Biography
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (CBE)(born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. Callow rose to prominence originating the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1979 Peter Shaffer play Amadeus,...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Eternal Return
2025
as Malcolm
The film follows Cass, a young woman who has resigned herself to a life of emotional invulnerability until she meets Virgil, a cartographer who makes ...

Dame Maggie Smith - A Celebration
2024
as Self
A tribute to the celebrated and enigmatic actress, with her life story told by those who knew her best, celebrating her much-loved appearances across ...

The Holiday List
2024
as Samuel
A woman sets out a well-intentioned plan of bringing her dysfunctional family together in the wake of the family's matriarch, her mother-in-law.

Alec Guinness: A Class Act
2024
as self
The story of one of Britain's most celebrated actors of the 20th century, told by those who knew and admired him.

Merchant Ivory
2024
as Self
The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James...

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
2024
as Cavendish
Five months following the murders, Christopher Robin struggles to maintain a regular life while dealing with PTSD. However, deep within the 100-Acre-W...

Dodger Special: Coronation
2023
as Archbishop of Canterbury
Dodger and the gang return to London to pull off their biggest mission yet: to rob the Crown Jewels ahead of the Queen's Coronation.

Murder Ballads: How to Make It in Rock 'n' Roll
2023
as Richard O'Keefe
The rapid rise and violent fall of rock band Stack of Corpses whose attempt to jump start their career by stealing another singer’s song ends up with ...

Doctor Jekyll
2023
Recluse Dr. Nina Jekyll befriends with her newly hired help, Rob. They must work together to prevent Hyde from destroying her life.

Surprised by Oxford
2023
as Dr. Sterling
Brilliant but emotionally-guarded Caro Drake arrives in Oxford with the singular goal of attaining her PhD, but through a turbulent friendship with a ...

The Pay Day
2022
as Gates
A broke and frustrated IT technician decides to embark on a one woman heist to steal valuable data worth millions on the black market.

American: An Odyssey to 1947
2022
as Self
In the early 1930s, Orson Welles ascends to unprecedented stardom while President Franklin Delano Roosevelt navigates a nation in crisis. As WWII begi...

The Fringe, Fame and Me
2022
as Self
The Fringe, Fame and Me is the story of how a small Scottish arts festival that began 75 years ago this year became a national institution – a crucibl...

The Marvellous Maggie Smith: A Celebration
2022
as Self
A look at Dame Maggie Smith's life from a two-up two-down in Essex to Broadway and Hollywood. Starring in more than 60 films and 70 plays across her 7...

Judi Dench: Our National Treasure
2022
as Narrator
A profile of the actress from a strict Quaker upbringing in Yorkshire, through her staunch determination to make it as a thespian. There's also a look...

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
2022
Join the likes of Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh, and Vincent D’Onofrio as they reveal how Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” was conceived and...

The Amazing Mr. Blunden
2021
as Mr. Blunden
Jamie and Lucy have an encounter with what appears to be a pair of ghost children. But these spooky kids, Sara and Georgie, aren’t actually ghosts. Th...

Alexander Pope: Rediscovering a Genius
2021
as Alexander Pope
Docudrama that recounts the astonishing life story of a forgotten genius, English poet Alexander Pope, who lived from 1688 to 1744.

Nutcracker Delights: English National Ballet
2020
as Narrator
English National Ballet has been performing a version of Nutcracker every year since 1950. In 2020, the tradition lives on. Join Clara and her enchant...

The Dead Room
2018
as Aubrey Judd
Set and filmed at the iconic Maida Vale studios, The Dead Room tells the story of a long-running radio horror series and its veteran presenter and nat...

A Christmas Carol
2018
Based on Charles Dickens’s own performance adaptation, Simon Callow and director-designer Tom Cairns have created a one-man theatrical extravaganza of...

A Christmas Carol
2018
Writer
Based on Charles Dickens’s own performance adaptation, Simon Callow and director-designer Tom Cairns have created a one-man theatrical extravaganza of...

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2018
as Self
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other...

Blue Iguana
2018
as Uncle Martin
He's a low level criminal with no future and just out of prison. She's a low level lawyer never noticed by others, a lost soul without a life. Their a...

Grindsploitation 3: Video Nasty
2017
A diverse collection of horror shorts by several different film makers. A few are presented as trailers.

The Man Who Invented Christmas
2017
as Leech
In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, ...

Victoria & Abdul
2017
as Mr. Puccini
Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

50 Years Legal
2017
as Self
Leading activists and commentators explore the changes that have taken place since homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK in 1967 and the influenc...

