Martin Jarvis is one of Britain's most versatile leading actors. His career, which began in the 1960s, continues to encompass just about every aspect of the entertainment industry: film, television, theatre, radio and audio recording. He is also the author of two bestselling books: a hilarious autobiography Acting Strangely and a compelling account of his award-winning time on Broadway in 2001: Broadway, Jeeves - The Diary of a Theatrical Adventure, both published by Methuen. He is a prolific director of radio drama and, with his wife, actress/director Rosalind Ayres, produces plays and readings for BBC. They have homes in London and Los Angeles. Martin trained at RADA, where he won the Vanbrugh Award and the Silver Medal. He is an Associate of RADA and in the year 2000 was invested an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) by Her Majesty The Queen. In January 2007 he was in Kenya filming the leading role of David Bradburn in BBC2's new comedy/drama The Calais Rules. In the summer of 2006 he appeared at the Santa Fe Arts Festival in New Mexico in Wilde's The Canterville Ghost with Shirley Maclaine and Ali McGraw. Earlier in the same year he starred in Honour at Wyndham's Theatre, London giving an acclaimed performance opposite Diana Rigg. On screen that year he played Leonard in BBCTV's modern version of Much Ado About Nothing and (in 2005) starred as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. He received a Theatre World Award on Broadway in 2001 for his title role performance in By Jeeves which he also filmed. His West End, National, Almeida and Donmar theatre appearances include works by Ayckbourn, Frayn, Pinter, Maugham, Shaw and Wilde. He played Jack Worthing opposite Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell at the National Theatre in the 1980s directed by Sir Peter Hall, and premiered Harold Pinter's Other Places in the National's Cottesloe Theatre. Pinter directed Martin in the leading role of Hector in Giraudoux's The Trojan War Will Not Take Place. Martin met Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the National and subsequently went on to star in Ayckbourn's: Woman in Mind, Henceforward, Just Between Ourselves and By Jeeves. Screen credits include leading roles in the British/Australian mini-series Bootleg, Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Lorna Doone, Michael Frayn's Make and Break, Ike - The War Years (with Robert Duvall) and The Bunker (with Anthony Hopkins.) He was Linus in Richard Eyre's film of Absence of War written by David Hare. Has guest starred (very often as villains) in Morse, Frost, Lovejoy, Casualty, Murder Most Horrid, Dr Who - plus Space Above and Beyond, several episodes of Murder She Wrote and Walker Texas Ranger in the US. He played monstrous Neil Biddle in Sex 'N' Death and was a memorable television Uriah Heep in David Copperfield on British television. First major screen role: 'Jon' in the multi-award winning Forsyte Saga. He followed this with many 'classic serials' including The Way of All Flesh (in which he starred as Ernest Pontifex), Nicholas Nickleby (title role), The Moonstone, Little Women and The Pallisers. Martin's feature films include the psychological thriller Framed (2007), Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War, James Cameron's Titanic, Kid With the X-Ray Eyes, Buster, The Last Escape, Taste the Blood of Dracula. His voice can be heard in numerous television animation series as well as feature films including Flushed Away and Eragon. He has narrated Peter and the Wolf at the Barbican and appeared with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra as Narrator for Egmont and A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the Chichester Festival Theatre he starred with John Gielgud in Paradise Lost, with Googie Withers and Susan Hampshire in The Circle and with concert pianist Lucy Parham in Beloved Clara. Jarvis & Ayres Productions, which Martin founded with Rosalind Ayres, has produced many award-winning dramas and readings for BBC Radio, National Public Radio in America and for audio books. Their work includes outstanding interpretations of plays by Bernard Shaw, Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, David Mamet, Hugh Whitemore, Robert Shearman, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, and many more. British and American stars who have been associated with J&A productions include, in the UK: Judi Dench, Diana Rigg, Alfred Molina, Richard E. Grant, Michael York, Richard Briers, Pauline Collins, Janie Dee, Fiona Shaw, Miriam Margolyes, Patricia Hodge, Twiggy Lawson, Natascha McElhone, Martin Freeman, Barry Humphries, Phil Collins. And in the US: Brendan Fraser, Elaine Stritch, Teri Garr, Stacy Keach, Shirley Knight, Hector Elizondo, Bruce Davison, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ed Begley Jnr, Ed O'Neill and Gregory Peck. Directors of J&A dramas include: David Mamet, Michael Grandage, David Grindley, Alan Ayckbourn, Pete Atkin, Rosalind Ayres. Jarvis & Ayres productions have received Audie awards in the US. In September 2006 Martin directed Teri Garr, Michael York and Alfred Molina in an acclaimed production of Pack of Lies for BBC Radio 4. He and Fiona Shaw starred for five years in the popular BBC series Our Brave Boys. His Just William audio and radio recordings are world wide best sellers. Martin was the subject of BBC TV's This Is Your Life in 1999.
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