name	David Suchet
birth date	May 02, 1946
birth place	London, England,United Kingdom
occupation	Actor
years active	1970–present
spouse	Sheila Ferris (1976–present) }}

David Suchet, CBE, ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama ''The Way We Live Now'', alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination.

He is known for his role as Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in the long-running British TV dramatic series ''Agatha Christie's Poirot''.

Suchet's older brother, John Suchet, is a British television presenter and newsreader, and his father was gynaecologist Jack Suchet.

Early life

Suchet was born in London, the son of Joan Patricia (née Jarché; 1916–1992), an actress, and Jack Suchet, who emigrated to England from South Africa in 1932, and trained to be a doctor at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1933. Suchet's father was Lithuanian Jewish and his mother was Anglican (she was of Russian Jewish descent on her own father's side, and of English descent on her mother's side). Suchet was raised without religion, but has been a practising Anglican since 1986, having been confirmed in 2006.

Suchet and his two brothers, Peter and John, attended Grenham House boarding school in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent; then, after attending another private school, Wellington School in Somerset, he took an interest in acting and joined the National Youth Theatre at the age of 18. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he now serves as a council member.

Career

Suchet began his acting career at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, Berkshire, and retains a great affection for the place, saying that it "fulfils my vision of a perfect theatre". In 1973, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Suchet performed the role of John in the play ''Oleanna'' at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 1993. It was directed by Harold Pinter and Lia Williams co-starred as Carol. He was also featured as Salieri from 1998–2000 in the Broadway production ''Amadeus''. In 2007 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, he played a lead role as Cardinal Benelli in ''The Last Confession'', about the death of Pope John Paul I.

Television and film

After making his first TV appearance in 1970, he appeared in the 1980 made-for-TV film version of ''A Tale of Two Cities''. In 1980, he also played Edward Teller, later developer of the US H-bomb, in the joint BBC-US TV serial about the US Manhattan Project called ''Oppenheimer''. In 1983, he played the insidious half-Chinese policeman with orders to kill British spy Sidney Reilly in Reilly, Ace of Spies. In 1985, he played Blott in the television series ''Blott on the Landscape'', and corporate whistle-blower Stanley Adams in ''A Song for Europe''. Suchet appeared as Inspector Japp in the 1985 film adaptation of ''Lord Edgware Dies'', screen-name ''Thirteen at Dinner'', with Peter Ustinov portraying Poirot.

In 1988, he played Leopold Bloom in the Channel 4 documentary, ''The Modern World: Ten Great Writers - James Joyce's 'Ulysses'', where some of the most famous scenes from the novel were dramatised.

In 1989, he took the title role himself for the long-running television series ''Agatha Christie's Poirot''. He also portrayed Sigmund Freud (young and old) in the 6-hour mini-series ''Freud'', co-produced by the BBC in 1984.

In 2001, he starred as the lead role in the David Yates-directed BBC television serial ''The Way We Live Now'' and, in April 2002, he played the famous barrister, George Carman QC, in the BBC's biographical drama ''Get Carman: The Trials of George Carman QC''. In 2003, Suchet starred as the ambitious Cardinal Wolsey in the 2-part ITV drama ''Henry VIII'' opposite Ray Winstone as Henry VIII and Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn.

In May 2006, he played the role of the fallen press baron Robert Maxwell in ''Maxwell'', a BBC2 dramatisation of the final 18 months of Maxwell's life. During the same year, he voiced Poirot in the adventure game ''Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express''.

In December 2006, he appeared on the ITV programme ''Extinct'', presented by Sir Trevor McDonald and Zoe Ball, which saw Suchet and seven other well-known celebrities visit critically endangered species of animals and try and plead their case for the viewers so that they would pick up the phone and vote for the animal. The animal with the most votes would receive a large sum of money, which would be used to try to save them. Suchet and his animal, the Giant Panda, did not win; however, they finished in the top three. The winners were Pauline Collins and the Bengal Tiger.

At Christmas 2006, he played the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in a BBC adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel ''Dracula''. He appears in the disaster film ''Flood'', released in August 2007, as the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at a time when London is devastated by flooding. Suchet appeared on daytime TV chat show ''Loose Women'' on 6 February 2008 to talk about his film ''The Bank Job'', in which he played Lew Vogel, alongside Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows.