Hampstead
2017
as Judge
Emily Walters is an American widow living a peaceful, uneventful existence in the idyllic Hampstead Village of London, when she meets local recluse, ...

Viceroy's House
2017
as Cyril Radcliffe
In 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumes the post of last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people, living upstairs at the house which was the ...

Mindhorn
2016
as Himself
A washed up actor best known for playing the title character in the 1980s detective show "Mindhorn" must work with the police when a serial killer say...

There's Something About Romcoms
2016
as Self
The inside story of the best modern romcoms with Meg Ryan, Hugh Grant, Richard Curtis, Dermot Mulrooney, Rupert Everett, Jason Alexander, Stephen Merc...

Golden Years
2016
as Royston
Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and M...

Creditors
2015
A love triangle is unraveled when a young painter is approached by an admirer who eases him into making sense of his relationship with his wife.

Rik Mayall: Lord of Misrule
2014
as Narrator (voice)
Comedian Rik Mayall died suddenly on 9 June 2014. Mayall's blend of rocket-fuelled physical comedy, surrealism, subversive satire and pompous punk wit...

The First Silent Night: The Christmas Carol That United the World
2014
Join renowned actor Simon Callow as he uncovers the moving origins of the song Silent Night that has been 200 years in the making. A story that begins...

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
2014
as Self - Actor and Welles' Biographer
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-85), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter,...
Miss in Her Teens
2014
as The Author
An adaptation of David Garrick's 1747 afterpiece, this lighthearted comedy follows Miss Biddy Bellair as she pits her suitors against eachother in ord...

The Sarah Millican Television Programme - Best of Series 1-2
2013
as Self
Collection of highlights from the first and second series of British comic Sarah Millican's show about television. The programme includes stand-up rou...

Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story
2012
as Dickie Attenborough
Schoolboy Maurice Cole, growing up in 1960s Liverpool, is picked on for being effeminate but is already making his own comedy tapes, one of which impr...

Shakespeare's Sonnets
2012
Released alongside a spectacular edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets for the Apple iPad, this beautifully produced DVD features specially filmed performa...

Being Shakespeare
2012
Featuring a tour de force performance from Simon Callow, Being Shakespeare is a one-man show about the life and work of the world’s greatest playwrigh...

Acts of Godfrey
2012
as Godfrey
At a two-day business conference, God (Simon Callow) decides to romantically pair Terry, a moral crusader, with his "win-at-all-cost" antithesis, Jacq...

The British Guide to Showing Off
2011
as Self
Documentary about British artist Andrew Logan as he attempts to put on the 2009 edition of his Alternative Miss World. The film also presents a histo...

Late Bloomers
2011
as Richard
Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hu...

Love's Kitchen
2011
as Guy Witherspoon
Rob Haley, an up-and-coming chef and restaurateur in London, is grief-stricken when he loses his wife. With encouragement from his infamous friend and...

Art of Freedom
2011
as Self
The documentary film Art of Freedom answers the most poignant questions on the phenomenon of Polish expeditions to the Himalayas. Poles have reigned t...

Ice
2011
as Prime Minister
It is 2020. Findings by environmental scientist Professor Thom Archer suggest that Halo, the corporate energy company drilling on the Greenland Glacie...
The Unforgettable Harry Secombe
2010
as Self
A celebration of the life and career of Sir Harry Secombe, one of Britain's best-loved entertainers.
Save Our Bacon
2010
as The Swinesbury's Boss (voice)
The story of an honest Lincolnshire farmer, hit hard by the credit crunch, squeezed by a greedy supermarket and struggling to survive. All his fortune...

Orson Welles Over Europe
2009
as Himself - Presenter
When Orson Welles went into self-imposed exile in Europe, he first found stardom with The Third Man and then immersed himself in challenging films, te...

Orson Welles Over Europe
2009
Writer
When Orson Welles went into self-imposed exile in Europe, he first found stardom with The Third Man and then immersed himself in challenging films, te...

Theatreland
2009
as Himself
8 part series behind the scenes at the famous Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a focus on a production Waiting for Godot featuring Ian McKellen, Patrick...

Maggie Smith at the BBC: a portrait
2008
as Self
An exclusive featurette in which directors and fellow actors speaks about Maggie Smith's career and her way of working.

Chemical Wedding
2008
as Haddo
A shy, stuttering professor brings satanist Aleister Crowley back to life.

