Paul Nicholas - Career

Career

Nicholas began his pop career as early as 1960. Adopting the stage name Paul Dean, he formed Paul Dean & The Dreamers who were booked to support The Savages, the backing band for the British rocker, Screaming Lord Sutch. It was here that Sutch first noticed the young Nicholas, who was soon to become vocalist and pianist with The Savages.

Still using the name Paul Dean, Nicholas released two solo singles in 1965-66. After taking a new stage name, Oscar, he began a long association with the Australian-born entrepreneur, Robert Stigwood. In 1966, Nicholas signed with Stigwood's Reaction Records label and his first single under his new name, "Club of Lights", scraped into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab Forty chart.

The second Oscar single was a version of a Pete Townshend song "Join My Gang", which The Who never recorded. His third single, a novelty song called "Over the Wall We Go" (1967) is notable for being written and produced by a young David Bowie and it gained a degree of notoriety because of Bowie's tongue-in-cheek lyrics concerning escaped prisoners and incompetent policemen, which satirised a rash of highly publicised prison break-outs in the UK and was banned by the BBC.

After settling on the stage name Paul Nicholas, Nicholas eventually found success in the UK in musicals, beginning with the leading role of Claude in Hair (which Stigwood produced) before winning the title role in the original London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. The part of Danny to Elaine Paige's Sandy made them the first British couple to play the leads in Grease. He joined The Young Vic under Frank Dunlop and played Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in Crete and Sgt. Pepper by John Antrobus. He appeared as the Bully of the Boulevard in Richard O’Brien’s T-Zee at London's Royal Court Theatre. He also performed in Prospect Theatre Company's Carl Davies musical Pilgrim. It was while touring with O'Brien in Hair in 1970 that he first heard songs from the yet to be produced Rocky Horror Show and made the first professional recording with O'Brien singing "That Ain't No Crime". On the b-side was a song entitled "Very 50s", where O'Brien introduces the characters Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott (In 2005 Nicholas sent O'Brien a CD copy of the recordings with a view to releasing them as an historical record). Thereafter Nicholas returned to the West End starring in Harold Fielding's revival of Charlie Girl with Cyd Charisse.

Nicholas' film career began in 1970 in a French film with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin called Cannabis. Whatever Happened To Jack and Jill followed, in which he played Mona Washbourne's character's ungrateful grandson. He followed this as a psychotic killer in Richard Fleischer's See_No_Evil_(1971_film). In 1975, he gained international attention when he played the cameo role of the title character's sadistic Cousin Kevin in Robert Stigwood and Ken Russell's film Tommy. He worked again for Russell in Lisztomania, playing Richard Wagner.

In 1976, he embarked on a short-lived but high profile pop career, with three Top 20 hits in the UK Singles Chart "Reggae Like It Used To Be", "Dancing With The Captain", and "Grandma's Party", the last two of which reached the Top 10. He released the single "Heaven on the 7th Floor" in 1977. This only just reached the UK Top 40, but reached number #1 in New Zealand and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 listings in the US Paul received a gold record. He followed this with "On The Strip" which entered the Billboard Hot 100 #67 but failed to enter the UK chart. In the mid 1970s he hosted his own pop show on children's TV, titled Paul.

In 1978, he co-starred in the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as Dougie Shears. Further films followed including Nutcracker with Joan Collins, Yesterday's Hero with Ian McShane and Susan Summers, The World Is Full of Married Men with Carol Baker, the romantic lead in Invitation To A Wedding, and the loutish punk singer in The Jazz Singer.

Having done the workshop with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nicholas returned to the West End stage in 1981 to create the role of the capricious cat Rum Tum Tugger in Webber's musical Cats. He followed this originating the title role in Blondel by Sir Tim Rice and Stephen Oliver. That same year he starred in Two Up, Two Down, a short-lived sitcom co-starring Su Pollard. Then in 1983, Nicholas got his first high-profile television role (he had acted in plays and one-off roles through the 1970s on TV) in which he was cast as Vince Pinner in the BBC TV sitcom Just Good Friends, written by John Sullivan.

The show, for which Nicholas also sang the theme tune, was a success. He was also nominated for a BAFTA. It ended in 1986 with the marriage of the two main characters in Paris. Nicholas went on to star in two highly successful series for ITV. In the major drama series Bust he was nominated Best Actor. He acted in two series of Close to Home, a sitcom about a vet. During this period Nicholas was seldom off television with many appearances including four Royal Variety Shows. He also appeared in TV commercials for Rougemont Castle British wine, and magazine advertisements for Farah slacks.

