Simon MacCorkindale (Peter Gilkes in Baby)

MacCorkindale was born as Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale on 12th February 1952 in Ely, Cambridgeshire. Blessed with a suave demeanour and patrician good looks MacCorkindale never made his mark in movies, unlike his contemporaries Jeremy Irons and Michael York ,and would instead carve a career on both American and English television.

His father was a commissioned officer in the RAF and this led to MacCorkindale having a restless childhood due to regular relocations as his father undertook different postings around the world. He was privately educated at Haileybury College, an independent boarding school near Hertford, where he was a keen rugby player and was appointed as head boy. MacCorkindale originally considered following in his father’s footsteps with a RAF career but this was prevented by his poor eyesight. He also briefly considered a career in the Diplomatic Service. Instead he chose to pursue a career as a theatre director and trained at Theatre of Arts in London despite his father’s concerns that it was not a sensible career choice. He agreed with his parents that he would abandon this career path if he was still struggling to find work by the age of twenty five. Whilst he attended the Studio 68 Performing Arts school he undertook acting classes with the idea that it would make him a better director. However it changed his outlook considerably and he decided to pursue a career in acting instead of directing.

On graduating MacCorkindale continued to hone his craft by toiling in regional theatre. He made his regional debut as Captain Blackwood in Bequest to the Nation at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 1973. He made his TV debut playing Lieutenant Carter in a BBC adaptation of Fenimore Cooper’s Hawkeye, The Pathfinder (18th November – 16th December 1973). The cast also boasted roles for Patrick Troughton, Windsor Davies and John Abineri. MacCorkindale then made his West End theatre debut with a small supporting role in a new version of Pygmallion in 1974. Alec MCowen and Diana Rigg took the lead roles.

The following year MacCorkindale was cast as Rolf Hornblower, the son of Bernard Lee’s character, in the BBC Play of the Month 'The Skin Game' (19th May 1974). He then appeared in the Westward Television play Time and Time Again, written by news reader Gordon Honeycombe, and filmed on location in the Scilly Isles. The play was awarded the Silver Medal at the New York Film and TV Festival and was repeated in 1977. Also during 1974 MacCorkindale made his cinema debut with a small role in the disaster film Juggernaut (1974).

He continued with television roles with guest roles in ongoing series and appeared as Ian Sutherland, the estranged son to Ian Cuthbertson’s John Sutherland, in 'No Second Chance' (10th June 1975), an episode of the BBC legal drama Sutherland’s Law. His next guest role would lead to him being in the Beasts episode 'Baby' when he cast by the director John Nelson Burton in the Hunter’s Walk instalment 'Intent' (1st June 1976). He was then seen as Paris in a Thames Television adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (22nd September 1976) and only five days later appeared in the legendary BBC production of I, Claudius playing Lucius, the son of Brian Blessed’s Emperor Augustus, in the episode 'Waiting in the Wings' (27th September 1976). These roles were then followed by his appearance as the vet Peter Gilkes in 'Baby'. In December 1976 he made his first appearance as the character Doctor Dady in 'Islands in the Heartline' (11th December 1976), an episode of the prison drama Within These Walls. The character would feature in further episodes later on in the fifth season of the series. Also during 1976 MacCorkindale announced his engagement to the actress Fiona Fullerton. The couple eventually married, but later split in 1982. 

To start 1977 MacCorkindale took on the role of Paul Verdayne in 'Three Weeks' (9th March 1977), an episode of the ITV drama anthology Romance, which was directed by Waris Hussein. April would see the actor take on his most high profile role to date when he played the Roman centurion Lucius in Jesus of Nazareth (April 1977). The same month he appeared in 'William and the Sleeping Major' (24th April 1977), an episode of Just William.

MacCorkindale hadn’t forgotten his love and theatre and he appeared in the one-man play The Importance of Being Oscar at the Questors Theatre during October 1978. The play was written by Michael MacLiammoir and depicted the life of times of the famous writer before and after his sentencing for homosexual activities in 1895. MacCorkindale impressed the critics “The play is a triumph for Simon MacCorkindale who moves effortlessly from his role as a living room narrator into the characters of Oscar Wilde’s works and back again, keeping a grip on the audience’s interests throughout… MacCorkindale quickly establishes a rapport that takes away that conscious effort and leaves each listener feeling that he himself is the one person the harration is being made to.[1]”

Simon returned to the role of Doctor Dady in two further episodes of Within These Walls – 'Raft' (4th February 1978) and 'Love Me Love My Bear' (25th February 1978). He then took the role as Commander Maddox in the Doombolt Chase instalment 'Court of Shame' (12th March 1978) and played Sir Thomas Walsingham in 'Dead Shepherd' (13th June 1978), the opening episode of Will Shakespeare.

Next was a breakthrough role for the actor when he made his film debut in a star studded adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (1978) in the role of Simon Doyle. This appearance earned him the London Evening Standard Film Award as Most Promising Newcomer and saw his cache rise in the eyes of casting directors everywhere. His next film role was in Riddle of the Sands (1979), based on the 1903 novel by Erskine Childers, alongside Michael York and Jenny Agutter. York and MacCorkindale played two young men on holiday in Germany who uncover a plot to invade Britain in 1901. 

