Tom Conti

For the American scientist, see Tom Conte.

Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor, theatre director, and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1979 for his performance in Whose Life Is It Anyway? and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1983 film Reuben, Reuben.

Tom Conti
Conti in December 2007
Born	Tommaso Antonio Conti (1941-11-22) 22 November 1941 (age 81) Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Occupation(s)	Actor, theatre director, novelist
Years active	1963–present
Spouse	Kara Wilson ​ ​ (m. 1967)​
Children	Nina Conti

Early life

Tommaso Antonio Conti was born on 22 November 1941 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, the son of hairdressers Mary McGoldrick and Alfonso Conti.^[1] He was brought up Roman Catholic, but is now antireligious.^[2] His father was Italian, while his mother was born and raised in Scotland to Irish parents.^[3][4] Conti was educated at independent Catholic boys' school Hamilton Park^[5] and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, both in Glasgow.

Career

Conti is a theatre, film, and television actor. He began working with the Dundee Repertory in 1959. He appeared on Broadway in Whose Life Is It Anyway? in 1979, and in London, he played the lead in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell at the Garrick Theatre.

Besides taking the leading role in the TV versions of Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes and Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests, Conti appeared in the "Princess and the Pea" episode of the family television series Faerie Tale Theatre, guest-starred on Friends and Cosby, and played opposite Nigel Hawthorne in a long-running series of Vauxhall Astra car advertisements in the United Kingdom during the mid-1990s.

Conti has appeared in such films as Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; Reuben, Reuben; American Dreamer; Shirley Valentine; Miracles; Saving Grace; Dangerous Parking, and Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase.

Conti's novel The Doctor, about a former secret operations pilot for intelligence services, was published in 2004. According to the foreword, his friend Lynsey De Paul recommended the manuscript to publisher Jeremy Robson.^[6]

He appeared in the hit BBC sitcom Miranda alongside Miranda Hart and Patricia Hodge, as Miranda's father, in the 2010 seasonal episode "The Perfect Christmas".

Personal life

Conti has been married to Scottish actress Kara Wilson since 1967 and their daughter Nina is an actress and performs as a ventriloquist. According to Nina, her parents have an open marriage.^[7]

Conti is a prominent resident of Hampstead in northwest London, having lived in the area for several decades. Conti was part of a campaign against the opening of a Tesco supermarket in nearby Belsize Park.^[8] Conti put his Hampstead house up for sale in 2015 for £17.5 million after his long-running opposition to the building plans of his neighbour, the footballer Thierry Henry.^[9] Conti had also opposed development plans for Hampstead's Grove Lodge, the 18th-century Grade II listed former home of novelist John Galsworthy.^[10]

Conti participated in a genetic-mapping project conducted by the company ScotlandsDNA (now called BritainsDNA). In 2012, Conti and the company announced that Conti shares a genetic marker with Napoléon Bonaparte.^[11] Conti has said that he "burst out laughing" when told he was directly related to Napoléon on his father's side.^[11]

Politics

Conti considered running as the Conservative candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election, but did not, and in the following election in 2012, he supported unsuccessful independent candidate Siobhan Benita.^[12] In the run up to the 2015 general election, Conti said in an interview published in several newspapers that he was once a Labour supporter but had come to view socialism as a religion with a "vicious, hostile spirit".^[13]

Work

Film Galileo (1975) as Andrea Sarti (man) Slade in Flame (1975) as Robert Seymour The Duellists (1977) as Dr. Jacquin Full Circle (1977) as Mark Berkeley Eclipse (1977) as Tom / Geoffrey Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) as Col. John Lawrence Reuben, Reuben (1983) as Gowan McGland American Dreamer (1984) as Alan McMann Miracles (1986) as Roger Saving Grace (1985) as Pope Leo XIV Heavenly Pursuits (1986) as Vic Mathews Beyond Therapy (1987) as Stuart The Quick and the Dead (1987, TV Movie) as Duncan McKaskel Roman Holiday (1987, TV Movie) as Joe Bradley Two Brothers Running (1988) as Moses Bornstein That Summer of White Roses (1989) as Andrija Gavrilovic Shirley Valentine (1989) as Costas Caccia Alla Vedova (1991) as Conte Angelo di Bosconero Someone Else's America (1995) as Alonso The Inheritance (1997, TV Movie) as Henry Hamilton Sub Down (1997) as Harry Rheinhartdt Something to Believe In (1998) as Monsignor Calogero Out of Control (1998) as Eddie Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999) as Dr. Fiedler The Enemy (2001) as Insp. John Cregar Derailed (2005) as Eliot Firth Rabbit Fever (2006) as Prof Rosenberg Paid (2006) as Rudi Almost Heaven (2006) as Bert Gordon O Jerusalem (2006) as Sir Cunningham Dangerous Parking (2007) as Doc Baker Deeply Irresponsible (2007) as Nate (2007) A Closed Book (2009) as Sir Paul The Tempest (2010) as Gonzalo Rekindle (2011) as Dr. Monty Adams Streetdance 2 (2012) as Manu Run for Your Wife (2012) The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Prisoner City Slacker (2012) as Ray Paddington 2 (2017) as Judge Gerald Biggleswade Oppenheimer (2023) as Albert Einstein (Post-production)

