Paul Nicholas (born Paul
Oscar Beuselinck, 3 December 1945 in Peterborough
, England
) is an
English actor and singer who has had considerable success on stage, screen and in the
pop charts.
Biography
Nicholas'
grandfather — who originated from Belgium
— had been a
chef in the merchant navy during World War II, before becoming Head Chef on The
Union-Castle Line ships between
England and South Africa. His
maternal grandfather was a London
docker.
Nicholas'
father Oscar Beuselinck, a fomer MI6
agent,
became a highly esteemed entertainment lawyer, whose clients included: MGM, Jack Hilton, John
Osborne, The Rolling Stones,
Tony Richardson, Richard Harris, Sean
Connery, Yes, Robert Stigwood, and The
Who.
The family
spent holidays at his maternal grandparents home on the Isle of Sheppey
, until Nicholas was 10. After his parents
divorced when he was 12, his father's family home was at Letchmore
Heath, Watford
opposite the
Bhaktivedanta
Manor
. Nicholas' paternal grandparents, Winnie and
Oscar, lived in a small cottage on the grounds.
Career
Nicholas began his pop career as early as 1960.
Adopting the stage
name Paul Dean, he formed Paul Dean & The Dreamers
who were booked to support The
Savages, the backing band for the British
rocker, Screaming
Lord Sutch. It was here that Sutch first noticed the
young Nicholas, who was soon to become vocalist and pianist with
The Savages.
Still using the name Paul Dean, Nicholas released two
solo singles in
1965-66. After taking a new stage name, Oscar, he began a long
association with the
Australian-born
entrepreneur,
Robert Stigwood. In 1966, Nicholas signed
with Stigwood's
Reaction Records
label and his first single under his
new name, "
Club of Lights", scraped
into the lower reaches of the
Radio London Fab
Forty chart.
The second Oscar single was a version of a
Pete Townshend song "Join My Gang", which
The Who never recorded.
His third single, a
novelty song called "Over the Wall
We Go" (1967) is notable for being written and produced by a
young David Bowie and it gained a degree
of notoriety because of Bowie's tongue-in-cheek lyrics concerning
escaped prisoners and incompetent policemen, which satirised a rash of highly-publicised prison break-outs in the UK
and was
banned by the BBC.
After settling on the stage name Paul Nicholas, Nicholas eventually
found success in the UK in
musicals,
beginning with the leading role of Claude in
Hair (which Stigwood produced) before
winning the
title role in the original
London production of
Jesus
Christ Superstar. The part of Danny to
Elaine Paige's Sandy made them the first
British couple to play the leads in
Grease.
He joined The Young Vic
under Frank Dunlop and
played Claudio in Much Ado
About Nothing and appeared in Crete and
Sgt. Pepper by John Antrobus. He appeared as
the Bully of the Boulevard in
Richard O’Brien’s
T-Zee at
The Royal Court Theatre. He also performed in Prospect Theatre
Company's
Carl Davies musical
Pilgrim. It was while touring with O'Brien in
Hair in 1970 that he first heard songs from the yet to be
produced
Rocky Horror
Show and made the first professional recording with
O'Brien singing "That Ain't No Crime". On the B-side was a song
entitled "Very 50s", where O'Brien introduces the characters Brad,
Janet, and Dr. Scott (In 2005 Nicholas sent O'Brien a
CD copy of the recordings with a view to releasing them
as an historical record).
Thereafter Nicholas returned to the West
End
starring in Harold
Fielding's revival of Charlie
Girl with Cyd
Charisse.
Nicholas' film career began in 1970 in a
French film with
Serge Gainsbourg and
Jane Birkin called
Cannabis.
Whatever Happened To Jack and Jill followed, in which he
played
Mona Washbourne's character's
ungrateful grandson. He followed this as a
psychotic killer in
Richard Fleischer's
Blind Terror. In 1975, he gained
international attention when he played the cameo role of the title
character's
sadistic Cousin Kevin in
Robert Stigwood and
Ken Russell's film
Tommy. He worked again for Russell in
Lisztomania, playing
Richard Wagner.