Arn: The Knight Templar
2007
as Father Henry
Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden...

Surveillance 24/7
2007
as St John
Our hero Adam gets drawn into a web of intrigue as evidence is planted on him of a gay royal affair.

How Gay Sex Changed the World
2007
as Self
Charting the evolution of public and political attitudes to homosexuality over the last four decades, from decriminalisation in 1967 to today's advanc...

The Madness of Boy George
2006
as Narrator (voice)
Documenting the days and weeks preceding Boy George's appearance in a New York courtroom in June 2006 for cocaine possession and his subsequent senten...
Reviving Harry Lime
2006
as Himself
Radio producer Harry Alan Towers discusses his work with Orson Welles.

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb
2006
as George Russell
Thousands of years ago, the great Child King Tutankhamen ruled. Few know the details of his life -- No one knows the secrets of his death. All that is...
Men of Mystery
2006
as Himself
Orson Welles Biographer Simon Callow discusses the making of "Mr. Arkadin" (aka "Confidential Report.")

Ripley Under Ground
2005
as Dean Bentliffe
After his friend, a hot young artist, is killed, a resourceful American man living in London covers up the crime and tries to keep the friend's name a...

A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
2005
as Self (archive footage)

Revisiting Brideshead
2005
as Narrator
Documentary with an affectionate look back at the classic Granada TV dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh's famous novel "Brideshead Revisited".

Rag Tale
2005
as Cormac Rourke
A romance that plays out in the splashy, sensational world of British tabloids.

The Best Man
2005
as Big-Time Publisher
When writer's block derails the literary dreams of Olly Pickering, he has to move in with his friend Murray after losing all his money. Things start t...

The Civilization of Maxwell Bright
2005
as Mr. Wroth
After a series of bad relationships, a man orders a mail order bride and receives more than he bargained for.

Bob the Butler
2005
as Mr. Butler
Bob, an incompetent man, is searching for an available job by alphabetical order. He had just failed all of the A's, and discovers an ad in the Yellow...

The Phantom of the Opera
2004
as Andre
A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.

Thank You, Doctor Rey
2004
as Bob
A gay young man is recruited into an illicit love triangle to watch a much older man’s sexual liaison, but ends up witnessing what turns out to be his...

George and the Dragon
2004
as King Edgar
In 12th century England, the handsome and noble knight, George, has left the Crusades behind to follow his dream of a peaceful life on his own piece o...

Bright Young Things
2003
as King of Anatolia
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the a...

Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens
2002
as Galileo
Based on Dava Sobel’s bestselling book, Galileo’s Daughter, this documentary reveals a new side to the famously stubborn scientist – that his closest ...

The Mystery of Charles Dickens
2002
as Charles Dickens
Simon Callow's one-man show about Charles Dickens.

Thunderpants
2002
as Sir John Osgood
An 11-year-old boy's amazing ability to break wind leads him first to fame and then to death row, before it helps him to fulfill his ambition of becom...

Richard Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening
2002
Director
This star-studded gala celebrates the centenary of the birth of legendary Broadway composer Richard Rodgers. Rodgers' contribution to musical theatre...

Christmas Carol: The Movie
2001
as Charles Dickens / Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Animated version of the classic Charles Dickens story. Warned by the ghost of his old business partner Marley that his sins would lead to punishment i...

No Man's Land
2001
as Colonel Soft
Two soldiers from opposite sides get stuck between the front lines in the same trench. The UN is asked to free them and both sides agree on a ceasefir...

Deadly Appearances
2000
as Rick Spencer
Joanne Kilbourn, ex-detective turned university lecturer, is still haunted by the unsolved murder of her politician husband,

Around The World In 80 Days
2000
as Phileas Fogg (voice)
Travel back in time to a scene set in London in 1872, where a young Phileas Fogg is about to wager a fortune in the hope of completing an impossible c...

Animated Epics: Don Quixote
2000
as Don Quixote
A Claymation version of the classic story of Don Quixote.

Notting Hill
1999
as Simon Callow (uncredited)
London bookstore owner William Thacker's quiet life turns upside down when a chance encounter with famous actress Anna Scott sparks an unlikely romanc...

Shakespeare in Love
1998
as Tilney
Young Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter," before it's even written. When a lovely noblewoman a...

Bedrooms and Hallways
1998
as Keith
At the suggestion of a straight friend, gay man Leo joins a men’s group, where he causes some upsets by declaring his attraction to one of its members...
The Scarlet Tunic
1998
as Captain Fairfax
Passions erupt between a German hussar (Jean-Marc Barr) serving with King George III's personal cavalry and the only daughter of an English solicitor ...

