Martin Turner (born in Hong Kong, September 1950) is an English stage and television actor.
In the 1970s he was a member of the Inter-Action Community Arts Trust founded by Ed Berman, before deciding to train as an actor at the Drama Centre, London, under Yat Malmgren and Christopher Fettes.
His stage career has been distinguished by playing lead roles for Cheek by Jowl (including Oberon/Theseus in their world tour of A Midsummer Nights Dream), the Royal Shakespeare Company, Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Royal Exchange, Manchester, Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, Shakespeare's Globe, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sheffield Crucible, Chichester Festival Theatre and other companies.
On the West End stage he has played Evelyn Oakleigh opposite Elaine Paige in Anything Goes, and Pierre Guerre in Martin Guerre (both at the Prince Edward Theatre); Ronald Reagan in Gaddafi at the English National Opera; Father in Rabbit at Trafalgar Studios; and most recently Banquo, at the Gielgud Theatre, in the highly-acclaimed Macbeth directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart, which transferred to New York’s BAM Harvey Theatre and Broadway.
His featured roles on television include John Harrison in Agatha Christie's Poirot (Wasp's Nest); Neil Spicer in Rosemary and Thyme; Charles in Prince William, Cimon in Son (ABC/Fox); Wing-Commander Turner in Foyle's War (Series 2 & 3); Charles I in Charles II: The Power & the Passion; William Wilberforce in Breaking the Chains; Arthur Ernest Percival in The Somme - From Defeat to Victory; Frogton in Killer Net; Tim Pye in The Money Men; as well as guest roles in Holby City, Casualty, The Bill, The Knock, Pie in the Sky, Trainer, Dangerfield, Bergerac, Rumpole of the Bailey.
Famous quotes containing the words martin and/or turner:
“I learned from the git-go in the joint to get in touch with the soft, nurturing side of myself, the feminine side.”
—Wesley Strick, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Max Cady (Robert DeNiro)
“O shining Popocatapetl, It was thy magic hour:
The houses, people, traffic seemed
Thin fading dreams by day;
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
They had stolen my soul away!”
—Walter James Turner (1889–1946)