In 1976 he embarked on a short-lived but high profile pop career,
with three
Top 20 hits in the
UK
Singles Chart "Reggae Like It Used To Be", "Dancing With The
Captain", and "Grandma's Party", the last two of which reached the
Top 10. He released the single "Heaven on the 7th Floor" in 1977.
This only
just reached the UK Top 40, but reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 listings in the U.S.
. He followed this with "On The Strip" which
entered the
Billboard Hot 100 but
failed to enter the UK charts. In the mid-1970s he hosted his own
eponymously-titled pop show on children's TV.
In 1978, he co-starred in the film
Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band as Dougie Shears. Further films followed
including
Nutcracker with
Joan Collins,
Yesterday's Hero with
Ian McShane and Susan Summers,
The World Is
Full of Married Men with Carol Baker, the romantic lead in
Invitation To A Wedding, and the loutish
punk singer in
The
Jazz Singer.
Having
done the workshop with Sir
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nicholas returned to the West
End stage in 1981 to create the role of the capricious
cat Rum Tum Tugger in Webber's musical Cats. He followed this
originating the title role in
Blondel by
Sir Tim Rice and
Stephen Oliver. That same year he
starred in
Two Up, Two
Down, a short-lived sitcom co-starring
Su Pollard. Then in 1983, Nicholas got his first
high-profile television role (he had acted in plays and one-off
roles through the 1970s on TV) in which he was cast as Vince Pinner
in the
BBC TV sitcom
Just Good Friends,
written by
John
Sullivan.
The show, for which Nicholas also sang the
theme tune, was a success. He was also nominated
for a
BAFTA.
It ended in 1986 with the marriage of the
two main characters in Paris
.
Nicholas went on to star in two highly successful series for
ITV. In the major drama series
Bust he
was nominated Best Actor. He acted in two series of
Close to Home, a sitcom
about a vet. During this period Nicholas was seldom off television
with many appearances including four
Royal Variety Shows. He also
appeared in TV commercials for Rougemont Castle British wine, and
magazine advertisements for Farah slacks.
Nicholas returned to the theatre playing numerous roles on screen
in both movie and television projects.
He starred as The
Pirate King in Joseph Papp's version of
The Pirates of
Penzance at the London Palladium
and the Manchester Opera House
, touring again in the same role in the late
1990s. Nicholas starred in
Barnum in the first national tour and
followed this with a highly successful season at The Dominion
Theatre in the West End. At the end of 1991, while touring with
Barnum, Nicholas was the
subject of
This Is Your
Life. For his services to show business and charity,
Nicholas was awarded a Silver Heart from the
Variety Club of Great Britain. Nicholas then
starred in the national tour of
Singin' In The Rain, which was
directed by
Tommy Steele.
In June 1996 Nicholas played the role of
King Arthur in the Covent Garden Festival’s
production of
Camelot. He
repeated his role of King Arthur in a
BBC
Radio 2 production of
Camelot. Other radio work
included Gracie Field's husband Bert in
BBC
Radio 4's
Gracie. Nicholas then
hosted two series of BBC Radio 2's
Mad About Musical', as
well as his own hour long TV special,
Paul and Friends,
for
Thames Television. Nicholas
fronted the Radio 4 children's series
Cat's Whiskers
during the 1980s.
Nicholas was also the narrator of the children's animated series
The Adventures of Spot, part of the
Spot the Dog franchise, in 1985. Although he
was briefly replaced by Peter Hawkins for the first phase of
It's Fun To Learn With Spot, Nicholas reprises the role in
time with the production of a second season of
The Adventures
of Spot in 1992, and also performed the narration for the
second phase of
It's Fun To Learn With Spot. His
involvement with the franchise ended in 1996, with his last
credited appearance in the series being in the special
Spot's
Magical Christmas. Such was Nicholas' association as the
narrator of the franchise that he also narrated four stories
featuring Spot the Dog that was released directly to cassette and
CD in the late 80s, and was also the voice featured on the Spot the
Dog kiddie ride, which was first manufactured in 1995.
In 1997
Nicholas starred as the wrenchingly confused anti-hero of Karoline Leach's The Mysterious Mr.
