SUSAN GEORGE and husband Simon MacCorkindale have had their baptism of fire as film producers. Under their production banner, Amy International, named after the character Susan played in Straw Dogs, they gave themselves the immensely difficult challenge of putting on screen the love story of Abelard and Heloise, those 12th century lovers doomed to tragedy, in Stealing Heaven, The mixed reviews were the sort that makes one wonder why you had put in so much time and effort. But Susan and Simon didn’t sit back and wait for the critical outcome. They have already made their second film That Summer Of White Roses into which Susan has put herself alongside Tom Conti and Rod Steiger, a less ambitious project than Stealing Heaven.
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Not too long ago, the prestigious Los Angeles Times published a long story about the new stars of tomorrow. They were all under 25, some under 20, and while the young men might make some young girls’ hearts go pittypat, women who are looking for real MEN won’t find the answer in these heartthrobs.
So let us consider British Simon MacCorkindale, who can and probably does raise blood pressure in all women. He’s tallЧsix feet. He’s slim, about 165 pounds. He has fashionably coiffed hair, not too long, not too short. It’s sort of brownish blond. Perhaps a bit sunbleached because he plays a lot of tennis. And this writer’s notes read “Honorable blue eyes.” It was a first impression obviously.
What ARE honorable blue eyes? That’s opposed to shifty. Here is a man you can trust. A stalwart soul who’s wondrously attractiveЧthe English accent just adds to his charm. And a wicked sense of humor goes with the package.
For those who haven’t been paying attention this year, Simon plays Greg Reardon, the attorney on CBS’ “Falcon Crest.” To date this season, he has dallied with Ana Alicia, who plays Melissa; with Sarah Douglas, who’s Pamela and with Laura Johnson, as Terry. The latter two women, he confides, are leaving the show at the end of this season. Out in the real world, Simon is married to actress-producer Susan George.
“I’m here,” says Simon MacCorkindale, “to offer something different.” He says this standing against the backdrop of Los Angeles, the twinkling lights of the city spread below him like so many Christmas trees, A slight, self-deprecating smile humbles the theatricality of the moment. “There are only a few English actors who can capture an American accent and pull it off. Peter Ustinov is one, I’m another. But if I used an American accent, I’d be just another American actor. So, I’m holding onto the English accent. At least for now.” It should serve him in good stead. As Boston-bred, English-educated lawyer-on-the-rise, Greg Reardon, Simon is currently appearing as one of the newest and more continental additions to the wicked wine country of “Falcon Crest.”
SIMON MacCORKINDALE, the British actor/ director, rose to international prominence for his portrayal of Simon Doyle, the smoothly avaricious young murderer in the star-studded DEATH ON THE NILE and is currently seen regularly as lawyer Greg Reardon on the CBS series FALCON CREST. Long an established leading actor on the British stage and television, MacCorkindale made his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England as Captain Blackwood in A BEQUEST TO THE NATION. In 1974 he made his London West End debut in the highly acclaimed production of PYGMALION.
They’re regarded in Hollywood as the perfect couple. She’s Susan George,recently voted the sexiest woman in the world. He’s Simon MacCorkindale, star actor, and just as dishy. They’re both very much in love, they both want to marry. So what’s the problem? Shirley Flack reports
(Mainly a Susan George article)
The love affair between Susan George and Simon MacCorkindale began just a year ago this month. They’re a handsome couple she, with a face for the 1980s and he, tall, blond and very, very British. Their affair seems made to match.
It’s based on a friendship of many years, of seeing each other through crises which, coincidentally, happened almost together. It seems fate set them on some predetermined path. And made sure they’d meet at the crossroads.
BRITISH actor Simon MacCorkindale is about to take on the most important role of his life – husband to beautiful actress Susan George. They plan to marry as soon as his busy Hollywood schedules permit.
“We spend every spare moment together,” says Simon, 32, who shares a love-nest in plush Beverly Hills with Susan. It’s his second marriage – the first, to actress Fiona Fullerton, broke up after Simon made it clear he wanted to be a superstar – but it’s Susan’s first trip down the aisle.
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Merely transforming into a wide variety of animals from a black leopard to a high flying hawk should pose no problem to British star Simon MacCorkindale, who stars as Jonathan Chase in the 20th Century- Fox Television series, “Manimal”.