Nicholas returned to the theatre playing numerous roles on screen in both movie and television projects. He starred as The Pirate King in Joseph Papp's version of The Pirates of Penzance at the London Palladium and the Manchester Opera House, touring again in the same role in the late 1990s. Nicholas starred in Barnum in the first national tour and followed this with a highly successful season at The Dominion Theatre in the West End. At the end of 1991, while touring with Barnum, Nicholas was the subject of This Is Your Life. For his services to show business and charity, Nicholas was awarded a Silver Heart from the Variety Club of Great Britain and a Gold Badge Award from BASCA. Nicholas then starred in the national tour of Singin' in the Rain, which was directed by Tommy Steele.

In June 1996, Nicholas played the role of King Arthur in the Covent Garden Festival’s production of Camelot. He repeated his role of King Arthur in a BBC Radio 2 production of Camelot. Other radio work included Gracie Field's husband Bert in BBC Radio 4's Gracie. Nicholas then hosted two series of BBC Radio 2's Mad About Musical', as well as his own hour long TV special, Paul and Friends, for Thames Television. Nicholas fronted the Radio 4 children's series Cat's Whiskers during the 1980s.

Nicholas was also the narrator of the children's animated series The Adventures of Spot, part of the Spot the Dog franchise, in 1985. Although he was briefly replaced by Peter Hawkins for the first phase of It's Fun To Learn With Spot, Nicholas reprises the role in time with the production of a second season of The Adventures of Spot in 1992, and also performed the narration for the second phase of It's Fun To Learn With Spot. His involvement with the franchise ended in 1996, with his last credited appearance in the series being in the special Spot's Magical Christmas. Such was Nicholas' association as the narrator of the franchise that he also narrated four stories featuring Spot the Dog that was released directly to cassette and CD in the late 1980s, and was also the voice featured on the Spot the Dog children's ride, which was first manufactured in 1995.

In 1997, Nicholas starred as the anti-hero of Karoline Leach's The Mysterious Mr. Love at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End. Nicholas continued to appear as the lead in numerous straight roles thereafter: Simon Gray's Stagestruck, a national tour of Michael Cooney’s The Dark Side with Jenny Seagrove, Catch Me if You Can with Christopher Eccleston, and two plays by Eric Chappell: Mixed Feelings, in which he played a transsexual, and Snakes and Ladders with Ian Ogilvy. Nicholas starred as John Smith in the original production of Caught In The Net. He then co-produced, with Bill Kenwright, a new musical based on Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities, in which he starred as Sidney Carton. The musical then played Windsor with a Christmas season in Birmingham.

In 2000, Nicholas appeared in the BBC television comedy drama Sunburn, playing the role of David Janus, owner of the self-titled holiday company that the series centered around. He also played the role of Ronnie Buchan in the new police drama series Burnside. Further television work followed with parts in The Bill and Holby City. Nicholas then played the title role in the national tour of Doctor Dolittle and followed this with the role of Tevye in UK Productions' national tour of Fiddler On The Roof.

In the summer of 2006, he was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses, as well as appearing in Doctors, Heartbeat and Holby City. That autumn, Nicholas was attached to star in the British film Cash and Curry, and also in that year he co-produced and starred in the musical Jekyll & Hyde in a UK national tour.

In 2007, Nicholas and his business partner David Ian took part in a search for Danny and Sandy in the ITV1 show Grease is the Word. Ian was a judge and Nicholas the acting coach to the contestants. He performed with his son Alex Beuselinck in Schwartz Stories, a new musical at the Kings Head. Also in 2007, Nicholas produced and directed Keeler, a new play based on Christine Keeler's autobiography The Truth At Last. At the beginning of 2007, Nicholas starred as Julian Marsh in the UK tour of 42nd Street, directed by the author Mark Bramble. Nicholas left prematurely so that he could film the new daily ITV1 medical series The Royal Today in which he played the consultant surgeon Mr. Woods. In 2008, Nicholas played Alan Boon in BBC Four's Consuming Passions - a hundred years of Mills and Boon. He also directed and produced A Tale of Two Cities at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. In 2009, Nicholas played Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard for the Carl Rosa Opera Company at the Tower of London Festival. He co-produced Jest End, Garry Lake's take on the West End musical at the Jeremyn Street Theatre. In 2010, Nicholas returned to BBC Television with an appearance in Missing. Nicholas undertook a UK tour playing the Pirate King in the Carl Rosa Opera Company production of The Pirates Of Penzance.

In November 2010, Nicholas and Sean Maguire starred in a new play, The Haunting. The Haunting continued in 2011 with Nicholas and Charlie Clements. In September 2011, Nicholas produced and directed a UK tour of Keeler. The production starred Alice Coulthard as Christine Keeler. Nicholas also directed the musical Tale Of Two Cities at the Charing Cross Theatre in April and May 2012, followed by the film, Gridiron in August. In December 2012, he performed as Captain Hook in Peter Pan, a Christmas pantomine, at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings. Dear World by Jerry Herman will premier in London at the Charing Cross Theatre in 2013 starring Betty Buckley with Nicholas. The show will be directed by Gillian Lynne.