In 2008, he took part in the genealogy documentary series ''Who Do You Think You Are?'', and discovered facts about his family history.

He starred in the 2009 CBC made-for-TV film, ''Diverted''. He also starred as the main antagonist, Reacher Gilt, in the 2010 Sky TV adaptation of ''Going Postal'', based on Prachett's book of the same name.

Suchet appeared in the film ''Act of God'' as Benjamin Cisco. In 1987, Suchet played a bigfoot hunter in ''Harry and the Hendersons''. He had roles in two Michael Douglas films, ''A Perfect Murder'' and ''The In-Laws''. In 1997, he starred in the independent film ''Sunday''.

In November 2011, Suchet and ITV announced that Suchet would complete the canon of Poirot novels, in a thirteenth and final series of ''Poirot''. With the exception of one short story, Suchet will have played the role in adaptations of every novel and short story featuring the character written by Dame Agatha Christie.

Radio

His first broadcast job was to read a "Morning Story" for BBC Pebble Mill Talks producer David Shute. They had met at the Mayor of Stratford's annual cocktail party to welcome members of the Royal Shakespeare Company to their new season.

Suchet provided the voice of Aslan in Focus on the Family's radio version of C.S. Lewis's ''Chronicles of Narnia''.

Suchet performed as the voice of the villainous Dr. Julius No in BBC Radio 4's radio adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel ''''Dr. No''''. In 1991, Suchet played the part of Henrik Ibsen alongside Martin Shaw playing August Strindberg, in a one-off documentary on BBC Radio 3 about the meeting of the two playwrights.

In March 2010 he played the title role in a BBC radio version of ''David Golder''.

Other work

Canal Trust River Thames Alliance

Suchet is vice-president of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust, whose most challenging achievement to date has been securing funding (both via an appeal and from influencing government decisions) concerning the building of the new M6 Toll motorway where it cuts the lines of the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal, both of which the Trust wishes to see reopened. He has also been officially voted in as chairman of the River Thames Alliance in November 2005. At the July 2006 Annual General Meeting of the River Thames Alliance, he agreed to continue being chairman for another year. He is also a Patron of the River Thames Boat Project

Awards and honours

Suchet's first major award was the Royal Television Society's award for best male actor for ''A Song for Europe'' in 1985. His performance as Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot in the television series ''Poirot'' earned him a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination. In preparation for the role he says that he has read every novel and short story and compiled an extensive file on Poirot.

Suchet was given a Variety Club Award in 1994 for best actor for portraying John in David Mamet's play ''Oleanna'' at the Royal Court Theatre, London. He later won another Variety Club Award (as well as a 2000 Tony nomination for best performance by a leading actor in a play) for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in a revival of ''Amadeus''.

Suchet was nominated for another Royal Television Society award in 2002 for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in ''The Way We Live Now'', which also earned him a BAFTA nomination. The same year, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

On 10 October 2008, Suchet was awarded an honorary degree for his contributions to the Arts, from the University of Chichester. This was presented by the Vice Chancellor at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

On 24 November 2008, David Suchet won the 'Best Actor' accolade at the 2008 International Emmy Awards in New York for his role as tycoon Robert Maxwell in the 2007 BBC drama, ''Maxwell''. He said: "It's been an unbelievable night for the Brits. I'm absolutely thrilled to bits, I can't believe it's really true. This is my first Emmy ever, and I can't tell you what it feels like to win for England because it's international, and to represent my acting community as well."

On 7 January 2009, David Suchet was awarded Freedom of the City of London, at the Guildhall in London.

On 13 July 2010, David Suchet was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Personal life

One of Suchet's hobbies is photography. His maternal grandfather, James Jarché, was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot (1909) and the Siege of Sidney Street. Suchet first became interested in photography when his grandfather gave him a Kodak camera as a present. Suchet also plays the clarinet, and drums.

He affectionately calls his fat suit for Hercule Poirot his "armadillo padding".

He lived in Pinner, a London suburb, for many years.

Family

In 1972, Suchet first met his wife, Sheila Ferris, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where they were both working; he says that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her, and that it took a while to persuade her to go out for a meal with him. They were married on 30 June 1976, and they have one son, Robert, a captain in the Royal Marines, and a daughter, Katherine, a physiotherapist.

