1. Robert Thomas Powell is an English actor who is known for the title roles in Mahler and Jesus of Nazareth, and for his portrayal of secret agent Richard Hannay in The Thirty Nine Steps and its subsequent spinoff television series.
30 Facts About Robert Powell
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Robert Powell was nominated for a Best Actor BAFTA TV Award for Jesus of Nazareth in 1978 and won a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in the film Imperative in 1982.
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Robert Powell was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of Kathleen and John Wilson Robert Powell.
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Robert Powell began acting at school, playing the title role in Shakespeare's King Lear.
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Robert Powell appeared as a teenager in The Adventures of Samuel Poppleton on BBC Radio Children's Hour from the North of England in Manchester, where he came under the guidance of producer Trevor Hill, as detailed in Hill's autobiography, Over the Airwaves.
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Robert Powell secured a post at a repertory theatre in Stoke-on-Trent.
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Robert Powell had a small role in the original film version of The Italian Job playing one of the gang, but had to wait a few years for his first success, playing scientist Toby Wren in the BBC's science fiction series Doomwatch in 1970.
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Robert Powell starred in 1973 in the first episode of the British series Thriller.
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Robert Powell appeared in the 1975 series Looking for Clancy, based on the Frederic Mullally novel Clancy.
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For several years Robert Powell continued as a television regular, with occasional forays into film, as the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler in the Ken Russell biopic Mahler and Captain Walker in Russell's film version of Tommy.
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Robert Powell then played Jesus of Nazareth in Jesus of Nazareth following a successful second audition with Franco Zeffirelli.
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In 1978, Robert Powell took the leading role of Richard Hannay in the third film version of The Thirty Nine Steps.
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Robert Powell's characterisation proved to be enduring, for almost ten years later a television series titled simply Hannay appeared, with Powell back in the role.
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In 1980, Robert Powell appeared in the film Harlequin playing the Harlequin of the title, who seems to have the power to cure the son of a powerful politician.
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In 1984, Robert Powell made his US film debut in What Waits Below.
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In 1986, Powell narrated and co-starred in William C Faure's miniseries Shaka Zulu, with Henry Cele in the title role.
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Robert Powell then agreed to a request from his friend and golf partner, comedian Jasper Carrott, taking the part of an incompetent detective in a succession of sketches that formed part of Carrott's television series.
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Robert Powell read the novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, and has narrated many audio books, including The Thirty Nine Steps, abridged versions of many of Alan Garner's books, and several abridged novels for The Talking Classics Collection.
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Robert Powell has lent his voice to musical works, such as David Bedford's album The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, or the 2002 rock opera The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman, in which he played the role of John Watson.
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Robert Powell narrated on two rock albums by Rick Wakeman called Cost of Living and The Gospels.
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Robert Powell became a patron of 24:7 Theatre Festival in 2004, and continues to operate in this capacity.
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In 2005, Robert Powell began appearing in the BBC soap opera Holby City as a hospital administrator.
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Robert Powell said that regular employment in the series helped him make up financial losses caused by the failure of the pension fund he held with The Equitable Life Assurance Society.
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On Easter Sunday 1 April 2018, Robert Powell appeared in a Smithsonian Channel Documentary Series based on his portrayal of the Franco Zeffirelli mini-series Jesus of Nazareth titled, The Real Jesus of Nazareth, narrated by Judd Hirsch.
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The series covered 4 segments, each one hour in length dealing with historical elements of the story along with Robert Powell interviewing biblical historians such as Helen Bond and Candida Moss.
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The 1977 series starring Robert Powell differed in at least two scenes from the Gospel's historical account: in the film, the Virgin Mary is shown without the angel of the Annunciation and Jesus carries only the horizontal branch of the Holy Cross to Calvary.
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Robert Powell met his future wife, the Pan's People dancer Barbara "Babs" Lord, backstage at the BBC.
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Robert Powell was a founder member of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, and campaigned alongside Barry Norman on behalf of the party's first leader, Roy Jenkins.
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In 1995, Robert Powell was one of the readers of Edward Lear poems on a specially made spoken word audio CD bringing together a collection of Lear's nonsense songs.
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Robert Powell provided the narration for Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman's 2002 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles as a progressive rock album.