Robert Lindsay

Robert Lindsay, born Robert Lindsay Stevenson on 13 December 1949 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, is an English actor whose career has spanned stage, television, and film across more than five decades. The son of Joyce (née Dunmore) and Norman Stevenson, a joiner and World War II veteran who served on a minesweeper, Lindsay grew up as one of three children. He attended Gladstone Boys' School in Ilkeston before enrolling in the drama department at Clarendon College in Nottingham. Encouraged by friends at Nottingham Playhouse, he applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, gaining acceptance in 1968 with the support of a government grant and graduating with an Acting diploma in 1970.

Lindsay's early screen work included parts in British films such as That'll Be The Day (1973), Three for All (1975), and Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976). He gained wider recognition playing the cockney Teddy Boy Jakey Smith in the ITV comedy series Get Some In! (1975–1977), set against National Service life in the RAF. In 1977 he took the lead role of delusional revolutionary Wolfie Smith in the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith, which ran until 1980 and drew audiences of 24 million. During the same period, he appeared in several productions within the BBC Television Shakespeare series, portraying Fabian in Twelfth Night (1980), Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981), Edmund in Granada Television's King Lear (1983), and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1984).

His stage career reached a significant milestone when he played Bill Snibson alongside Emma Thompson in the 1984 London revival of Me and My Girl, a performance that earned him a Laurence Olivier Award. The production subsequently transferred to Broadway, where Lindsay reprised the role in 1986. His Broadway debut in Me and My Girl brought him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, and a Theatre World Award, all in 1987.

Lindsay continued to build a substantial television profile through the 1990s. He starred in Alan Bleasdale's dark comedy serial G.B.H. (1991), playing Michael Murray, a performance for which he received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. He also appeared in Bleasdale's Jake's Progress (1995), opposite Julie Walters. In 1996, he played the title role in Jean Anouilh's Becket opposite Derek Jacobi as King Henry II at the Old Vic, receiving a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor. The following year he took on the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's London revival of Oliver! at the London Palladium, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He then reprised the role of Fagin in the 1999 ITV miniseries Oliver Twist.

His film credits during this period included the comedy Fierce Creatures (1997), alongside John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Divorcing Jack (1998). In 1998 he was also cast as Captain Pellew in the ITV miniseries Hornblower, based on C.S. Forester's novels, a recurring role he held until 2003. He appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon (2004) as the tennis club manager who hires Peter Colt, and played the starring role in the film Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989) and appeared in Strike It Rich (1990) alongside Molly Ringwald and John Gielgud.

From 2000 to 2011, Lindsay played Ben Harper in the BBC sitcom My Family, his longest-running television role. He starred in the ITV drama Jericho (2005), portraying a Scotland Yard detective investigating crime in 1950s London, and appeared in two linked Stephen Poliakoff dramas for BBC One, Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter, both broadcast in early 2006, playing the character Sneath in each. That same year he appeared in Absolutely Fabulous and in the second series of Extras, playing an exaggerated version of himself. He also portrayed Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Channel 4 satire The Trial of Tony Blair (2007).

At the Old Vic in 2007, Lindsay played Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer. In 2010 he starred in the title role of Onassis, first for Derby Live before the production transferred to London's West End, and played the same figure in Grace of Monaco. A 2011 revival of The Lion in Winter at the Theatre Royal Haymarket saw him play Henry opposite Joanna Lumley, directed by Trevor Nunn. In 2014 he starred as Lawrence in the UK premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.

His later screen credits include the recurring role of Chester Wormwood in the second season of the ABC series Galavant (2016), Hermann Einstein in the National Geographic series Genius (2017), King John in Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), and a role in McDonald & Dodds (2020). In 2021 he played Moonface Martin in a revival of Anything Goes, directed by Kathleen Marshall at the Barbican Theatre, a performance that earned him his fourth Olivier Award nomination and his third nomination in the Best Actor in a Musical category.

In his personal life, Lindsay married actress Cheryl Hall in 1974; they divorced in 1980. He subsequently had a long-term relationship with actress Diana Weston, with whom he has a daughter, Sydney Laura Stevenson. On 31 December 2006 he married actress, dancer, and television presenter Rosemarie Ford. Lindsay is a lifelong supporter of Derby County F.C. and has roots connecting him to the Gallipoli campaign of World War I through his grandfather, Raymond Dunmore, a connection he explored during an appearance on the third series of Who Do You Think You Are? in September 2006.