Suchet is the brother of John Suchet, a national news presenter for Five News and Breakfast Show Presenter on Classic FM (January 2011). His maternal grandfather's Jarché family was originally named Jarchy, and were Russian Jews. His paternal grandfather, Isidor Shokhet (from ''shochet'', meaning "kosher butcher" in Hebrew), lived in Kretinga, a city in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (now in Lithuania), and changed his surname to the Germanised Suchedowitz after escaping to Memel, Prussia, and then to Suchet after moving to Cape Town, South Africa.

Suchet's maternal grandmother's great-grandfather, George Jezzard, was a master mariner. He was captain of the brig ''Hannah'', which foundered nine miles off the coast of Suffolk during a terrible storm on 28 May 1860, in which more than 100 vessels and at least 40 lives were lost. Jezzard and six others of his crew were saved by local rescuers just before their ship sank.

Suchet has spoken of some of his ancestors coming to England from Lithuania.

Religious beliefs

Suchet's father was Jewish and his mother an Anglican (of paternal Jewish heritage); neither was religious. Likewise, Suchet's upbringing was without religious observance. In 1986, he underwent a religious conversion after reading Romans 8 in a hotel Bible; soon afterwards, he was baptised into the Anglican Church. Suchet stated in an interview with ''Strand'' Magazine, "I’m a Christian by faith. I like to think it sees me through a great deal of my life. I very much believe in the principles of Christianity and the principles of most religions, actually—that one has to abandon oneself to a higher good."

Filmography

''The Professionals'' (TV - episode "Where the Jungle Ends") (1978)

''Schiele in Prison'' (1980) as Gustav Klimt

''Oppenheimer'' (TV mini-series) (1980) as Edward Teller

''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (TV film) (1982)

''The Missionary'' (1982)

''Trenchcoat'' (1983)

''Red Monarch'' (TV film) (1983)

''Reilly, Ace of Spies'' (TV mini-series - episode "Prelude to War") (1983)

''Master of the Game'' (TV mini-series) (1984)

''Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes'' (1984)

''The Little Drummer Girl'' (1984)

''Freud'' (TV mini-series) (1984)

''Blott on the Landscape'' (TV mini-series) (1985)

''A Song For Europe'' (TV film) (1985)

''The Falcon and the Snowman'' (1985)

''Thirteen at Dinner'' (TV film) (1985) as Inspector Japp

''Iron Eagle'' (1986)

''Harry and the Hendersons ''(1987)

''Cause Célèbre'' (TV film) (1987)

''A World Apart'' (1988)

''Ten Great Writers of the Modern World''(TV documentary series - episode "James Joyce's 'Ulysses'") (1988) as Leopold Bloom

''Agatha Christie's Poirot'' (TV) (1989 - present) as Hercule Poirot

''When the Whales Came'' (1989)

''Der Fall Lucona'' (1993)

''Moses'' (TV film) (1995)

''Executive Decision'' (1996)

''Solomon'' (TV film) (1997)

''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' (TV mini-series) (1997)

''Sunday'' (1997)

''A Perfect Murder'' (1998)

''RKO 281'' (1999)

''Wing Commander ''(1999)

''Victoria & Albert'' (TV) (2001)

''The Way We Live Now'' (TV) (2001)

''Live From Baghdad'' (TV film) (2002)

''Pinocchio'' (2002) as Mister Geppetto (Voice - English dubbed version)

''The In-Laws'' (2003)

''Foolproof'' (2003)

''Henry VIII'' (TV) (2003)

''Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets'' (TV) (2004) Narrator

''Flushed Away'' (2006)

''Dracula'' (TV film) (2006)

''Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express'' (video game) (2006)

''Maxwell'' (TV film) (2007) as Robert Maxwell

''Flood'' (2007)

''The Bank Job'' (2008)

''Diverted'' (TV film) (2009)

''David Suchet on the Orient Express'' (TV documentary) (2010)

''Going Postal'' (TV) (2010)

''Great Expectations'' (TV) (2011)

