Robert Lindsay Stevenson, better known as Robert Lindsay, is an English actor known
for his stage and television work, including appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company,
and in musical theatre, and his roles as Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Captain Pellew in
Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family who has won a BAFTA, a Tony Award and three Olivier
Awards for his work.
Early life and career Lindsay was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire,
to Joyce and Norman Stevenson.
Lindsay was one of three children and his father was a Second World War veteran, having
been a minesweeper on one of the first ships to land on D-Day.
After leaving Gladstone Boys' School, Lindsay enrolled in the drama department of Clarendon
College in Nottingham, intending to become a drama teacher.
However, friends at Nottingham Playhouse encouraged him to apply to Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art, and in 1968, he was accepted there with the aid of a government grant.
After graduation, Lindsay worked as dialect coach for a repertory company in Essex, and
then joined a regional theatre group.
Lindsay first came to prominence as the cockney layabout Jakey Smith in the ITV comedy series
Get Some In! and was given the starring role as delusional revolutionary Wolfie Smith in
the BBC sitcom Citizen Smith, which raised his profile.
1980s–1990s Towards the end of the run of Citizen Smith,
Lindsay won roles in the BBC Television Shakespeare series, including Lysander in A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Fabian in Twelfth Night and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
He played Edmund in the Granada Television production of King Lear with Sir Laurence
Olivier.
Lindsay played the role of Bill Snibson in the hugely acclaimed 1984 London revival of
Me and My Girl which subsequently transferred to Broadway, earning Lindsay a Tony Award
against competition from performers in Les Misérables on both occasions.
Lindsay's success on Broadway and in the West End led to a starring role in the film Bert
Rigby, You're a Fool, although it was not a commercial success.
However, he continued to enjoy success on television, and played the leading role in
Alan Bleasdale's dark comedy serial G.B.H., for which he won a BAFTA for his performance.
Lindsay was also in Bleasdale's Jake's Progress the tale of a couple played by Lindsay and
Julie Walters who were struggling to cope with a 'difficult' child.
Both Bleasdale serials were screened by Channel 4, as was the surreal Channel 4 sitcom Nightingales,
which also featured David Threlfall and James Ellis.
In 1996, Lindsay played the title role of Becket, the play by Jean Anouilh, opposite
Derek Jacobi as King Henry II for which he won another Olivier Award.
Lindsay won his third Olivier award after he took over the role of Fagin during 1997
in Cameron Mackintosh's London revival of Oliver!
at the London Palladium.
Lindsay appeared in the films Fierce Creatures and Divorcing Jack and in 1998, he was cast
in the recurring role of Captain Pellew in the ITV mini-series Hornblower, based on the
novels of C.S.
Forester which ran until 2003.
Lindsay was also the original choice for the lead role in the drama Cracker, however, he
turned the part down as he did not want to become too associated with heavy, darker drama
characters.
He later appeared as Fagin in the 1999 ITV Oliver Twist miniseries.
2000s Lindsay's longest running role has been Ben
Harper in the popular BBC sitcom My Family, opposite Zoe Wanamaker who played his on-screen
wife, Susan.
In October 2005, Lindsay starred in ITV drama series Jericho about a Scotland Yard detective
investigating murder and kidnapping in London's Soho in the 1950s.
In January and February 2006, he was the only actor to appear in two loosely linked Stephen
Poliakoff dramas, Friends and Crocodiles and Gideon's Daughter, shown on BBC One.
Lindsay has also portrayed Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Channel 4 satires A Very
Social Secretary and The Trial of Tony Blair.
In 2003 he appeared in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, and also narrated the BBC documentary
series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.
Lindsay appeared in the 8th Ricky Gervais Video Podcast in which Gervais announced that
Lindsay would be in the second series of Extras appearing in the last episode of the 2006
series, as an arrogant, mean-spirited version of himself.
Lindsay also appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon, as the tennis club manager who
hires Peter Colt.
In 2007 at the Old Vic Theatre, Lindsay played Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer,
a role first performed by Olivier in 1957.
In 2009 he played the protagonist, Maddox, from the Radio 4 comedy Electric Ink by Alistair
Beaton.
In 2010, Lindsay starred in the title role of Derby Live's production of Onassis before
its transfer to London's West End.
Lindsay stars as The Examiner in the British sitcom Spy which debuted in October 2011 on
Sky 1 and is slated to return to the cast in 2012 for a second series.
In November 2011, he starred as Henry in a revival of The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, a production which also featured Joanna Lumley
as Eleanor, and was directed by Trevor Nunn.
In 2012, Lindsay appeared in the Sky detective series Falcón, episode "The Silent and the
Damned", as Pablo Ortega.
Lindsay sings the recorded version of Derby County F.C.'s song "Steve Bloomer's Watchin'",
played and sung by the fans at the beginning of every home game.
Personal life In 1974, Lindsay married Cheryl Hall, who
later appeared opposite him in Citizen Smith.
They divorced in 1980, when he started a long-term relationship with actress Diana Weston, with
whom he has a daughter, Sydney Laura Stevenson, and who co-starred with him in three episodes
of My Family.
Lindsay then left Weston for actress and presenter Rosemarie Ford.
The couple have three children, born in Hillingdon, London: Samuel Lindsay Stevenson, James Lindsay
Stevenson and John Stevenson.
The couple married on 31 December 2006.
On 13 September 2006, Lindsay researched his family tree in the third series of Who Do
You Think You Are?.
He travelled to his hometown and to Turkey, where his grandfather Raymond Dunmore had
taken part in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I. Lindsay has been a lifelong supporter
of Derby County, a fact which he stated in a short section for CBBC's Newsround entitled
'My Team'.
Lindsay is known for his left wing political beliefs and usually describes himself as a
staunch socialist and has marched in the past in support of miners.
Lindsay was a passionate supporter of the Labour Party.
He was an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Tony Blair's decisions to go to war in Afghanistan
and Iraq, he then stopped supporting Labour and stated that he was "furious" and now feels
disillusioned with mainstream politics: "You see those images of Iraq and Afghanistan and
Lebanon, don't you?
And I suspect somewhere, when he goes home at night and the kids are in bed, he must
go, Jesus, what have I done?"
References
External links Official website
Robert Lindsay at the Internet Broadway Database Robert Lindsay at the Internet Movie Database
Biography on BBC site Robert Lindsay on Who Do You Think You Are?