David Suchet

Widely regarded as one of the England's finest stage, screen and TV actors, short, stocky, balding 'David Suchet' (qv)'s international reputation has only grown over the years, greatly enhanced by his definitive interpretation of 'Agatha Christie' (qv)'s suave Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, a character he played for nearly 25 years in various TV episodes (1988-2013). Born in London on May 2, 1946, the son of actress Joan Patricia Jarché and renowned Lithuanian-Jewish obstetrician and gynecologist Jack Suchet, David, following boarding school, took an early desire in acting and was given a membership with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain at age 16. He then studied for three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and, after a significant route in repertory work, became a company member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973 where he evolved into one of its most dominant players.In the 1970s Suchet also began to come into his own on British television. In classical tradition, his first television movie was _A Tale of Two Cities (1980)_ (qv). His first cinematic detective was as a Greek inspector in the Disney mystery-comedy _Trenchcoat (1983)_ (qv). This was followed by a versatile range of film roles that also express the width of his acting nationalities, such as a Middle Eastern terrorist in _The Little Drummer Girl (1984)_ (qv), a Russian operative in _The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)_ (qv), a French hunter in _Harry and the Hendersons (1987)_ (qv), a Polish bishop in _To Kill a Priest (1988)_ (qv) and the emperor Napoleon in _Sabotage! (2000)_ (qv).Suchet's masterful work in television roles also includes portrayals of historical, biblical, entertainment and fictional figures, such as 'Sigmund Freud' (qv) in _Freud (1984)_ (qv), news reporter 'William L. Shirer' (qv) in _Murrow (1986)_ (qv), Aaron in _Moses (1995)_ (qv), movie mogul 'Louis B. Mayer' (qv) in _RKO 281 (1999)_ (qv), Cardinal Wolsey in _Henry VIII (2003)_ (qv)), vampire nemesis Van Helsing in _Dracula (2006)_ (qv) and Robert Maxwell in _Maxwell (2007)_ (qv).Suchet's memorable theatre incarnations have included Shakespearean interps of Iago in "Othello", Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet", Caliban in "The Tempest" and the title role of "Timon of Athens," as well as vibrant classical roles such as George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1996), as composer Salieri in "Amadeus" (1998), a mesmerizing performance that earned both Olivier and Tony nominations, as Joe Keller in "All My Sons" (2010), as James Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (2012) (and in the 2014 film), as Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" (2015) (and in the 2015 film) and as Gregory Solomon in "The Price" (2019).Long wed to former actress 'Sheila Ferris' (qv), the couple has a son and daughter. His older brother is BBC newscaster-turned-journalist 'John Suchet' (qv). In 2011, David was awarded with the Queen's Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net