''Richard II'' (TV film) (2012) as the Duke of York

References

External links

Category:1946 births Category:Actors from London Category:Agatha Award winners Category:Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Category:Christians of Jewish descent Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English Christians Category:English film actors Category:English people of Lithuanian descent Category:English people of Russian descent Category:English radio actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:Hercule Poirot Category:Living people Category:People from Pinner Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:People educated at Wellington School, Somerset

be:Дэвід Сушэ bg:Дейвид Сушей bs:David Suchet cs:David Suchet da:David Suchet de:David Suchet et:David Suchet es:David Suchet eo:David Suchet fa:دیوید سوشی fr:David Suchet ko:데이비드 서쳇 hr:David Suchet it:David Suchet la:David Suchet hu:David Suchet nl:David Suchet ja:デヴィッド・スーシェ no:David Suchet pl:David Suchet pt:David Suchet ro:David Suchet ru:Суше, Дэвид sk:David Suchet sl:David Suchet sr:Дејвид Суше sh:David Suchet fi:David Suchet sv:David Suchet tr:David Suchet zh:大衛·蘇歇

Name	Peter Scholl-Latour
Birth date	March 09, 1924
Birth place	Bochum, Weimar Republic
Nationality	German and French
Fields	Political science
Alma mater	Institut d’études politiques de Paris, Sorbonne, Lebanese University
Known for	''Death in the Rice-fields''
Awards	Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur , 2005 Cross of Merit, First class, 2006 Gerhard Löwenthal Honor Award, 2008 (issued by Junge Freiheit)
Religion	Roman Catholic
Footnotes	}}

Peter Scholl-Latour (born March 9, 1924, in Bochum, Germany) is a Franco-German journalist and publicist.

In 1945 and 1946 Scholl-Latour was a member the ''Commando Parachutiste Ponchardier'', a unit of French paratroopers, with whom he fought in the First Indochina War.

After taking a master's degree at Institut d’études politiques de Paris and subsequently completing his doctoral studies at the Sorbonne, he gained another master's in Arab and Islamic studies at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. He has worked as a journalist since 1950, spending many years as a correspondent in Africa and Indochina, as a studio manager in Paris, as television director of WDR, and editor-in-chief of Stern.

In 1973 he and his team were prisoners of the Viet Cong for one week.

Scholl-Latour was appointed as honorary professor by the Ruhr University Bochum in 1999.

Among his most successful books are the best-sellers ''Der Tod im Reisfeld'' [Death in the Rice-fields] (1980), ''Allah ist mit den Standhaften'' [Allah is with the Steadfast] (1983), ''Mord am grossen Fluss'' [Murder by the Great River] (1986), ''Mit Frankreich leben'' [Living with France] (1988), ''Der Wahn vom Himmlischen Frieden'' [The Delusion of Heavenly Peace] (1990), ''Das Schwert des Islam'' [The Sword of Islam] (1990), ''Den Gottlosen die Hölle'' [Hell to the Godless] (1991), ''Unter Kreuz und Knute'' [Under cross and knout] (1992), ''Eine Welt in Auflösung'' [A world in dissolution] (1993), ''Im Fadenkreuz der Mächte'' [In the crosshairs of the Powers] (1994), ''Schlaglichter der Weltpolitik'' [Highlights of International Politics] (1995), ''Das Schlachtfeld der Zukunft'' [The Battlefield of the Future] (1996), ''Lügen im Heiligen Land'' [Lies in the Holy Land] (1998), ''Allahs Schatten über Atatürk'' [Allah’s Shadow Over Atatürk] (1999). His 2001 book, ''Afrikanische Totenklage'' [African Dirge], was on the Spiegel bestseller list from 2001 to 2004.

Despite his high age, he continues writing and traveling the world. In 2008 he visited East-Timor, the only country on the planet he hadn't visited before. In the years after 9/11 he published at least one book annually, all of them bestsellers. According to Scholl-Latour, he is the best selling non-fiction author in Germany for the last 25 years.

In 2006 he authored the TV documentary "Russia Surrounded: Putin's Empire faces NATO, China and Islam". He also supports the conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit, for which he regularly gives interviews.

Scholl-Latour has both the French and German nationalities, and describes himself as Gaullist.

Trivia

Peter Scholl-Latour ranks at No. 147 on the ''Unsere Besten'' list of all-time greatest Germans.

Endnotes

External links

Russia Surrounded: Putin's Empire faces NATO, China and Islam

Category:German journalists Category:German non-fiction writers Category:1924 births Category:Living people Category:University of Paris alumni Category:German people of French descent Category:French military personnel of the First Indochina War Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Lebanese University alumni

de:Peter Scholl-Latour es:Peter Scholl-Latour fr:Peter Scholl-Latour ro:Peter Scholl-Latour ru:Шолл-Латур, Петер