48 Facts About David Suchet

1.

Sir David Courtney Suchet is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television.

2.

David Suchet's father was of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, the son of Izidor Suchedowitz, originally from Kretinga in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

3.

David Suchet's father changed his surname to David Suchet while living in South Africa.

4.

David Suchet's mother was born in England and was Anglican.

5.

David Suchet was raised without religion, but became a practising Anglican in 1986, and was confirmed in 2006.

6.

David Suchet trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he now serves as a council member.

7.

David Suchet's elder brother, John, is a British television presenter and former ITN newscaster.

8.

David Suchet began his acting career at the Gateway Theatre, Chester, and then appeared in many reps, including Worthing, Birmingham, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Liverpool Playhouse, and the Watermill Theatre.

9.

David Suchet made his West End debut opposite Saskia Reeves in the Kempinski play Separation, at the Comedy Theatre in 1987.

10.

David Suchet has been starring as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at the Vaudeville Theatre in London since June 2015 and on tour.

11.

In January 2022, David Suchet had a three-week residency at the Harold Pinter Theatre performing Poirot and More, A Retrospective.

12.

In 1988, David Suchet played Leopold Bloom in the Channel 4 documentary The Modern World: Ten Great Writers, in which some of James Joyce's Ulysses was dramatised.

13.

The year 1988 saw David Suchet appear in the penultimate episode of the television series Tales of the Unexpected.

14.

David Suchet appeared as Yves Drouard, a scheming adulterer, in the episode A Time To Die.

15.

David Suchet then spoke to Brian Eastman from ITV, who sent him some of the novels to read.

16.

David Suchet was quite, quite different: more elusive, more pedantic and, most of all, more human than the person I'd seen on the screen.

17.

In 2001, he had the lead role in the David Suchet Yates-directed BBC television serial The Way We Live Now and, in April 2002, he played the real-life barrister George Carman in the BBC drama Get Carman: The Trials of George Carman QC.

18.

In 2003, David Suchet starred as the ambitious Cardinal Wolsey in the two-part ITV drama Henry VIII opposite Ray Winstone as Henry VIII and Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn.

19.

David Suchet appeared in the disaster film Flood, released in August 2007, as the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at a time when London is devastated by flooding.

20.

David Suchet appeared on daytime-TV chat show Loose Women on 6 February 2008 to talk about his film The Bank Job, in which he played Lew Vogel, alongside Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows.

21.

David Suchet starred in the 2009 CBC made-for-TV film Diverted.

22.

David Suchet starred as the main antagonist, Reacher Gilt, in the 2010 Sky TV adaptation of Going Postal, based on Pratchett's book of the same name.

23.

David Suchet appeared in the film Act of God as Benjamin Cisco.

24.

In 1987, David Suchet played a bigfoot hunter in Harry and the Hendersons.

25.

David Suchet had roles in two Michael Douglas films, A Perfect Murder and The In-Laws.

26.

Between 2014 and 2015, David Suchet appeared in and narrated two BBC Television documentaries, undertaking an epic journey spanning the Mediterranean, inspired by the life and travels of the apostles St Peter and St Paul.

27.

In 2016, David Suchet took on the role of the narrator in the BBC live production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, where he serves as the sole "professional" among the cast.

28.

David Suchet's solution is to take Captain Hook's mustache and start acting like Poirot, even delivering his lines in a Belgian accent.

29.

In 2017, David Suchet starred as Dr Fagan in the BBC1 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, and guest starred in the role of a character called "The Landlord", for an episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who entitled Knock Knock.

30.

David Suchet is vice-president of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust, whose most challenging achievement to date has been securing funding concerning the building of the new M6 Toll motorway where it cuts the lines of the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal, both of which the Trust wishes to see reopened.

31.

David Suchet was officially voted in as chairman of the River Thames Alliance in November 2005.

32.

David Suchet is a patron of the River Thames Boat Project.

33.

David Suchet later won another Variety Club Award for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in a revival of Amadeus.

34.

David Suchet was nominated for another Royal Television Society award in 2002 for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now, which earned him a BAFTA nomination.

35.

On 10 October 2008, David Suchet was awarded an honorary degree for his contributions to the Arts, from the University of Chichester.

36.

In November 2008 David Suchet won an International Emmy Award for Best Actor at the International Emmy Awards in New York for his role as tycoon Robert Maxwell in the 2007 BBC television film, Maxwell.

37.

On 13 July 2010, David Suchet was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury.

38.

David Suchet was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours for "services to drama".

39.

On 18 March 2014, David Suchet was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTS Programme Awards 2013 for his outstanding performance in Agatha Christies Poirot.

40.

David Suchet was knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

41.

In 1972, David Suchet first met his wife, Sheila Ferris, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where they were both working; he says that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her, and that it took a while to persuade her to go out for a meal with him.

42.

David Suchet is the brother of John David Suchet, a former national news presenter for Five News and presenter of the evening concert on Classic FM.

43.

David Suchet is the uncle of broadcaster Richard Suchet, who is the son of Suchet's younger brother, Peter.

44.

David Suchet's maternal grandfather, James Jarche, was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and for his pictures of Louis Bleriot and the Siege of Sidney Street.

45.

David Suchet first became interested in photography when his grandfather gave him a Leica M3 camera as a present.

46.

David Suchet's paternal grandfather, Isidor Shokhet, was a Lithuanian Jew and lived in Kretinga, a Lithuanian city in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

47.

Isidor again changed his surname to David Suchet after moving to Cape Town, South Africa.

48.

David Suchet was captain of the brig Hannah, which sank nine miles off the coast of Suffolk during a violent storm on 28 May 1860, in which more than 100 vessels sank and at least 40 people died.