“In recent pictures and series I’ve been shot and killed, had my hand bashed, was caught by a bullet in the shoulder, hanged, beheaded, drowned, hung in chains, tortured, and in “Jaws 3D”, I was devoured by a 35-ft. shark,” the handsome leading man confided.
MacCorkindale, who came to the United States in 1981, is a native of Cambridge, England, who made his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England, in “A Bequest to the Nation”. His first international television assignment was in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth ” in which he played Lucius, the centurion who was strongly featured in the last hour of the six-hours epic. Curiously enough, he also played Lucius, the son of Emperor Augustus, in “I Claudius”.
Among his roles on British TV have been Sir Thomas Walsingham in “Will Shakespeare”, Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet”, the callous vet in “Baby”, poet Siegfried Sassoon in “Out of Battle”, the naive Oxford graduate in Elinor Glyn’s “Three Weeks”, along with appearances in “Just William ” and Dr. Dady in the series set in a woman’s prison, “Within These Walls”.
What he considers the major break of his career was his being cast as Simon Doyle, the smooth, avaricious young murderer in “Death on the Nile”. He was presented to the Queen at the Royal Premiere in London, by which time he had completed a role in marked contrast, the tough sailor hero in Erskine Guilders classic spy story, “The Riddle of the Sands”.
Simon MacCorkindale is undoubtedly the only actor in theatrical history to go from a guest-starring role on TV’s “The Dukes of Hazzard” to performing the title role of “MacBeth” on the London stage.
In the Moonlight Productions II telefilm “Obsessive Love” the handsome actor gets to play another new character. Simon is the star of a television soap opera who finds himself caught up in a dangerous and bizarre love affair with one of his fans, Yvette Mimieux.
IAIN F. McASH interviews SIMON MacCORKINDALE, a star of ‘JAWS 3-D’, who hasn’t stopped working since he went to Hollywood three years ago
Husky British actor Simon MacCorkindale denies he has any affinity for sharks, yet admits that the voracious creatures have loomed large in his flourishing career these past twelve months.
He stars in Jaws 3-D which opens in Britain in time for Christmas, and he has the name part in a new American tv series called “Manimal” as a crime-busting professor with the advantage of being able to catch the bad guys by transforming himself at will into a panther, snake, bird – or even a shark!
Ed note: One of our members, Tisha Shelden, who lives near Orlando, Florida where Jaws 3D was filming, was able to spend some time on the movie set. She has consented to share her adventures with the club. Thanks, Tisha
Arriving on the set at 6:00 am, I was impressed at how incredibly cheerful and friendly everyone was. Everyone said hello to Simon and cast and crew alike seemed to like him.
July 22, 1983 marks the addition of a new dimension to Simon’s career – the third dimension, and watching Simon in 3D promises to be a whole new, exciting experience for all of us. With this issue we welcome the advent of Jaws 3D to movie screens everywhere and also add our sincere hope for its success at the box office.
In the following pages we will take a visit to the Jaws set, exploring behind-the-scenes movies-making techniques, receive advice on how to best enjoy viewing a 3D movie, and sit with Simon once more as he answers questions about his career. So without further delay we introduce our special feature: (See issue 3 part 2 for the feature)
It seems that Simon faces mayhem no matter where he goes. Recently, while filming Jaws-3D in Orlando, FL, he had a slight mishap. Simon’s character, Philip Fitzroyce, is very much the daredevil photographer. He seems to thrive on thinking up dangerous ways to get the required shots and camera angles, often using very dangerous and acrobatic methods. Simon, in character as Philip, had planned an unique way to photograph Shamu the killer whale. Shamu would be leaping high out of the water, while at the same time allowing his trainer to jump off a platform onto his nose, whale and trainer completing the dive together. With a rope tied around him for safety, Simon/Philip planned to get the shot by coming up behind the trainer on the platform and then leaning way over the edge, while his partner, Jack, (P.H. Morairty) pulled the rope taut to keep him from falling over. (The best laid plans of mice and men!)
LP: DEATH ON THE NILE was your first feature film internationally, and you starred with other big names in the movie business, David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, the list goes on and on. Do you have any particularity interesting thing about this that you’d like to share with us?