Love at the Comedy
Theatre
in London's West End. Nicholas continued to
appear as the lead in numerous straight roles thereafter:
Simon Gray's
Stagestruck, a national
tour of Michael Cooney’s
The Dark Side with
Jenny Seagrove,
Catch Me if You Can
with
Christopher Eccleston,
and two plays by
Eric Chappell:
Mixed Feelings, in which he played a
transsexual, and
Snakes and Ladders
with
Ian Ogilvy. Nicholas starred as John
Smith in the original production of
Caught In The Net. He
then co-produced, with
Bill
Kenwright, a new musical based on
Charles Dickens' novel
A Tale of Two Cities, in which he
starred as Sidney Carton. The musical then played Windsor with a
Christmas season in Birmingham.
In 2000 Nicholas appeared in the BBC television
comedy drama Sunburn, playing the role of David
Janus, owner of the self-titled holiday company that the series
centered around. He also played the role of Ronnie Buchan in the
new police drama series
Burnside. Further television work
followed with parts in
The Bill and
Holby City.
Nicholas then played the title role in the national tour of
Doctor Dolittle and
followed this with the role of Tevye in UK Productions' national
tour of
Fiddler On The
Roof.
In the summer of 2006, he was a celebrity
showjumper in the BBC's
Sport Relief event
Only Fools on Horses, as well as
appearing in
Doctors,
Heartbeat and
Holby
City.
In the autumn of 2006 Nicholas was attached to star in the British
film
Cash and Curry.
In 2006 co-produced and starred in the Broadway musical
Jekyll &
Hyde in a UK national tour.
In 2007 Nicholas and his business partner David Ian took part in a
search for Danny and Sandy in the
ITV1 show
Grease is the Word. David Ian was a judge and Nicholas the
acting coach to the contestants. He performed with his son Alex
Beuselinck in
Schwartz Stories, a new musical at the Kings
Head. Also in 2007 Nicholas produced and directed
Keeler,
a new play based on
Christine
Keeler's autobiography 'The Truth At Last'.
At the beginning of 2007 Nicholas starred as Julian Marsh in the UK
tour of
42nd Street,
directed by the author
Mark Bramble.
Nicholas left prematurely so that he could film the new daily
ITV1 medical series
The Royal Today in which he played the
consultant surgeon
Mr. Woods. In 2008
Nicholas played Alan Boon in BBC Four's
Consuming Passions - a
hundred years of Mills and Boon. He also directed and produced
A Tale of Two Cities
at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. In 2009 Nicholas played [Jack Point]
in the "Yeoman Of The Guard" for the Carl Rosa Opera Company at the
Tower of London Festival. He coproduced 'Jest End' Garry Lakes
hilarious take on the West End Musical at the Jeremyn Street
Theatre. In 2010 Nicholas returned to BBC Television with an
appearance in 'Missing'
Business
In 1990 whilst starring with
David Ian in
a production of
The Pirates
of Penzance at the London Palladium, Nicholas offered Ian
a partnership in co-producing and starring in a touring production
of the Joseph Papp version of the popular
Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Paul Nicholas & David Ian Associates Ltd
were formed to produce the 20th anniversary production of
Jesus
Christ Superstar on a UK-wide tour, which sold out. They then
produced a nightly fully-staged version of
The Pirates of
Penzance in which Nicholas starred and again they sold out.
[245669]
The company has since produced numerous shows making both partners
millionaires, including:
School of Acting
In 2006 Nicholas set up a franchise operation, the
Paul Nicholas School of
Acting, aimed at teaching acting to school-age children. There
are currently 26 franchises across England.
In January 2008 Nicholas launched Paul Nicholas Community Arts, a
project designed to engage disenfranchised children in the arts.
The pilot scheme will be funded for 14 weeks by Wyre Borough
Council in the North West of England.
A 12-week scheme
began on the 28 May 2008 in Blackpool
.
Personal life
Nicholas has been married twice, and has six children. His first
wife, Susan, died in a car accident in 1979. Nicholas married his
second wife, columnist
Linzi
Beuselinck, in 1984.
Literature
Paul Nicholas (with Douglas Thompson): 'Behind the Smile'
autobiography, Hardcover, 218 pages published in October 1999 by
André Deutsch Ltd; ISBN
0233997482 -
References
- http://www.pnsa.co.uk/
- http://spaghoops.com/justgoodfriends/jgfbiog.htm
External links
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