
Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. Callow rose to prominence originating the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1979 Peter Shaffer play Amadeus, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. Callow joined the Miloš Forman 1984 film adaptation, this time portraying Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1992, Callow won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Musical for Carmen Jones. As an actor, he won acclaim for his comedic roles in A Room with a View (1985) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) earning a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination for each. Other notable roles include in Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004). His television roles include Tom Chance in the Channel 4 series Chance in a Million (1984) and The Duke of Sandringham in the series Outlander from 2014 to 2016. He portrayed Napoleon in The Man of Destiny (1981), and Charles Dickens in numerous television projects. He has also appeared on numerous shows such as Midsomer Murders, Rome, Angels in America, Doctor Who, Galavant, Hawkeye, and The Witcher. Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, South London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. His father left when Simon was 18 months old, and he was brought up by his mother and grandmothers. He and his mother travelled to Northern Rhodesia (now called Zambia) when he was nine to try and reconcile with his father. This did not happen and Callow was sent for three years to boarding school in South Africa. He and his mother returned to Britain when he was twelve. He was raised as a Catholic. Callow was a student at the London Oratory School in West Brompton, and then went on to study briefly at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he was active in the gay liberation movement.[5] He gave up his degree course after a year to take a three-year acting course at the Drama Centre London. He made his first film appearance in 1984 as Schikaneder in Amadeus. The following year, he appeared as the Reverend Mr Beebe in A Room with a View. His first television role was in the Carry On Laughing episode "Orgy and Bess" in 1975, but it was cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him to a wider audience. Callow portrayed Pliny the Elder in CBBC's 2007 children's drama series, Roman Mysteries in the episode "The Secrets of Vesuvius". He played Armand Duquesne in Marvel's Hawkeye on Disney+.
181 acting credits · 3 directing credits
Acting · 181

Midsomer Murders
1997

Outlander
2014

Doctor Who
2005

Death in Paradise
2011

Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989

NOVA
1974

The Witcher
2019

Agatha Christie's Marple
2004

Inspector Morse
1987

Inside No. 9
2014

Hawkeye
2021

The Sweeney
1975

Omnibus
1967

Q&A
2008

Loose Women
1999

Screen Two
1985

Question Time
1979

Great British Menu
2006

The Sarah Jane Adventures
2007

Performance
1991

Parkinson
1998

Playhouse Presents
2012

Trial & Retribution
1997

Galavant
2015

Amadeus
1984

ScreenPlay
1986

Plebs
2013

Notting Hill
1999

Arn: The Knight Templar
2010

The Cleaner
2021

A Ghost Story for Christmas
1971

Shoebox Zoo
2004

The Phantom of the Opera
2004

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
1995

The Company
2007

Street Fighter
1994

Angels in America
2003

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
2024

Four Weddings and a Funeral
1994

Shakespeare in Love
1998

Testament: The Bible in Animation
1996

Étoile
2025

Postcards from the Edge
1990

A Room with a View
1986

James and the Giant Peach
1996

Carry On Laughing
1975

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
2022

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
1996

Howards End
1992

Tate Britain's Great Art Walks
2017

Maurice
1987

Victorian Scandals
1976
The Sunday Drama
1977

Ice
2011

Ice
2011

David Copperfield
1986

Victoria & Abdul
2017

Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale
2002

The Man Who Invented Christmas
2017

Mindhorn
2016

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
2006
Don't Eat the Neighbours
2001

There's Something About Romcoms
2016

Arn: The Knight Templar
2007

The Boy That Never Was
2024

Them From That Thing
2012

Chance in a Million
1984

Hampstead
2017

Eternal Return
2026

The Rebel
2016

George and the Dragon
2004

Dead Head
1986

Bright Young Things
2003

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
2014

Jefferson in Paris
1995

Little Napoleons
1994

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
1990

Thunderpants
2002

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
2006

No Man's Land
2001

Blue Iguana
2018

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley
2013

Roman Mysteries
2007

Derren Brown: Trick or Treat
2007

Golden Years
2016

The Man with the Plan
2026

The Best Man
2005

The Woman In White
1997

Christmas Carol: The Movie
2001

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2018

Love's Kitchen
2011
Acting
1987

Viceroy's House
2017

Ripley Under Ground
2005
The Addictions of Sin: WH Auden in His Own Words
2009

The Civilization of Maxwell Bright
2005

Jamie's Dream School
2011

Bedrooms and Hallways
1998

Westminster Abbey: Behind Closed Doors
2022

Bob the Butler
2005

Chemical Wedding
2008

Merchant Ivory
2024
Saturday Review
1984

Late Bloomers
2011

Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags
2011

The Good Father
1985

Surprised by Oxford
2023

Victory
1996

Doctor Jekyll
2023

The Sarah Millican Television Programme - Best of Series 1-2
2013

Manifesto
1988

Dodger Special: Coronation
2023

Thank You, Doctor Rey
2003

The Marvellous Maggie Smith: A Celebration
2022

Alexander Pope: Rediscovering a Genius
2021

A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
2005

The Amazing Mr. Blunden
2021

The Crucifer of Blood
1991

Nutcracker Delights: English National Ballet
2020

Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule
2014

The Madness of Boy George
2006

Judi Dench: Our National Treasure
2022

Old Flames
1990

Rag Tale
2005

It's Christmas!
2024

Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story
2012

Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock 'n' Roll
2023
Classical Destinations: The Great Composers
2021

The Trials of Oz
1991

Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984

Revisiting Brideshead
2005

Creditors
2015

The Fringe, Fame and Me
2022

The Pay Day
2022

Revolutionary Witness
1989

Shakespeare's Sonnets
2012

American: An Odyssey to 1947
2022

Cariani and the Courtesans
1987

Femme Fatale
1993

Alec Guinness: A Class Act
2024

Around The World In 80 Days
2000

Grindsploitation 3: Video Nasty
2017

Phantom of the Opera: Behind the Mask
2006

Camp Christmas
1993

Deadly Appearances
2000

Acts of Godfrey
2012

The Scarlet Tunic
1998

Orson Welles Over Europe
2009

The British Guide to Showing Off
2011
The Unforgettable Harry Secombe
2010

The Reluctant Dragon
1987

Soft Top Hard Shoulder
1993

England, My England
1995

50 Years Legal
2017

Dame Maggie Smith - A Celebration
2024

Theatreland
2009

Surveillance 24/7
2007

El pasajero clandestino
1995

The Mystery of Charles Dickens
2002

Being Shakespeare
2012

Miss in Her Teens
2014

Maggie Smith at the BBC: a portrait
2008

The Man of Destiny
1981

The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World
2014

Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
1979

An Audience with Charles Dickens
1996
Moses
1996

The Dead Room
2018

Art of Freedom
2011
The Reformation of Sister Edith
—

A Christmas Carol
2018
Reviving Harry Lime
2006

How Gay Sex Changed the World
2007

Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece
2025

Honour, Profit & Pleasure
1985

Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens
2002
Save Our Bacon
2010
Born Silly
2017
The Christmas Tree
1986

Animated Epics: Don Quixote
2000
Men of Mystery
2006

