Jim became "The Toast of Broadway" [NY Times 1981] when he created the flamboyant
title role
in the now world famous Cy Coleman musical "Barnum".
He was born in Rothwell, a small town in England and started training for his career at the age of nine.
For six years he studied tap
dancing, eccentric comedy dancing, judo, National dancing, ballet and tumbling.
During these years he performed in many amateur shows
and started to include comedy in his act.
At the age of seventeen he became the youngest
professional comedian in Great Britain,
touring all the famous Variety Music Halls.
He joined the Royal Air Force at the age of eighteen and spent the next
two years
entertaining
troops in England and Germany.
At the age of 22, he became the first recording artist under the wing of
the
now legendary "Beatles" recording manager, Sir George Martin, who produced many hit records for him
over the
next two years.
He first
appeared in, then hosted the two top music shows on British television,
"6-5
Special" and "Thank Your Lucky Stars"
He was invited to join BBC radio as a disc jockey, and for
over a year hosted
their number one program for children, "Saturday Morning Children's
Requests"
Theatre
In 1966 he played the clown Autolycus in Shakespeare's,
"The Winter's
Tale"
at the Edinburgh Festival.
He returned in 1967 to play Bottom in
"A
Midsummer Nights Dream"
and the title role in "Scapino"
In 1970, at the request of Laurence Olivier, he joined The British
National Theatre as a leading actor.
Over the next two years he appeared in "Love’s
Labour’s Lost", "The Merchant of Venice",
"The National
Health", "The
Good Natured Man", "Sancho", "The Captain of Kopenick",
and a two hander play with
Anthony Hopkins, "The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria".
At the Young
Vic, he re-created the title role in "Scapino", which he co-adapted with Frank
Dunlop,
and played Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew".
His other West
End theatre credits include "The Burglar", "The Wayward
Way", "The Card",
"A Midsummer
Nights Dream", "The Merchant of Venice", "A Winters'
Tale",
the part of Fagin
in Cameron Mackintosh’s "Oliver!" at the London
Palladium, and most recently,
"Just Jim Dale"
at the Vaudeville Theatre.
In 1973 Jim made his Broadway debut in the
smash hit, "Scapino"
Other credits on and
Off-Broadway include, "Joe Egg", "Travels
With My Aunt", "Candide",
"The Comedians",
"The Invisible
Man", "Privates On Parade", "The Taming of the Shrew",
"Me And My Girl", "A Christmas Carol - The Musical",
"The Music Man", "The Oak Tree",
"Busker
Alley", "The Faith Healer", "Don Juan in Hell",
"Love Letters", "Address Unknown",
"Three Penny
Opera" "The Road to Mecca" and
"Just Jim Dale"
Television
"Huckleberry Finn" for PBS, "The American Clock" by Arthur Miller,
"The Bill Cosby Show",
"The Dinah Shore
Show", "Sunday Night at the
London Palladium" (Host),
"Six Five Special"
(Host), "Thank Your Lucky Stars"
(Host), "Meet Jim Dale" ,
"The Jim Dale Show" for ATV London. "Pushing Daisies" Narrator ABC TV.
"The Ellen Burstyn Show"
Films
"The National Health", "Joseph Andrews", "The
Plank", "The Spaceman and King
Arthur",
"Hot Lead-Cold Feet", "Pete’s Dragon", "Adolf Hitler - My Part in His
Downfall",
"The Iron Maiden", "Lock Up Your Daughters", "Scandalous",
"The Winters Tale", "Digby",
"The Hunchback", and eleven films
in the British "Carry On" series.
Film Song Writing
"Georgy
Girl", "Shalako", "A Winter's
Tale", "Twinky" and "Joseph Andrews".
Audio Books
"Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire"
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone"
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
"Harry Potter and the the Half Blood Prince"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
"A Christmas Carol".
"Peter and the Starcatchers"
"Peter and the Shadow Thieves"
"Peter and the Secret of Muldoon"
"Peter and the Sword of Mercy"
"Around the World in Eighty Days"
"King of Shadows"
"Peter Pan"
"Escape From the Carnivale"
"Arthur and the Minimoys"
"Arthur and the Forbidden City"
"Stoneheart"
"Ironhand"
"Silvertongue"
"A Day With Wilbur Robinson"
"Twas the Night Before Christmas"
"Alice in Wonderland"
"Peter and the Wolf"
"James Herriot's Treasury For Children"
"The Shoe Bird"
"Bikeman"
"Return to the Hundred Acre Wood"
"The Boy With the Cuckoo Clock Heart"
"The Emerald Atlas"
"The Night Circus"
"Ghost Hawk"
"The Fire Chronicle"
![](_themes/sweets/swrule.gif)
Scroll to
Awards or
click on
Jim Dale Home Page
Film Photos Carry On Films
Cartoons Scrap Book
Theater Reviews, UK
Theater Reviews USA Theater Photos
Harry Potter News Recordings
Interviews
![](_themes/sweets/swrule.gif)