John Barrowman - Early Life

Early Life

John Scot Barrowman was born in 1967 in the Mount Vernon area of Glasgow, the youngest of three siblings. Barrowman lived in Glasgow for the first eight years of his life. His mother was a singer and worked as a clerk in a record shop while his father was employed by the Caterpillar heavy machinery company in Uddingston. In 1976, his father's company relocated the family to Aurora, Illinois in the United States, where his father managed the Caterpillar tractor factory. Barrowman recalls his family as loving, but strict and mindful of etiquette: always polite and respectful towards others. Comparing the two countries where he was raised, Barrowman concludes: "Scotland gave us, as a family, closeness; America gave us the get-up-and-go." The family settled in Joliet, where Barrowman attended Joliet West High School in the heart of a "quintessentially middle-class conservative town". Barrowman's high school music and English teachers changed the future course of his life, his music tutor instilling in him a love for performing, and his English teacher, Joseph Bennington, encouraging him to realise his true potential. His English teacher moved him into a "Gifted" program and coached Barrowman for the school's speech team. With the support of his teacher, he competed with other schools in statewide speech competitions, where he sharpened his skills reading scenes from plays.

As a freshman, Barrowman won parts in several musical productions and from 1983 to 1985 he performed in such musical productions as Oliver!, Camelot, Hello, Dolly!, Li'l Abner and Anything Goes. Looking back, he acknowledges that "without the support he received in high school, chances are that he would not now be appearing in royal command performances in the West End in front of the Royal Family or having Stephen Sondheim ask him to play opposite Carol Burnett".

Barrowman spent his senior year shoveling coal for an Illinois power company. His father had arranged the job (and similar jobs for his brother and sister) to give Barrowman the experience of manual labour. His father told him: "If you want to do manual labour for the rest of your life you'll know that when you do it; it's a choice. But if you don't like it, you'll understand the importance of educating yourself and – if you decide what you want to do – being good at your craft or your skill." Barrowman worked for the power company for the entire summer, but did not like the job. Eventually, he convinced the company to move him to work in the storeroom.

Barrowman graduated from high school in 1985, and became a naturalised citizen of the United States (although he maintains dual citizenship in the UK and the US). After he graduated from high school, he moved to San Diego, California, to study performing arts at the United States International University (USIU). As part of an exchange programme, he returned to the UK in 1989, to study Shakespeare for six months.