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", (Tony Award
and Drama Desk Award )
He was born 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 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"
In 1966 he was asked to play 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", and most recently, the part of Fagin
in Cameron Mackintosh’s "Oliver!" at the London Palladium.
In 1973 Jim made his Broadway debut in the
smash hit, "Scapino"
(Drama
Desk Award/ Outer Critics Award / Tony nomination).
Other credits on and
Off-Broadway include, "Joe Egg", (Outer Critics Award / Tony nomination).
"Travels
With My Aunt", (Drama Desk Award / Outer Critics Award / Lucille Lortel
Award) "Candide" (Tony Nomination),
"The Comedians", (Lucille Lortel Nomination) "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", "Address Unknown"
and the "Three Penny
Opera". (Drama Desk
Award / Outer Critics Circle Award / The Richard Seff Award / Drama League Award
and a Tony Nomination)
Television
Huckleberry Finn for PBS, "The American Clock" by Arthur Miller,
"The Bill Cosby Show", "The Ellen Burstyn Show", "The Dinah Shore
Show", "Sunday Night at the
London Palladium" (Host), "Six Five Special"
(Host), "Thank Your Lucky Stars"
(Host), "Meet Jim Dale" and "The Jim Dale Show"
(Host) for ATV London. October
2007, "Pushing Daisies" (Narrator) U.S. ABC TV.
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", (Academy Award Nomination BAFTA
1974), "The Iron Maiden", "Lock Up Your Daughters", "Scandalous",
"The Winters Tale", "Digby", "The Hunchback", and eleven films
in the British "Carry On" series.
Song Writing
"Georgy
Girl", (Academy Award Nomination 1966). "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"
"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"
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