CASUALTY hunk Simon MacCorkindale last night mocked sister show Holby City by saying: “You’ll never be as good as us.”

Simon, 53, who plays dishy doc Harry Harper, claimed plans by BBC executives to replace Casualty with the newer arrival had backfired

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Simon MacCorkindale

Simon MacCorkindale must be one of the few actors who have turned to Charles Bronson with the words: “Oh, you great butch creature, you!” and lived to tell the tale. As it was, Charlie, laughed and appreciated the joke from the young Englishman who was recently awarded the ‘Evening News’ most promising newcomer accolade for his work on ‘Death On The Nile’ and ‘Riddle Of The Sands’.

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Simon MacCorkindale tends to play undemonstrative English gentlemen and while women have been known to find him sexy, ‘animal’ is not the word one would think of to describe him. He’s civilised (even though he now lives in Los Angeles – or, at least, as he says, ‘that’s where all my belongings are – my home is wherever I am!) So there is something piquant about his playing a professor who, to fight crime, transforms himself into a protean variety of animal shapes. He had thought that he would be able to devote a lot of time to his own projects; writing and directing are his first loves. ‘I thought I would be an animal a lot of the time and wouldn’t need to be there.’ Instead he found himself working a 16-hour-day six days a week, spending hours being made up for the transformation scenes, while the human part of the role got larger and larger. ‘I was never off the set. I was hoist by my own petard!’ All actors should learn from this – being an animal is even worse than working with one.

Secret Mission Accomplished

Simon MacCorkindale, who stars in Jaws 3, is still living out a love story with his actress wife Susan George. The pair have also gone into partnership, he as producer, she as executive producer, to put another love story on screen. Stealing Heaven, which was filmed recently in Yugoslavia, tells the tale of the legendary medieval romance between Heloise and a celibate monk called Abelard. It is the result of plans that MacCorkindale started in the early Eighties. When he left Britain for America – and, ultimately, the TV series Falcon Crest – six years ago, he was a man with a secret mission; to get together the expertise and money to return and set up film projects here. ‘I just got frustrated at not being in control of my own destiny,’ he says. ‘Now, at least I will know I’m giving a project my all.’

Simon MacCorkindale

A few months a ago, Simon MacCorkindale, 27, was voted the most promising new comer for his performances in Death On The Nile and Riddle Of The Sands. The success clearly thrilled him but left him pondering on how to keep on top

“Talent is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve been very lucky and had a lot of breaks, but I still feel it’s no harder to be a success than to be a failure because there are no rules for finding success. You have to make them yourself and be rational. And then you find remaining there is almost harder than getting there.”

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The Lowdown On . . .

Simon MacCorkindale (Casualty, BBC1, 8.20pm)

Age: 53
Style: Dashing English gent
Significant others: Divorced Fiona Fullerton, his wife of five years, in 1981, and three years later married another actress, Susan George.
He says: ‘I’ve always felt my time as and actor and leading man is now’ – on his starring role in Casualty
Finest Hour: His performance in Death On The Nile in 1978 won him the Most Promising Actor award and made his famous.
Don’t Mention: Driving. He was banned for two years last month after a hit-and-run accident, and had to pay £5,000 damages.
Anything else? Simon’s first wedding was held in St Paul’s Cathedral, London – an honour granted to him because his father, an RAF officer, was awarded an OBE.

Translated from the original French, so readability is a little strange.  Translated by SMCFP Member Nadeia

Star of the new TV show Manimal, aired on FR3, in which he has the strange power to transmute into any animal, Simon MacCorkindale will certainly hit the ladies’ hearts. When he was playing the dandies near the rich heirs in “Death on the Nile”, in 1978, he had to employ a secretary to face all the mail he was receiving. He was born in Cambridge, England, on February 12th 1952, of a father officer in the RAF. Actor of theater, he already appeared in several TV shows and dramas such as Franco Zeffirelli’s “Jesus of Nazareth”, and “I, Claudius”. Bachelor? No. Divorced from Fiona Fullerton, who we’ll see soon in the new James Bond, he married another British actress: Susan George