Line #5 Creator/DouglasHodge


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3	Douglas Hodge (born 25 February 1960 in Plymouth, England) is a British actor, occasional stage director, and (on the side) SingerSongwriter with an exceptionally diverse track record of roles.
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5	Initially a teenaged stand-up comic specializing in celebrity impressions, he went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, though he ultimately dropped out. His stage career began in TheEighties and by the end of the decade he had the roles of [[Theatre/TwelfthNight Sir Andrew Aguecheek]], Theatre/{{Hamlet}}, [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Romeo]], Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}, and [[Theatre/KingLear Edmund]] under his belt. In the ensuing decades, he has also played Theatre/{{Pericles}}, [[Theatre/TheWintersTale Leontes]], and Theatre/TitusAndronicus for the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Shakespeare's Globe, respectively.
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7	By the dawn of TheNineties he was appearing in serial dramas and {{Made For TV Movie}}s for Creator/{{ITV}}, Creator/ChannelFour, and Creator/TheBBC, most significantly as Dr. Tertius Lydgate in the 1994 BBC adaptation of ''Literature/{{Middlemarch}}''. He continues to do so to this day, along with guest appearances in various series. He was also a regular in two shows, ''Capital City'' (1989-90) and ''Red Cap'' (2001 pilot, 2003-04 series), and had recurring roles in ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'' (as the [[FakeAmerican American]] therapist Brick) and ''Series/PennyDreadful'' (as the SympatheticInspectorAntagonist of Seasons 2-3). In 2017 he played the owner-curator of the titular "Black Museum" in ''Series/BlackMirror''.
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9	He has performed in BBC Radio adaptations of such novels as ''Literature/GreatExpectations'' (as adult Pip) and ''Literature/WomenInLove''. Between two AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audios -- ''Urban Myths'' (the bonus story on ''Exotron'') and ''The Son of the Dragon'' -- he voiced a total of five roles, including a lead character in each. He's also had a fair deal of feature film work, albeit mostly minor roles (i.e. ''Film/TheDescent Part 2'', ''Film/RobinHood2010'', ''Film/{{Joker}}'') since the early 1990s.
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11	It is his stage work, however, that most of his reputation rests upon. In 1993 he began a decade-plus association with Creator/HaroldPinter, appearing in productions of seven different Pinter plays over 1993-2000 and directing ''The Dumb Waiter and Other Pieces'' in 2004. Shortly after this period, his career began to turn an unexpected corner. While he had performed in a few musicals in TheEighties and been a musician/songwriter for years -- performing low-profile gigs in pubs even as his acting career progressed -- his singing talents were new to many observers when he played Nathan Detroit in a West End revival of ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls'' in 2005. (Pinter [[ComedyGhetto even picked on him a bit for doing a light musical comedy]].) That same year, he released his first album, ''Cowley Road Songs'', which was followed by ''Night Bus'' in 2009.
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13	In 2008, Hodge's performance as Albin/Zaza in a revival of ''Theatre/LaCageAuxFolles'' won him the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. The production was given a Broadway transfer in 2010 and Hodge went with it, making his New York debut and winning the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Since that triumph, his stage career has blossomed further while retaining its variety, going from misanthropic solicitor Bill Maitland in John Osbourne's ''Inadmissable Evidence'' in 2011 to a return to Broadway as the title character in ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'' in 2012 to [[Characters/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactoryWillyWonka Willy Wonka]] in the 2013 West End musical ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''.
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15	In Fall 2015, he directed the Broadway debut of Creator/CliveOwen in a revival of Creator/HaroldPinter's ''Old Times''.
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17	!!Tropes associated with this actor/musician:
18	* BeneathTheMask: He seems to be drawn to characters who turn out to be far more than they appear. Of his recent stage leads alone, [[Theatre/LaCageAuxFolles Albin]] struggles with the inner knowledge that he'll never truly be the diva he plays as Zaza, [[Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac Cyrano]] uses his ''panache'' to mask his inner despair that no woman could ever love him, and [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]] has a SugarAndIcePersonality.
19	* ClassicallyTrainedExtra: A real life example with regards to much of his film work and some of his TV guest work, such as ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' and ''Series/{{Skins}}''. Perhaps the most extreme example is his voicing the minor role of a ''sentient stick of chewing gum'' in ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfOzDorothysReturn''[[note]]it's likely he did this while performing in the New York ''La Cage aux Folles''; the dates would line up, and his co-star Creator/KelseyGrammer had a key role in the film[[/note]]. With regards to his ''Spooks'' guest spot[[note]]He's the tabloid reporter in Series 4, Episode 5's "The Book"[[/note]], he explained to ''The Telegraph'' that [[MoneyDearBoy "It doubled my yearly income in six days. My agent said it's morally indefensible to turn that down."]]
20	** Another good example of this is his role in ''Film/Joker2019'', where he plays none other than ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' franchise mainstay [[BattleButler Alfred Pennyworth]]... for only a single scene, where he isn't identified by name in the dialogue, though Bat-fans will easily be able to identify the character through his role as young Bruce Wayne's caretaker.
21	* GenreRoulette: Between his two albums there are gentle SingerSongwriter ballads, uptempo rockabilly numbers, a ProtestSong with a march tempo about UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror circa 2005, and on ''Cowley Road Songs'' a HiddenTrack that turns out to be [[spoiler: a comedy song about the fall of David Beckham]]. As a live performer on the cabaret scene, his setlists have included covers of Music/BobDylan, Music/JohnnyCash, and Music/{{Elbow}} -- and yes, a few showtunes.
22	* HiddenDepths: His musical talents until 2005.
23	* LargeHam: Between all the Shakespeare '''and''' musical theatre he's performed in, he definitely has a gift for being this if the role demands it.

Context Creator / DouglasHodge