- Dennis Waterman
-
For other people named Dennis Waterman, see Dennis Waterman (disambiguation).
Dennis Waterman Born 24 February 1948
Clapham, London, United KingdomOccupation Actor, singer, voice-over artist Years active 1960 – present Spouse Penny Dixon (m. 1967–1976) (divorced)
Patricia Maynard (m. 1977–1987) (divorced)
Rula Lenska (m. 1987–1998) (divorced)Dennis Waterman (born 24 February 1948-[1]) is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.
Contents
Early life
Waterman was born the youngest of nine children to Rose Juliana (née Saunders) and Harry Frank Waterman in Clapham,[2][3][4] London. The family, which included siblings Ken, Peter, Stella, Norma and Myrna, lived at 2 Elms Road, Clapham Common South Side.[2] Harry Waterman was a ticket collector for British Rail.[4] Two older sisters, Joy and Vera had already left home by the time Dennis was born, and another brother, Allen had died as a young child.[2]
Boxing was a big part of Waterman's childhood. His father had been an amateur boxer and made all of his sons box.[5] His older brother Ken first took Dennis boxing when he was three years old,[6] and when he was ten Dennis joined Caius Boxing Club.[5] Another older brother Peter was a welterweight boxing champion.[4]
He attended Granard Primary School and then Corona Stage School (16 Ravenscourt Avenue, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, West London).[4]
Career
1960s
Waterman's acting career began in childhood. His first role was in Night Train for Inverness (1960).[4] In 1961, at the age of 13, he played the part of Winthrop Paroo in the Adelphi Theatre production of The Music Man. A year later, he starred as William Brown in the BBC TV series William based on the Just William books of Richmal Crompton.
Waterman played the role of Oliver Twist in the production of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver staged at the Mermaid Theatre, London, in the early 1960's, and appears on the cast recording released in 1961. Waterman was a series regular in the 1962 CBS comedy Fair Exchange, playing teenage son Neville Finch. He had a major role in the 1968 film Up The Junction and appeared in the BBC television series Colditz as a young Gestapo officer. Waterman was in the original cast of Saved, a play written by Edward Bond and first produced at the Royal Court Theatre in November 1965.
1970s
In the early 1970s, he played the brother of a victim of Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) in the Hammer film production Scars of Dracula (1970), and the boyfriend of Susan George in Fright (1971). He started to build a name for himself with regular appearances on the BBC's Play for Today series, most notably in the Dennis Potter dramas Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972) and Joe's Ark (1974). Both were directed by Alan Bridges.
He became well known and something of a pin-up as DS George Carter in The Sweeney, during the 1970s. As well as starring in Minder, he sang the theme song, "I Could Be So Good For You", which was a top three UK hit in 1980 and a top 10 hit in Australia,[7] and was written by his then-wife Patricia Waterman with Gerard Kenny. Waterman also recorded a song with George Cole "What Are We Gonna Get For 'Er Indoors".
In 1976, Waterman released his first album titled Downwind of Angels, arranged and produced by Brian Bennett. A single "I Will Glide" was released from the album but did not enter the top 40. The backing singers on "I Will Glide" are the Belmont School choir, where Brian Bennett's son, Warren, was a pupil.
1980s
In 1981, Waterman starred in a television film made by Tyne Tees Television entitled The World Cup: A Captain's Tale. It was the true story of West Auckland F.C., a part-time side who won the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, sometimes described as the 'first World Cup'. Waterman played the part of Bob Jones, the Club Captain. It cost £1.5 million to make and shooting took place in the North East and in Turin in Italy. Scenes were shot in Durham pit villages and in Ashington where goal posts and a grandstand were erected in a public park with a colliery headframe in the background. Local players took part, donning long pants and high-sided boots of the day, and even suffering "short back and sides" haircuts. The production has several comedy sequences, including a meeting of the club committee and a meeting of the Football Association Council when the suggestion of an English team participating in the new competition received a luke-warm and cynical response from the members. Also on the agenda is the F.A. Cup draw which is done in the conventional manner and immediately dispatched direct from the council chamber to the clubs – "by carrier pigeons", let out of the windows.
In 1982, Waterman starred in an often-overlooked musical, Windy City. A relatively short lived production, it also featured such names as Anton Rodgers, Diane Langton, Victor Spinetti and Amanda Redman, with whom Waterman also had an 18 month affair during the lifetime of the musical and later went on to star with in the TV series New Tricks. The show closed on 26 February 1983 after 250 performances.
In 1986, he took the lead male role in the BAFTA Award winning BBC adaptation of Fay Weldon's The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.
In 1988 an Australian television movie, The First Kangaroos actor Waterman's villainous depiction of Goldthorpe drew formal complaints from his granddaughter.[8]
1990s onwards
Waterman also sang the theme tunes to three more programmes in which he appeared: the comedy drama Stay Lucky with Jan Francis (Yorkshire Television/ITV 1989), sitcom On the Up (BBC 1990) and crime drama New Tricks (Wall to Wall television for BBC, 2003).
