Simon Treves

Infobox actor
name = Simon Treves


imagesize = 200px
caption = Simon Treves
birthdate = Birth date and age|1957|6|19|df=y
birthname = Frederick Simon Treves
location = Watford, London, England
notable role =
academyawards =
spouse = Mirela (née Kalicanin)

Frederick Simon Treves (born 19 June 1957 in Watford, England) is an English actor, director and writer. He trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Biography

Theatre

As an actor, he has played at many of the leading regional U.K. theatres, including Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Rep, Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, Leicester Haymarket and Salisbury Playhouse. He made his debut with the RSC at Stratford in 1983, and returned in 1986 to play Joey Percival in Shaw's "Misalliance" at the Barbican, in a cast that included Brian Cox, Jane Lapotaire, Elizabeth Spriggs and Mick Ford. His association with Brian Cox continued in 1995 when Cox cast him as Buckingham in his production of "Richard III" at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. Another Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins, cast him as Willy Nilly in his production of "Under Milk Wood" for the official opening of the AIR Studios at Lyndhurst Hall, Hampstead in 1992, in aid of The Prince's Trust. Hopkins then asked Simon to assist him on his film and theatre productions of "August", an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", relocated to North Wales. At the Orange Tree, Richmond he starred as schizophrenic Victorian artist Louis Wain in Jane Coles' "Cat with Green Violin". He played De Brie in David Hirson's multi award-winning "La Bête" and Bassanes in John Ford's "The Broken Heart", both at the Lyric Hammersmith. In 1999 Simon travelled to S.E. Asia to lead the Singapore Repertory Theatre company production of "M. Butterfly" as Gallimard (a part originated in London ten years earlier by Anthony Hopkins).

In 2008 he played Richard Greatham in "Hay Fever" at Manchester Royal Exchange.

Television

On TV, Simon is probably best remembered as Harold 'Stinker' Pinker in three series of "Jeeves and Wooster", starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. His other TV appearances include "Bodily Harm" and "" (both directed by Joe Wright), "Soldier Soldier", "The Lab", "Boon" and "By the Sword Divided" (as Charles II). As a child he appeared with his younger brother Patrick on the Christmas 1967 edition of children's TV favourite, "Crackerjack".

Radio

He has acted in over one hundred radio productions for the BBC since his debut as Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim" in 1985, and was a member of the Radio Drama Company from 1989 to 1991 and again in 2007/8. Recent radio includes several plays in the award-winning "From Fact to Fiction" slot, the Tom Stoppard 70th birthday season, the political satire "His Master's Voice", "Knocker", "Kepler's Mum's a Witch" and "The City Speaks", a collaboration between BBC Radio 4 and several independent film-makers, premiered at the BFI Southbank in March 2008. In the early eighties he regularly voiced trails for one of the first UK breakfast TV channels, TV-am. Other voice-over work was for Channel 4's "Right to Reply", BBC One and numerous radio, film and commercial companies. His is one of the voices on the computer game, "".

Writing

His play "Bitter with a Twist" was produced by the Bristol Old Vic in 1999 and is published by Faber & Faber. Other commissions include two linked internet audio dramas - "Ash" and "Gold", for totallyword.com; and an original short screenplay, "Tweeny", commissioned by Brian Cox and Skreba Films, which was shortlisted by Channel 4 but ultimately failed to win funding. He recently adapted Jim Broadbent's "A Sense of History" for the stage; and devised and scripted "Neither Here Nor There" (a celebration of cult Scottish comic Chic Murray), broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in August 2007.

Directing

He was awarded an M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts) in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck, University of London in 2005, and directed the stage premiere of the original one-act television version of Terry Johnson & Kate Lock's "Tuesday's Child" at Hampstead Theatre in 2005.

Personal life

He married Mirela (née Kalicanin) in 2001 and lives in Buckinghamshire. Their son Thomas was born in May 2008.

His father is the actor Frederick Treves. He is the great great nephew of Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, the surgeon who treated Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.

He is a skilled cartoonist and his original desire was to go into animation.

He briefly coached Claudia Schiffer in 2001/02.

External links

* [http://www.simontreves.moonfruit.com/ Simon Treves website]
*imdb name|id=0872374|name=Simon Treves
* [http://www.faber.co.uk/book_detail.html?bid=11928 Bitter with a Twist on the Faber and Faber website]