For the final Quatermass (24th October – 14th November 1979) television series MacCorkindale had his second encounter with the work of Nigel Kneale. He played the ill-fated scientist Joe Knapp in the programme first broadcast after ITV returned to the air following an extended time of being off air due to industrial action by technicians. Following this MacCorkindale made his first appearance in an American television show playing Gaylord Duke, the supposed cousin of the Dukes of Hazzard in the episode 'Duke of Duke' (21st December 1979). His appearances on US TV would become more regular in the coming years. He also appeared in the crime drama film Cabo Blanco (1980), supporting Charles Bronson in the lead role. MacCorkindale was one of several shady characters searching for sunken Nazi loot of the coast of Peru. He was then cast as another doctor, this time as Doctor Bob Hobart in the NBC TV movie Scalpels (26th October 1980). 

Next was the Hammer House of Horror episode 'Visitor From the Grave' (22nd November 1980) playing Harry Wells, the husband of the mentally unstable Penny who helps her husband hide the body of a business associate after Harry kills him. Penny then starts seeing the dead man which drives her closer to the edge…

Back on US TV MacCorkindale took the role of David Clement in the mini-series The Manions of America (30th September – 2nd October 1980) a family saga set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. This was followed by a guest spot in the Fantasy Island episode 'Cyrano / The Magician' (24th October 1981) and undertaking the role of Macduff in a poor, but star studded direct to video production of Macbeth aimed at the American market. In 1982 following his divorce from Fiona Fullerton MacCokindale became a bankable star in the US following a permanent relocation to California. However this success did not happen overnight. “I spent two full years in California going to auditions and getting very close, but always losing out on parts because I was English.[2]”

The roles became more interesting and lucrative starting with the fun low budget fantasy film The Sword and the Sorcerer and continued with more TV guest spots in the Hart to Hart instalment 'Million Dollar Hearts' (19th October 1982) and 'The Will' (17th November 1982), an episode of the glossy soap Dynasty. His final US TV work for the year was the TV Movie Falcon’s Gold AKA Robbers of the Sacred Mountain, a low energy spin on Indiana Jones. 

The following year, in November, he married the actress Susan George with whom he would remain with up until his untimely death. He also took the role of Philip FitzRoyce in the summer tentpole movie Jaws 3D, a second sequel to Jaws. His biggest break to date came when he landed his own television vehicle, the short-lived, but strangely endearing, Manimal (30th September – 17th December 1983), playing the scientist Jonathan Chase who has the ability to change into a variety of different animals as he fights crime. Only eight episodes were made before the series was cancelled. Instead of retreating into the treadmill guest roles in ongoing series MacCorkindale instead found himself cast as Greg Reardon in the Dynasty spin off Falcon Crest. He would play the character Greg Reardon in nearly sixty episodes between 1984 and 1986. 

Post-Falcon Crest MacCorkindale made a few mini-series and other fodder for the American TV networks before taking the role of Peter Sinclair in the action adventure series Counterstrike (1990 – 1993). The series ran for three seasons and MacCorkindale was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role. After this MacCorkindale appeared in several made for television movies for American television and undertook guest roles in continuing series. Highlights of this period included guesting in the Canadian children’s educational sci-fi series Mentors which featured a brother and sister who have a computer that is able to transform into being important figures from history. The episode 'Wilde Card' (17th July 1998) saw MacCorkindale play the writer Oscar Wilde, a role he had previously undertook in 1978 with his one-man stage show. The same year he also reprised his role as Jonathan Chase (Manimal) in a single episode of the Glen A Larson action adventure series NightMan. The episode, titled 'Manimal' (9th November 1998), saw Chase help fight a time travelling Jack the Ripper!

The following year MacCorkindale took the recurring role of Reed Horton in the fourth, and final, series of television horror series Poltergeist: The Legacy (1999). For the next two years he then made guest spots in several continuing series; Earth: Final Conflict, Dark Realms and Relic Hunter. Around this time MacCorkindale and Susan George decided to return to the UK where they set up a production company called Amy International Artists, was named after George’s character in the film Straw Dogs (1971). They also bought and ran a stud farm on Exmoor where they bred Arabian horses. 

He was cast as the character Harry Harper in the prime time Saturday night drama Casualty which would become his signature role for the last years of his career. MacCorkindale adjusted seamlessly from the lighter style of the American soaps to the more realistic and gritty acting style of UK TV. He would play the character for other six years, before being written out of the series in 2008. He undertook a strenuous touring theatre engagement playing Andrew Wyke in a new version of Sleuth. He followed this with taking the role of Captain von Trapp in a production of The Sound of Music based at the London Palladium.

After being diagnosed with bowel cancer MacCorkindale had only a handful of other onscreen credits including the films Blind Revenge (2009) and Night Wolf (2010). His final television appearance was in an episode of the BBC drama series New Tricks playing Sir David Bryant, a wealthy arts patron, in the episode 'Good Morning Lemmings' (8th October 2010). MacCorkindale passed away in London just under a week after the episode was transmitted.

Tributes to him included one from John Yorke, the then controller of BBC drama, who commented “It is a massive tribute to Simon that he bore his illness so stoically – never asking for sympathy or attention, and continuing to work as long as he was able. He will be missed massively by his many fans, and by everyone who worked with him.[3]”

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[1] Powerful Entertainment by David Gordon, Middlesex Count Times, 20^th October 1978, page 15

[2] Animal Magnetism by Steven Eramo , TV Zone 117, August 1999, page 117

[3] Quoted in Simon MacCorkindale Dies After Cancer Battle, The Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8067368/Simon-MacCorkindale-dies-after-cancer-battle.html (accessed 23rd July 2019)