MacCorker
There’s one thing I’m not at all keen on doing…
IF your Mum’s always moaning about the pictures of punks and long-haired layabouts stuck up on your bedroom walls, shell be pleased to see our pin-up of Simon MacCorkindale.
That’s because Simon is a typical clean-cut, old-fashioned Englishman. The type that she’d like to have round for tea!
The only trouble is that it’s a mold Simon isn’t always happy about fitting into.
“Since I appeared in Death On The Nile I seem to have been offered a lot of stiff upper lip, clean shaven, adventurous Englishmen parts,” complained Simon. “And they’re just the sort of parts I’d like to get away from!
“The trouble is that when the big American film companies use an English actor, they expect him to play a typical Englishman.”
Simon has had experience of Hollywood filming, because he recently went to Mexico to make a film with superstar Charles Bronson and naturally Simon played an upper crust Englishman in that too.
“But I’m determined not to get type cast,” he says. “I want to do a few more physical swashbuckling roles. And then it would be great to play a real villain!”
Of course part of the reason for Simon’s type casting — he’s got a similar part in the recent film Riddle of the Sands — is that he has a very English background.
He’s the son of an RAF Group Captain, and he was educated at a public school.
His folks wanted him to have a career in the armed forces too, but from the age of eight Simon had been keen to be a film director!
“I persuaded my parents to send me to drama school. At the beginning it was very depressing. All the other students were more extrovert than me. I’d never dressed up in a leotard before, or done a movement class. I was like a fish out of water!”
But after a few plays Simon fell in love with acting.
“I discovered that I really loved acting. I still want to be a director, but not for a while yet.”
In the months ahead we’ll be able to see Simon’s new film, and he’ll also be popping up on our TV screens in a brand new version of the famous sci-fi programme from the fifties, Quatermass.
In the meantime he’ll be looking for new parts.
But if you’re looking for new bits to drool over — you’re out of luck! For there’s one thing Simon won’t do.
“I’d like to, do controversial things,” he confessed. “But there’s one thing I’m not at all keen on doing — appearing in the nude!
“I reckon the public gets to know enough about you through interviews!”
Hmm! All together now -shame! There’s only one cure, a double dose of his picture!