Name	Michael York
Height	5' 11"
Naionality	British
Date of Birth	27 March 1942
Place of Birth	Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Famous for

With an impressive body of work over the past 46 years on screen, stage, television, and with audio recording, Michael York retains the enthusiasm for the actor’s life he first experienced growing up in England. Joining the National Youth Theatre, he played Shakespeare in London and Europe, going on to perform extensively at Oxford University and graduating with an MA in English.

He joined Laurence Olivier’s new National Theatre Company in 1965 and a year later made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He was also Tybalt in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet and John the Baptist in his Jesus of Nazareth.

Michael York CartoonYork’s more than 60 other screen credits include memorable roles in such films as Joseph Losey’s Accident, Bob Fosse’s Cabaret with Liza Minnelli, Something for Everyone with Angela Lansbury, the all-star Murder on the Orient Express, The Last Remake of Beau Geste, as d’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, the title role in Logan’s Run, and opposite Burt Lancaster in The Island of Dr. Moreau. He even played himself in Billy Wilder’s Fedora. He was in all three Austin Powers movies and in both Omega Code films. He recently finished filming The Mill and the Cross with Charlotte Rampling and The Justice of Wolves.

His television work comprises over 80 credits, including The Forsyte Saga, Great Expectations, Space, The Heat of the Day, A Knight in Camelot, The Night of the Fox, and The Lot (Emmy nomination). Recently in Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, he was also a guest character in The Simpsons and in the 100th episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. The Four Seasons has just been shown, as well as A Tale of Two Cities.

Broadway and regional theater credits include Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Bent, The Crucible, Ring Round the Moon, the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ Out Cry, and the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac. He was in the musical of The Little Prince and recently toured the US in Camelot, playing King Arthur.

York’s distinctive voice can be heard in more than 90 audio book and film narrations as varied as The Book of Psalms, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, The Vampire Lestat, and his own children’s book, The Magic Paw Paw. Grammy-nominated for Treasure Island, he won awards for The Fencing Master, Creating True Peace, Goodbye to Berlin, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Recent recordings include How Do I Love Thee?, Peter and the Wolf, and The Carnival of the Animals. Currently the narrator of The Word of Promise audio Bible, York’s latest recordings are Cry, The Beloved Country, Alice in Wonderland, and Earth Songs.

In addition to performing with music at the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Aspen, Bard, and Ravinia Festivals, York has starred in William Walton’s Henry V and in the first concert performance of his Christopher Columbus. He was Peer in a concert version of Peer Gynt and Salieri in a special version of Amadeus, also at the Bowl. His recording of the Tennyson/Strauss Enoch Arden was followed by several international concert performances, most recently in Prague. He has also headlined Strauss Meets Frankenstein and Intimate Letters with the Long Beach Opera, and performed Edmont at Aspen.

York also enjoys writing. His latest book, Are My Blinkers Showing? (published by Da Capo Press, 2005), received great reviews, including “What a delight. Ahh, the actor’s life, well used,” from the Los Angeles Times.

His book Dispatches from Armageddon (published by Smith and Kraus, 2001) was reviewed by Prof. Richard Brown as “one of the most readable, literate, and insightful works ever written on the process of making movies.”

York also coauthored A Shakespearean Actor Prepares (published by Smith and Kraus, 2001). That book was a finalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2001 and was hailed by the Spectator as “a triumph... it deserves to become a classic.”

In 1991 he wrote an autobiography, Accidentally on Purpose (published by Simon & Schuster, titled Travelling Player in the UK). The Associated Press enthused, “Michael York inherits the mantle of his fellow countryman, David Niven, as a premiere storyteller.”

Michael and Pat YorkYork’s wife Pat is a celebrated photographer. The two met in 1967 when she was assigned to photograph him. Married a year later, they have made their home in Los Angeles since 1976. Pat has exhibited her photographs all over the world in Moscow, New York, Paris, Belgium, London, Washington, Cologne, Basel, and Zurich. Her show Imaging and Imagining: the film world of Pat York opened at LA’s Motion Picture Academy, subsequently traveling to Prague, Mannheim, and Hong Kong. Her latest book is Fame and Frame.

York also lectures internationally on Shakespeare and the history and art of acting. His contribution to his profession has been recognized with the award of Britain’s OBE, France’s Arts et Lettres, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.