The Woman In White
1997
as Count Fosco
Based upon Wilkie Collins Victorian mystery, the gothic tale tells of a pair of half sisters whose lives end up caught in a grand conspiracy revolving...

Victory
1996
as Zangiacomo
Axel Heyst is an American recluse with a dubious past living in the Dutch East Indies port of Surabaya circa 1913. Staying in a German hotel there, He...
Moses
1996
as Meneptah II (voice)
In the middle of the night, Egyptian soldiers search for Moses (Martin Jarvis) whose brother Aaron (Tony Leader) swfitly dispatches him on a camel. Ba...

James and the Giant Peach
1996
as Grasshopper (voice)
When the young orphan boy James spills a magic bag of crocodile tongues, he finds himself in possession of a giant peach that flies him away to strang...

An Audience with Charles Dickens
1996
as Charles Dickens
A live recording from the Vaudeville Theatre in London where Simon Callow recreates the reading performances of Charles Dickens.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
1995
as Vincent Cadby
Summoned from an ashram in Tibet, Ace finds himself on a perilous journey into the jungles of Africa to find Shikaka, the missing sacred animal of the...

Jefferson in Paris
1995
as Richard Cosway
His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult...

England, My England
1995
as Charles II
The story of Henry Purcell.

El pasajero clandestino
1995
as Major Owens

Street Fighter
1994
as A. N. Official
Colonel Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of dictator M. Bison and his cohorts.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
1994
as Gareth
Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love.

Camp Christmas
1993
Several guests who are lesbian or gay go to a home for Christmas.

Femme Fatale
1993
as Vicar Ronnie
Sicilian-born Maddalena has moved to a Devonshire village in England to escape volatile sexual tempers. She marries, but the lust she inspires in the ...

Soft Top Hard Shoulder
1993
as Eddie Cherdowski
Eight years ago, Gavin, the artistic son of a Scots-Italian ice-cream dynasty, turned his back on Glasgow and moved south to London to make his name i...

Howards End
1992
as Music and Meaning Lecturer (uncredited)
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, al...

The Trials of Oz
1991
as John Mortimer
Dramatization of the famous 1971 trial in which the editors of the British underground magazine "Oz" were charged with obscenity.

The Crucifer of Blood
1991
as Inspector Lestrade
A beautiful young woman asks Holmes to help her father, a former army captain and hopeless opium addict break free of the curse surrounding a stolen t...

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
1991
Director
A small-town eccentric opens a café in her decaying home.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
1990
as Dr. Alex Sauer
Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his ...

Postcards from the Edge
1990
as Simon Asquith
Substance-addicted Hollywood actress, Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continu...

Old Flames
1990
as Nathanial Quass
Daniel is an obeying and high-flying barrister with the good life on his side. Nathaniel Quass is a rich and bizarre recluse, generous, obsessed and ...

Revolutionary Witness
1989
as Franciscus Palloy
Four monologues by playwright Peter Barnes celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

Manifesto
1988
as Police Chief Hunt
In a small European country, the king is scheduled to visit a small, quiet and "safe" village. It turns out that while the village may indeed be small...

The Reluctant Dragon
1987
as Dragon (voice)
A shepherd’s son befriends a dragon, who is more inclined to compose poetry than attack the frightened villagers.

Maurice
1987
as Mr. Ducie
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

Cariani and the Courtesans
1987
as Raimondi
When Cariani the painter falls in love with the beautiful girl who receives mysterious visitors in the rooms below, he is drawn into a web of danger a...

A Room with a View
1986
as The Reverend Mr. Beebe
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George st...

The Good Father
1985
as Mark Varda
Bill is a man who's very bitter about his divorce and losing custody of his son. So, when one of his friends is being sued for divorce by his wife so ...

Honour, Profit & Pleasure
1985
as George Frideric Handel
British biopic of composer George Frideric Handel

Amadeus
1984
as Emanuel Schikaneder
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese...

The Man of Destiny
1981
as Napoleon
One of Shaw's "pleasant plays", The Man of Destiny is a one-act lighthearted comedy of egos and social hypocrisy. Set in 1796 in northern Italy, it fe...

Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
1979
as Maximillian
BBC Play for Today. Maximillian Schreiber runs a series of gruelling motivational courses - all coming at a cost to the participants - including VAT.