Martin Shaw (born 21 January 1945) is an English stage, television, and film actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series The Professionals (1977–1983). Further notable television parts include the title roles in The Chief (1993–1995), Judge John Deed (2001–2007) and Inspector George Gently (2007–2017). He has also acted on stage and in film, and has narrated numerous audiobooks and presented various television series.
In his youth, Shaw was involved in a drunken brawl with a friend, suffering broken teeth, injuries to his face and a fractured skull, and needed cheekbone surgery. [5]
In 1985, Shaw played Elvis Presley in Alan Bleasdale's Are You Lonesome Tonight?. It told the story of Presley's last few hours. After a long run in London, the production visited Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia. [8][9]
Shaw's portrayal of Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband on Broadway earned him a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk award. [7]
In 2013, in a new production of the classic play Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre London, Shaw played the part of the dissenting juror (identified as juror number 8).[10]
In 2016 Shaw toured and returned to the West End again with a production of Hobson's Choice at the Vaudeville. After completing filming the final episode of George Gently, Shaw again toured in 2017 with the U.K. premiere of Gore Vidal's 1960 political piece: The Best Man. Shaw played the part of William Russell, former US Secretary of State.[11]
Television
Shaw began television work in 1967.[9] Parts in one-off plays for Granada Television led to his playing hippy student Robert Croft, Lucile Hewitt's boyfriend, in Coronation Street.[9] Another early role was booze and football-loving Welsh medical student Huw Evans in the television comedy series Doctor in the House. He later guest-starred, playing the same role, in the follow-up series Doctor at Large, now a nervous expectant father in the episode "Mother and Father Doing Well".[12]
Shaw appeared with future co-star Lewis Collins in an episode of The New Avengers. Both played the roles of terrorists.[9] Shaw portrayed Ray Doyle ("Agent 4–5") in the British television series The Professionals (1977–1983), opposite Collins. Shaw played another law-enforcement role in the 1990s ITV production The Chief.[9]
He played Cecil Rhodes in Rhodes, an eight-part serial that aired in 1996 and was filmed on location in South Africa. Shaw's younger son, Joe, took early leave of his drama school course to play the part of the youthful Rhodes. [13]
Another television acting credit includes the role of Dr Robert Kingston in Always and Everyone (1999–2002), a British accident and emergency medical series, played alongside Niamh Cusack. [14]
In 2001, he took the title role in the BBC drama Judge John Deed.[9] The character gave an editorial voice to the television writer and producer G.F. Newman's ideas about lifestyle choices such as vegetarianism and alternative medicine as well as issues of social justice. One episode about the safety of the MMR vaccine was banned.[15][16]
Between seasons of Judge John Deed, Shaw took the role of poetic bespectacled forensic detective Adam Dalgliesh in P.D. James's Death in Holy Orders in 2003 and The Murder Room in 2005. After the sixth season of Judge John Deed had been filmed, Shaw appeared in the series Apparitions, broadcast by the BBC in 2008. This was Shaw's first project as executive director.[14]
In 2021 he played the role of Dennis Stephenson, leader of a fictitious religious cult called the Barum Brethren, in the BritBox original series The Long Call. The series premiered in autumn 2021, and is based on the Ann Cleeves bestselling novel.[17]
Film
Shaw's first film role was as an Irish communist in a 1967 television adaptation of the novel, Love on the Dole. Better known is his 1971 role of Banquo in Roman Polanski's Macbeth. He has also been seen as an undercover Second World War operative in the 1975 production Operation Daybreak; a singing and dancing futuristic magician "Zax" in Facelift; the role of Rachid in the 1973 film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and a wanted villain leading a life on the run in a circus troupe in Ladder of Swords (1989).[14]
In 2010 he presented a documentary for the BBC titled Dambusters Declassified in which he investigated and debunked some of the myths of the dambusters raid known as Operation Chastise story which had been portrayed in the books Enemy Coast Ahead and The Dambusters, and the film The Dam Busters.[14]
Advertisements
Among several voiceovers and appearances, in 1974, Shaw starred in a three-minute advertisement for the Mk II Ford Capri[18] and in 1987, a TV advert for the Vauxhall Cavalier.[19]
In March 2012, he also announced that he would become the official patron to the community organisation Stop Norwich UrBanisation or SNUB, whose aim is to protect Norfolk's countryside from overdevelopment and excessive urbanisation. In the press release, he stated that he was "simply furious and upset by your plight and that of all of us who wish to live in quiet and peace. I will be your Patron and keep fighting".[22]
On 18 August 2010, Shaw collapsed during the first act of the matinee showing of A Country Girl at Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn. His agent, Roger Charteris, said he had been suffering from cracked ribs and was taking antibiotics for a severe chest infection. An understudy went on in his place.[25]
Shaw has been a vegetarian since about 1974.[26] He has a prominent scar on his right cheek, the result of a physical attack during a mugging, after which he became a teetotal.[27]
Awards and nominations
Shaw won two awards in 1996 for his performance as Lord Goring in the Broadway production of An Ideal Husband and was nominated for a third:
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