Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
A Clockwork Orange
Malcolm McDowell is arguably among the most dynamic and inventive of world-class actors, yet also one capable of immense charm, humor, and poignancy. He has created a gallery of iconographic characters since catapulting to the screen as Mick Travis, the rebellious upperclassman in Lindsay Anderson's prize-winning sensation IF…
His place in movie history was subsequently secured when Stanley Kubrick finally found the actor he was searching for to play the gleefully amoral Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, when McDowell himself conceived the idea for Mick Travis' further further adventures in Anderson's Candide-like masterpiece, O LUCKY MAN!, and when he wooed Mary Steenburgen and defeated Jack the Ripper as the romantically inquisitive H.G. Wells in TIME AFTER TIME.
Those legendary roles are among the ones that have endured with legions of filmgoers while new adherents have been won over by his tyrannical Soran (who destroys Capt. Kirk) in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS; his Machiavellian Mr. Roarke in FANTASY ISLAND and his comically pompous professor Steve Pynchon in the critically hailed CBS television series, PEARL, starring opposite Rhea Perlman.
For his motion picture work, the American Cinematigue honored him with a retrospective in June 2001, highlighted by showings of his electrifying performances in two major works. The first is Paul McGuigan's GANGSTER NO. 1, in which he and Paul Bettany portray the consumed, driven title character and which affords Malcolm the chance to create a character both on screen and through nuanced voice-over. The second is Russian director Karen Chakhnazarov's acclaimed and rarely seen ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR.
Malcolm's distinctive film characterizations include: Richard Lester's ROYAL FLASH, Paul Schrader's CAT PEOPLE, Rachel Talalay's TANK GIRL, Joseph Losey's FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE, Bryan Forbes' THE RAGING MOON and the Chaplinesque studio boss in Blake Edwards' SUNSET. His film credits are further highlighted by his compellingly sinister CALIGULA; the brilliant literary editor Maxwell Perkins in Martin Ritts' CROSS CREEK; his cameo in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER; and his final incarnation of Mick Travis in BRITANNIA HOSPITAL, the third film in Anderson's trilogy marking the disintegration of British culture.
McDowell's film work also includes BOBBY JONES: STROKE OF GENIUS, IN GOOD COMPANY, I SPY, Robert Altman's THE COMPANY; Robert Downey Sr.'s HUGO POOL with Sean Penn; JUST VISITING, MR. MAGOO, MY LIFE SO FAR, BLUE THUNDER, DOOMSDAY in 2007, Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN I & II, and the voice of villain, Dr. Calico, in Disney's 2008 box office hit, BOLT.
On television, he had recurring appearances as Terence on the hit HBO series, ENTOURAGE, as Linderman on NBC's HEROES, and in 2001, he starred in TNT's FRANKLIN & BASH as Stanton Infeld.
He currently has twelve films in the pipeline.
On March 16, 2013, Malcolm was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Malcolm McDowell at the Internet Movie Database