Occupation actor Name Mark Umbers | Role Theatre actor Education University of Oxford | |
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Born 17 June 1973 (age 50) ( 1973-06-17 ) Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, UK Movies A Good Woman, Blackbeard, Cassandra's Dream, These Foolish Things, Colour Me Kubrick Similar People Mike Barker, Kevin Connor, Waris Hussein, William Shakespeare, Brian W Cook | ||
Hey, Old Friend! Catch Up with the Extraordinary Stars of London's "Merrily We Roll Along"
Mark Umbers (born 17 June 1973) is an English theatre, film and television actor.
Contents
- Hey Old Friend Catch Up with the Extraordinary Stars of Londons Merrily We Roll Along
- Background
- Career
- Filmography
- References
Background
Born in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, Umbers was brought up in Wetherby and was educated at Sedbergh School. In 1995 he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Latin and Greek Literature and Philosophy.
Career
Umbers' first professional engagements were in 1997 in the BBC dramas The Student Prince and Berkeley Square. His first theatre engagement was the lead role in Joseph Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds and the Theatre Royal, Bath, later remounted at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London.
In 1999, Trevor Nunn cast Umbers in his multi-award-winning 1999 season at the Royal National Theatre, where he appeared in Candide, Troilus and Cressida and The Merchant of Venice, which was later filmed for broadcast by the BBC. After appearing in the BBC series The Scarlet Pimpernel, Umbers returned to the National to play Freddy in the critically acclaimed 2001 revival of My Fair Lady, later transferring to Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Umbers then appeared in The Vortex, Michael Grandage's inaugural production at the Donmar Warehouse, after which he was cast opposite Scarlett Johansson in A Good Woman. After playing opposite Anjelica Huston in These Foolish Things and alongside John Malkovich in Colour Me Kubrick, he played the lead role of Perkin Warbeck in Channel 4's historical drama Princes in the Tower and a further leading role in the mini-series Blackbeard, opposite Jessica Chastain.
In 2007, Umbers played the Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie alongside Jessica Lange in the West End. He was longlisted for the Evening Standard Award Best Actor Award for his performance. Later that year Steven Soderbergh cast Umbers as Roth in Che: Part Two. The following year Umbers starred in Chichester Festival Theatre's 2008 revival of Funny Girl, the second series of the BBC1 drama Mistresses and the BBC film of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.
Umbers then starred in the Menier Chocolate Factory's revival of Sweet Charity, the first production of the show to have only one leading man, with Umbers playing all the love-interest roles. The production transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
After appearing in the ITV drama Eternal Law, in 2011 Umbers returned to Chichester Festival Theatre in The Browning Version opposite Anna Chancellor. The play was performed in a double bill with David Hare's new play South Downs and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London in April 2012.
Umbers returned to the Menier Chocolate Factory in November 2012, playing the central role of Franklin Shepard in the multi-award-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. The production transferred with its original cast to the Harold Pinter Theatre on 1 May 2013, receiving more 5 star reviews than any other production in West End history, along with the Critic's Circle Award for Best Musical, the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and the Olivier Award for Best Musical revival. Umbers was long-listed for the Evening Standard Best Actor in a Musical award for his performance. The production was filmed and subsequently screened in cinemas worldwide.
Since 2014, Umbers has been a regular character in the ITV and PBS World War Two drama Home Fires.