Starring Edward Woodward

Starring Edward Woodward is a biography that benefits greatly from the inclusion of personal memories and photographs provided by the Woodward family and renowned colleagues. These previously unseen pictures provide a great insight into Woodward’s alter ego as husband and father. The biography concentrates on the career trajectory of the personable and charming Woodward who was a versatile and prolific theatre, television, film performer and recording artist.

He was a world-wide star of iconic proportions and he played everything from Shakespeare to pantomime and romantic adventure to honour. His war-ravaged childhood, which to a large extent created the workaholic drive that ensured Woodward rarely turned down any offer of work, is illuminated. Aged just sixteen, he was the youngest student ever to attend RADA. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Laurence Olivier thought so highly of young Woodward that he offered him his choice of roles in a season at the Old Vic.

Woodward also enjoyed success in several Broadway hits directed by Noel Coward, but it was for his portrayal as David Callan, the reluctant and anguished spy, that he shot to stardom in 1967. Callan was very much part of the swinging sixties cultural revolution and was the antithesis of the prevalent suave and sophisticated, James Bond-style secret agent; he was the first of the flawed and vulnerable anti-heroes. He was a household name by the time he went to work on the cult horror film, The Wicker Man in 1973 and ultimately it was that performance that led to an offer to star in the US TV series The Equalizer in the 1980s.

At that time he was living and working in uncharted territory as an English star in New York. It had not been done before by any actor and he has only recently been followed by Hugh Laurie. Apart from the triumphs, the profile also delves closely into his challenging post-war years, the financial hardship he endured, the anxiety and depression he suffered and the toughest of times after the star left his wife and children to live with a much younger Michele Dotrice. He was at the height of his career and she was famous for her role as Betty in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Em, “Callan elopes with Betty” leapt from the front page of every national newspaper and marked the beginning of paparazzi-style journalism in Britain.

Finally the on-going and interesting controversy surrounding his last film, A Congregation of Ghosts, (2008) which has still to be released, is analysed in detail. The biography is packed with detailed information from the National Theatre Archives, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Archives and The British Film Institute Library and stills archive. Every television performance, interview and film he made is studied and critiqued.