Introduction :
Martin rose to prominence on television in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in programmes such as Coronation Street and The Professional. While he was well-known on television, he also had a great theatre career, appearing in his first West End show in 1967.
He was most recently seen on Broadway in An Ideal Husband, for which he won both a Tony and a Drama Desk award. The iconic Judge John Deed series is one of the most successful television shows of the twenty-first century.
Overview of This Biography:
Martin Shaw is an English actor who was born on January 21, 1945. He rose to national prominence as Doyle in the ITV detective drama series The Professionals (1977–1983).
The main characters in The Chief (1993–1995), Judge John Deed (2001–2007), and Inspector George Gently (2007–2017) are among his other famous television performances. He has also performed on stage and in films, as well as narrated audiobooks and hosted a variety of television shows.
Earlier Life of Martin Shaw
Shaw was born and raised of Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in Erdington’s Alleyne Grove and Sutton Coldfield’s Sutton Coldfield. Shaw studied English literature and acting at Great Barr School, where he excelled.
He was received a place to a Birmingham theatre school when he was sixteen, but he declined.
Shaw was involved in a drunken battle with a friend when he was younger, and he suffered broken teeth, facial injuries, and a cracked skull, necessitating cheekbone surgery.
Shaw travelled to London at the age of eighteen to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He worked as an assistant stage manager in repertory at the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch and the Bristol Old Vic.
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Personal Life of Martin Shaw:
- Shaw converted to the Sant Mat religion in 1971 and became a devotee of Charan Singh.
- Shaw resides in the Norfolk town of Hingham.
- Shaw passed away on August 18, 2010, during the first act of a matinée performance of A Country Girl at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn. His agent, Roger Charteris, said he had shattered ribs and was being treated for a severe chest infection with antibiotics. In his place, an understudy performed.
- Shaw has become a vegetarians and a teetotaler for more than 40 years.
Stages and Theatre Life of Martin Shaw:
Shaw played pivotal roles during first revival of Keep Looking back in Anger (Royal Court/Criterion, 1968); Saturday, Sunday, Monday (National Theatre, 1973), opposite Laurence Olivier; and A Streetcar Named Desire (Piccadilly Theatre, 1974). He later acknowledged that playing Stanley Kowalski in ‘Streetcar’ was a career-defining role for him.
Shaw starred in Alan Bleasdale’s praised by critics film Are You Lonesome Tonight? in 1985. It presented the narrative of Presley’s final hours on earth. Following a successful run in London, this performance toured Australia, stopping in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
Shaw was nominated for a Tony Award and won a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband on Broadway.
Shaw took the character of Thomas More now in Robert Bolt’s play A Gentleman for All Seasons after filming on the TV series Judge John Deed wrapped. Sophie Shaw, Shaw’s daughter, played Margaret More’s daughter alongside him. Before a run at the Cinema Royal Haymarket in London, the performance toured Britain’s cities.
Shaw played the opposing juror in a new production of the classic drama Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theater in 2013.
Shaw returned to the West End in 2016 with a spirited production of Hobson’s Choices there at Vaudeville Theatre. Shaw travelled again in 2017 with the U.K. premiere of Gore Vidal’s 1960 political maneuver The Best Man, after finishing shooting the season finale of George Gently. William Russell, a previous US Secretary of State, was played by Shaw.
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Television Journey of Martin Shaw:
Shaw began working on television in 1967. After appearing in one-off plays for Granada Television, he was cast in Coronation Street as hippy student Robert Croft, Lucile Hewitt’s boyfriend.
Huw Evans, the booze-obsessed and football-obsessed Welsh medical student in the BBC comedy series Doctor inside the House, was another early role. Later, in the follow-up series Doctor at Home, he guest-starred with in episodes “Mother and Father Doing Well,” now as a worried expectant father.
In an installment of The New Avengers, Shaw featured alongside future co-star Lewis Collins. Both actors portrayed terrorists. Shaw played Ray Doyle alongside Collins in the British television series The Outsiders (1977–1981). Shaw had another criminal justice role in the ITV series The Chief in the 1990s.
Shaw portrayed Robert Falcon Scott inside the 1983 film The Last Place on Earth. Frobisher Bay, near Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Canada, was used to film the series. Shaw said in an interviews at the time that he handled the difficult physical conditions effectively, especially when they added to the realism of the scenario.
The same year, he starred as Sir Henry Baskerville inside the film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel The Hound of both the Baskervilles. He played Sherlock Holmes opposing Ian Richardson and Dr. Watson opposing Donald Churchill.
He portrayed Cecil Rhodes in the eight-part television series Rhodes, which aired in 1996 and was shot on location in South Africa. Joe, Shaw’s younger son, dropped out of theatre school early to play the role of the young Rhodes.
Dr. Robert Kingston in Has been and Everybody , a British incident and medical emergency series in which he co-starred with Niamh Cusack, is another television acting credit.
He starred as Judge John Deed in the BBC drama Judge John Deed in 2001. The character offered the show writer and producers G.F. Newman’s ideals about vegetarian and complementary therapy, along with issues of social justice, an editorial voice. One episode addressing the MMR vaccine’s safety was censored.
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