiracy thriller miniseries Secret State, and the ITV-1 drama The Town.

In 2016 he featured as Rex Mayhew in the BBC adaptation of John le Carré's The Night Manager. In 2017, he appeared in "Black Museum", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.[36] He appeared as Inspector Bartholomew Rusk in the series Penny Dreadful.[37]

Music

As Doug Hodge, has released two albums of his own compositions: "Cowley Road Songs" in 2005,[38] and "Nightbus" in 2009.[39] He won the Stiles and Drewe 2012 Best New Song Award for his song 'Powercut' from "Meantime", the musical he co-wrote with Aschlin Ditta.[40]

"I've been writing songs all my life but — apart from the occasional girlfriend late at night — I'd never sung them to anyone. Then last year 2006 I finally started playing at various venues in and around Oxford. Each time I wrote a new song I'd go down the Ex [on Cowley Road] and sing it... Then rightback records asked me to record them. We went into the Blue Moon Studios in Banbury for just four days. This [Cowley Road Songs] is what we came out with..." – Douglas Hodge[41]

Personal life

Hodge was born in Plymouth, Devon.[2][42] Until 2013 he was in a relationship with actress Tessa Peake-Jones, with whom he has two children. He subsequently married American wigmaker Amanda Miller.[43]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Salome's Last Dance	John the Baptist / Lord Alfred "Bosey" Douglas
1989	Dealers	Patrick Skill
	Dark Obsession	Jamie Skinner
1991	Buddy's Song	Bobby Rosen
1993	The Trial	Inspector
1996	Hollow Reed	Hannah's barrister
2000	The Magic of Vincent	Dr. Robert Blake	Short film
2004	Vanity Fair	Pitt Crawley
	Out of Time	Michael	Short film
2006	Scenes of a Sexual Nature	Brian
2009	The Descent Part 2	Dan
2010	Robin Hood	Sir Robert Loxley
2012	Bert & Dickie	John Bushnell
2013	Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return	Fruit Striped Lawyer	Voice only
	Diana	Paul Burrell
2014	Serena	Horace Kephart
2016	The Complete Walk: The Tempest	Prospero	Short film
	The Dancer	Taylor
2017	Tulip Fever	Nicholas Steen
2018	Beirut	Sully
	Red Sparrow	Maxim Volontov
	Wanderland	Dr. Rock Positano
	Jonathan	Hans
	Watergate	Richard Nixon
2019	The Report	Dr. James Mitchell
	Joker	Alfred Pennyworth
	Gemini Man	Jack Willis
2020	The Devil All the Time	Tater Brown

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Alas Smith and Jones	Unknown	Episode #2.1
1986	Sorry!	Geoffrey	Episode: "Every Clown Wants to Play Hamlet"
1988	Me and My Girl	Tarzan	Episode: "Question Time"
	Ten Great Writers of the Modern World	Stage Manager / Son / Ordolfo / Raskolnikov	2 episodes
	London's Burning	Bobby	Episode #1.5
	King & Castle	Detective Sergeant	Episode: "Cons"
	Rumpole of the Bailey	Nigel Timson	Episode: "Rumpole and the Barrow Boy"
1989	Behaving Badly	Giles
1989–1990	Capital City	Declan McConnochie
1992	A Fatal Inversion	Adam	3 episodes
	Anglo-Saxon Attitudes	Young Gerald Middleton	3 episodes
1994	Middlemarch	Dr. Tertius Lydgate / Dr. Lydgate
	Broken Lives	Unknown	TV film
	Open Fire	DC Peter Finch	TV film
1994–1995	Screen Two	Michael Cooper / Leslie Bliss / Tracey	3 episodes
1995	It Could Be You	Bob	TV film
1996	True Love	James	TV film
	Only Fools and Horses	Adult Damien	Episode: "Heroes and Villains"
1997	The Uninvited	Steve Blake
	Rules of Engagement	Moorhead	TV film
1998	The Scold's Bridle	Jack Blankeney	2 episodes
1999	Shockers: Dance	Mike Swift	TV film
2000	The Law	DI Jack Raleigh	TV film
	The Canterbury Tales	Unknown	Episode: "The Journey Back" Voice role
2001	The Way We Live Now	Roger Carbury
	The Russian Bride	Eddie Brennan	TV film
2001, 2003–2004	Red Cap	Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Burns	TV film
2002	Blue Heelers	Ray Barry	Episode: "Private Lives"
2005	Spooks	Gary Hicks	Episode #4.5
2007	The Lift	Paul Sykes	TV film
	Mansfield Park	Sir Thomas Bertram	TV film
	The Whistleblowers	DI Bell	Episode: "Ghosts"
2009	Unforgiven	Michael Belcombe	3 episodes
2010	Arena	Various characters	Episode: "Harold Pinter: A Celebration"
	Skins	Edward Jones	Episode: "JJ"
	Outnumbered	Brick	Episode: "The Restaurant"
2012	One Night	Ted
	Secret State	Anthony Fossett	3 episodes
	The Town	Inspector Chris Franks
2015–2016	Penny Dreadful	Bartholomew Rusk	13 episodes
2016	The Good Wife	Damon Stryk	Episode: "Tracks"
	The Night Manager	Rex Mayhew	5 episodes
	Falling Water	H. Robert Arnot, CEO White Sand Equity	5 episodes
2017	Death in Paradise	Daniel Langham	Episode: "Errupting in Murder"
	Unforgotten	Paul Nixon	4 episodes
	Decline and Fall	Grimes
	Maigret in Montmartre	Fred Alfonsi	TV film
	Black Mirror	Rolo Haynes	Episode: "Black Museum"
2017–2019	Catastrophe	Douglas	7 episodes
2018	Elementary	Sydney Place	Episode: "Our Time Is Up"
2019	Curfew	Tom Weston	Episode #1.4
	Lost in Space	Hastings	5 episodes
2020	The Great	General Velementov