Television Boy Meets Girl (1969) as Frank Thirty-Minute Theatre - Revolutions: Fidel Castro (1970) as Che Guevara Adam Smith (1972) as Dr. Calvi Z Cars (1973) as Gordon Morley Barlow at Large (1973) as Myers Sam (1974) as David Ellis Thriller (1975) as Bruno Varella Madame Bovary (1975, TV Mini-Series) as Charles Bovary The Glittering Prizes (1976, TV Mini-Series) as Adam Morris The Norman Conquests (1977, TV Mini-Series) as Norman Blade on the Feather (1980, TV Movie) as Daniel Young The Wall (1982, TV Movie) as Dolek Berson Faerie Tale Theatre (1984, "Princess and the Pea") as Prince Richard Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story (1986, TV Movie) as Serge Klarsfeld The Dumb Waiter (1987) Fatal Judgement (1988, TV Movie) as Pat Piscitelli Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (1990, TV Movie) as Doctor 'Stanley' Phillips The Old Boy Network (1992) as Lucas Frye The Wright Verdicts (1995) as Charles Wright The Inheritance (1997, TV Movie) as Henry Hamilton Friends (1998, "The One After Ross Says Rachel", and "The One with Ross's Wedding") as Stephen Waltham Cosby (1999) as William Shakespeare Deadline (2000-2001) as Si Beekman I Was a Rat (2001, TV Mini-Series) as Bob Jones Andy Pandy (2002) as Narrator (voice) Four Seasons (mini series) (2008-2009) as Charles Combe Lark Rise to Candleford (2010) as William Bourne / Mr. Reppington Miranda (2010) as Charles Parents (2012) as Len Miller Rosemary's Baby (2014) Doc Martin (TV series) (2019) as Dr Bernard Newton. Series 9 episode 8

Stage Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell Whose Life is it Anyway? Savages The Devil's Disciple^[14] They're Playing Our Song The Real Thing An Italian Straw Hat (1986) The Ride Down Mt. Morgan Chapter Two Jesus, My Boy (1998–99, 2009) Present Laughter^[15] Romantic Comedy Rough Justice (2012-13)^[16] Twelve Angry Men (2014)

Stage directing The Last of the Red Hot Lovers Present Laughter Otherwise Engaged

Awards

• National Board of Review for Best Actor (Reuben, Reuben and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence)
• Academy Award nomination as Best Actor (Reuben, Reuben)
• Golden Globe nominations for Reuben, Reuben and Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story
• Tony Award for Best Actor (Whose Life Is It Anyway?)
• Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play ('Whose Life is it Anyway?)
• Variety Club Award for Best Actor (Whose Life is it Anyway?)

References

1. "Tom Conti Biography". filmreference.com. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
2. "This much I know: Tom Conti". guardian.com. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
3. "Tom Conti: My dad, sent to a prison camp for being Italian". BBC News. 27 April 2013.
4. "11 angry men... and Tom Conti". Irish Independent. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
5. "Tom Conti: Fidelity is overrated". The Daily Telegraph. London. 6 March 2011. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
6. Conti, Tom (2006). The Doctor. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-1-86105-841-6.
7. Tom Conti: there are worse things than being unfaithful, a 12 December 2009, article from The Sunday Times
8. "Tom Conti fights Tesco bid for store in Belsize Park". The Daily Telegraph. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
9. Vispers, Gareth (30 May 2015). "Tom Conti fights Tesco bid for store in Belsize Park". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
10. Banks, Emily (20 April 2015). "Financier withdraws basement scheme for Forsyte Saga's Grove Lodge in Hampstead". Ham & High. London. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
11. McKie, Robin (14 April 2012). "DNA project reveals Tom Conti's Napoleonic blood and rich roots of Scotland's genetic legacy". The Guardian. Manchester. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
12. "Tom Conti backs Siobhan running for Mayor". Siobhan for MAYOR. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
13. "Once a Labour luvvie Tom Conti says he now backs the Tories as the party of aspiration". The Herald. Glasgow. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
14. "Search - RSC Performances - DED197607 - The Devil's Disciple - Shakespeare Birthplace Trust". Collections.shakespeare.org.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
15. "THEATRE / All dressed up with no place to go: Paul Taylor reviews Present Laughter at the Globe Theatre, London". The Independent. 25 June 1993. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
16. "Tom Conti stars in explosive courtroom drama which debates whether murder can be justified". Daily Info. 6 November 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2021.

External links

• Tom Conti at IMDb