Waterman recited excerpts from the journal of Walter H. Thompson for the UK history series Churchill's Bodyguard.
He appeared on stage in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse[9] and as Alfred P. Doolittle in the 2001 London revival of My Fair Lady. He also narrated the reality-format television programme, Bad Lads' Army.
Recent appearances include the 2009 BBC2 miniseries Moses Jones and the 2010 series of New Tricks.
Personal life
He has been married to Penny Dixon (1967–1976); actress Patricia Maynard (1977–1987), and most recently to the actress Rula Lenska (1987–1998). He had two daughters by his second wife, one of whom, Hannah Waterman, is now an actor and played Laura Beale in the BBC1 soap opera EastEnders from 2000 until 2004. Hannah also has appeared in New Tricks. She appears as the character Emily, a young policewoman who believes Gerry Standing (played by Dennis Waterman) to be her biological father. Standing accepts Emily as his daughter but later arranges a secret paternity test, which shows that he is not. However Standing, who has bonded with Emily, keeps the result a secret until the truth comes out during a court case. Emily reappears in the series however and Standing takes on a father figure role for her anyway.
Waterman is a fan of Chelsea Football Club.[10] His love of football was reflected in him being chosen to present Match of the Seventies from 1995 to 1996, a nostalgic BBC show celebrating the best football action from the 1970s. However in Minder, his character Terry is known to be a fan of Chelsea's local rivals Fulham.
Waterman has extensive family in the USA, in California, Arizona and Virginia as a consequence of his three sisters living there. Myrna, Norma and Stella[citation needed]. One of his American nieces is Leah Randi, a well-known bass player.[citation needed]
Little Britain caricature
He has been caricatured by David Walliams in the radio and TV comedy series Little Britain, in sketches where he visits his agent (played by Matt Lucas) looking for parts. Most of the jokes in these sketches are about Waterman being extremely small making common objects massive in comparison to him, but the real Dennis Waterman is of average height at five foot nine. The caricature is offered but always declines respectable parts because he is not allowed to star in, or "write the theme tune, sing the theme tune" (pronounced as "write da feem toon, sing da feem toon") of, the particular production. This joke is because Waterman sang, and is believed to have written many of the themes for, at least four programmes he has starred in. Waterman has sung the title tunes for Minder[1], New Tricks[2], On the Up[3] and Stay Lucky[4].
Waterman was initially bemused by the caricature. In November 2006, Waterman made a guest appearance in a Little Britain stage show, alongside the comedy character version of himself.[11]
Books
- 2000: Waterman, Dennis; and Jill Arlon. - ReMinder. - London: Hutchinson. - ISBN 978-0091801083.
Filmography
- Night Train for Inverness (1960)
- Snowball (1960)
- Crooks Anonymous (1962)
- The Pirates of Blood River (1962)
- Go Kart Go (1964)
- Up the Junction (1968)
- A Promise of Bed (1969)
- The Wedding Night (1969)
- The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969)
- This That and The Other! (1970)
- My Lover My Son (1970)
- Scars of Dracula (1970)
- Fright (1971)
- Man in the Wilderness (1971)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
- The Belstone Fox (1973)
- Sweeney! (1977)
- Sweeney 2 (1978)
- A Captain's Tale (1982)
- Minder on the Orient Express (1985)
- The First Kangaroos (1988)
- Cold Justice (1989)
- Vol-au-vent (1996)
- Arthur's Dyke (2001)
- Back in Business (2007)
References
- ^ Waterman, Dennis; and Jill Arlon (2000), ReMinder, Hutchinson, p. 1, ISBN 978-0091801083
- ^ a b c Waterman and Arlon. - p.7.
- ^ Parker, John (1972), Who's Who in the Theatre: A Biographical Record of the Contemporary Stage, 15, Pitman, p. 1531, ISBN 978-0273315285
- ^ a b c d e "Youngster Has Keaton's Knack ", Lewiston Evening Journal: 4-A, November 10, 1962
- ^ a b Waterman and Arlon. - p.13-14.
- ^ Waterman and Arlon. - p.18.
- ^ australian-charts.com - Forum - One Hit Wonders (Australian Chartifacts)
- ^ Robinson, John; and Garrett Jones (8 June 1988), "Family fights to clear League Hero's Name", The Sydney Morning Herald: 74, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eq8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XOQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3217,6447980, retrieved 2011-02-20
- ^ "The Stage Review". http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/31700/jeffrey-bernard-is-unwell.. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
- ^ http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?article=99643&Title=Celebrities&lid=Navigation+-+Fan+Zone&sub=Celebrities&nav=&sublid=
- ^ "Model Moss joins Little Britain". BBC News Online. 23 November 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6175608.stm. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
External links
Categories:- 1948 births
- Living people
- Actors from London
- English film actors
- English male singers
- English stage actors
- English television actors
- People from Clapham
- Royal Shakespeare Company members
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
