Leigh Lawson - Life and Career

Life and Career

Lawson was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, and directed plays in the West End and on Broadway. He worked with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and with film directors such as Roman Polanski and Franco Zeffirelli. He was quoted as saying that the only time in his career when he didn't feel he should be somewhere else doing something else was when he was with the RSC. Lawson's portrayals in films include Bernardo in Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972) and Alec d'Urberville in Tess (1979). He played the leading role as Alan Lomax in the television drama series, Travelling Man (1984–85), and guest starred in television series, such as The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), Disraeli (1978), Feuer und Schwert - Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde (1982), The Ray Bradbury Theatre (1988), and Silent Witness (2005–2007). He also guested, with his wife Twiggy, playing themselves in an episode of the comedy series, Absolutely Fabulous (2001).

Lawson's talents have extended to other areas. In 1999, he co-wrote and directed the musical If Love Were All, which tells of the friendship between Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward. The Dream: An Actor's Story, a theatrical memoir about the day-to-day life of a working actor, was published in September 2009. (ISBN 978-1-84002-867-6)