SM: Strictly speaking, I had, in fact appeared in a film called JUGGERNAUT, for United Artists much earlier than that. I mean, I really only flashed across the screen. I was cast in a rather nice little role for that, that when they changed directors, quite rightly so, the role got cut down to absolutely nothing. As it was I very disappointed, because obviously I wanted more lines on the screen.
I have been in the U.S. since February 1981, thought I visited off and on for two years prior to that. I am glad to be in America and delighted so many Americans seem to like my work.
What do you miss most about England?
My Family. (Parents, Jill and Peter MacCorkindale, and brother, Duncan. Duncan, an accountant, is two years eight months younger than Simon.)
RIDDLE OF THE SANDS, a movie Simon filmed a few years ago with Micheal York and Jenny Agutter, was slated for a January ’83 release in the United States. Due to perplexing delays in editing and other procedures, RIDDLE is still on the shelf, in spite of the fact that there are fans anxiously waiting to see it. Once these problems are ironed out, Simon will be asked to do some promotional work for the film. We can only hope, for his sake, that promotions for RIDDLE, MANIMAL and JAWS don’t all hit at the same time. (Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo!)
It’s a bird; It’s a plane! No – it’s a Manimal? Actually folks, MANIMAL is the title of a band new NBC movie of the week, staring – of course, SIMON!
Simon plays Jonathan Chase, a professor of animal behaviorisms, who, with the help of his partner (Glynn Turman) and a lady police officer, (Melody “Flash Gordon” Anderson) fights crime in New York City. Equipped with mystic powers inherited from his father, which include exceptional hearing and eyesight, Jonathan is also able to change into animals at will, and uses this to his advantage.
We all know Simon as a fine actor, however he is now beginning to make a name for himself as a producer/director. His production, A DOLL HOUSE, presented last year at the Matrix Theater in Hollywood, received several awards from Drama-Logue magazine.
Merely transforming into a wide variety of animals from a black leopard to a high flying hawk should pose no problem to British star Simon MacCorkindale, who stars as Jonathan Chase in the 20th Century-Fox Television series, “Manimal.”
The Stage Company in West Palm Beach, Florida recently featured Simon in his one-man show, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR. The show is about the life of Oscar Wilde and was presented on Sunday evenings November 14, 21 and December 5, 12.
A group of teenagers who had been given assignments to do reports on Oscar Wilde for school were in the audience one night. After the performance Simon consented to meet with the high schoolers to answer questions about Oscar Wilde and about his own career in acting and directing.
So impressive was Simon’s dissertation that many of them returned another week to attend a second performance of “Oscar”. After that performance, each of the young people presented Simon with a green carnation, which is the flower used during the show to symbolize different periods in the life of Oscar Wilde
Do we really have to wait six whole months to find out what perils await Simon in JAWS 3D? Yes, because the movie is not set for release until July 1983. However, Simon has reveled a few things about the story and the character he plays in JAWS, and we hope these comments will serve to whet you appetite for the film.
Simon revealed, “My character in JAWS 3D is called Philip Fitzroyce, 16th Earl of Haddenfield. He is an adventure from England’s aristocracy and makes a living out of shooting spectacular underwater films. He is a young Jacques Cousteau with a devil-may-care attitude. He wears safari suits, rugby shirts, a sharks tooth necklace and an outrageous hat. He’s a celebrity and knows it, and doesn’t care what he looks like as long as he’s having fun.”
Can there really be more, ask Simon’s fans after reading the long list of painful injuries and horrible demises in his biography? Yes, unfortunately, and many of us have yet to recover from the heart-stopping danger and physical strain to which Simon’s charater, Hank Richards, was forced to undergo in FALCON’S GOLD.
Hank was gassed, beaten up, nearly roasted and cut in two when forced to fight a barbarian over a pit of fire, shot in the side, and almost destroyed by a volcano. If that wasn’t enough, he ended up hanging from the skid of a helicopter!
Welcome to “Simply Simon” and thank you not only for joining, but for being such loyal and devoted fans. I cannot stress to you how important and valuable you all are to me. Working the kind of hours that I do, often under great adversity, it’s a delight to know that all the efforts are not only appreciated but awaited.
Your letters, cards, stories etc are all a great source of inspiration and a joy to receive. I hope I can always satisfy you as much as you all satisfy me.
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.’