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2001	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	The Caretaker	Nominated
2009		Best Actor in a Musical	La Cage aux Folles	Won
2010	Tony Award	Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical		Won
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
2012	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actor	Inadmissible Evidence	Nominated
2014	Whatsonstage.com Awards	Best Actor in a Musical	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Nominated
	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actor in a Musical		Nominated

References

1. "Only Fools And Horses actors Tessa Peake-Jones and Douglas Hodge split". 6 February 2013.
2. Costa, Maddy, "One of the Girls" Archived 18 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian, 16 January 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2009
3. "Theatre Record – The chronicle of the British Stage listing ALL reviews of Theatre performance in London and the Regions". theatrerecord.org.
4. "Home". nyt.org.uk.
5. Harold Pinter: A Celebration, ed. and introd. Richard Eyre Faber (2005) ISBN 0-571-20661-1
6. Fisher, Philip, "The Winter's Tale" Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine BritishTheatreGuide.info, 2002. Retrieved 8 June 2009
7. Review by John Thaxter, What's on in London, 17 April 2002
8. Fisher, Philip,"Dumb Show" Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine British Theatre Guide, 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2009
9. Fisher, Philip, "Guys and Dolls" Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine British Theatre Guide, 2005. Retrieved 8 June 2009
10. Rees, Jasper, "Blood on his hands, a song in his heart" Archived 10 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Daily Telegraph, 14 June 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2009
11. Thaxter, John, "Titus Andronicus" Archived 29 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Stage, 8 June 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2009
12. Thaxter, John, "See How They Run" Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine British Theatre Guide, 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2009
13. Austen, Jeremy, "See How They Run" Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Stage, 6 July 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2009
14. Thaxter, John, "A Matter of Life and Death" Archived 12 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Stage, 11 May 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2009
15. Vale, Paul, "La Cage Aux Folles" Archived 19 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Stage, 10 January 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2009
16. "Review Round-up: Hodge Receives Judgement at Donmar". Whats on stage. 20 October 2011. Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
17. "Cyrano de Bergerac". Roundabout Theatre Company. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
18. "Willy Wonka cast in Sam Mendes musical". BBC. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
20. "High notes". The Sunday Times.
21. "Tony Winner Douglas Hodge to Direct Torch Song Trilogy at Menier; Merrily We Roll Along & More on Tap". broadway.com.
22. "Dimetos, with Jonathan Pryce, Begins Donmar Run March 19". Playbill.
23. "London's Donmar Announces Absurdia Cast". Playbill.
24. "The week in theatre: Last Easter, Birmingham Rep – Jenufa, Arcola, London E8". The Guardian.
25. "Wartime Favorite See How They Run to Return to the West End". Playbill.
26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
27. Mark Brown. "La Cage aux Folles steals the spotlight at theatre's Olivier nominations". The Guardian.
28. "2006 Laurence Olivier Nominations Announced; Billy Elliot Leads Pack with Nine Nominations". Playbill.
29. "No dumb actor: Douglas Hodge has been nominated for Best Actor for his role". London Evening Standard.
30. "Broadway Newcomer Douglas Hodge Takes Home Tony for La Cage aux Folles". Broadway.com.
31. BWW News Desk. "Hodge Wins Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical for LA CAGE!". BroadwayWorld.com.
32. "Memphis, La Cage, Zeta-Jones, Finneran and More Are Outer Critics Circle Award Winners". Playbill.
33. "Menier La Cage Opens at West End's Playhouse Theatre Oct. 30". Playbill.
34. "Drama – Red Cap". BBC. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
35. "BBC Four finds itself in a Tight Spot" Archived 22 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine BBC, 16 February 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2009
36. Haring, Bruce (25 August 2017). "'Black Mirror': Season 4 Cast & Episode Info, Teaser Trailer Released By Netflix". Deadline. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
37. "Patti LuPone and Douglas Hodge join Penny Dreadful season 2". Digital Spy.
38. "Amazon.com: Cowley Road Songs: Doug Hodge: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com.
39. "Amazon.com: Douglas Hodge: Night Bus: Music". Amazon.com.
41. "HugeDomains.com – DougHodge.com is for Sale (Doug Hodge)". doughodge.com.
42. Who's Who. A & C Black. December 2011.
43. Gilbey, Ryan (13 November 2019). "Douglas Hodge: 'I almost had to head-butt Harold Pinter'". the Guardian. Retrieved 26 June 2020.

External links

• Douglas Hodge on IMDb