Peter Capaldi
- Category : Actor
- Type : GP
- Profile : 4/1 - Opportunistic / Investigator
- Definition : Split - Small (34,46,57)
- Incarnation Cross : JX Completion
Biography
Peter Dougan Capaldi (born 14 April 1958) is a Scottish actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy series The Thick of It, and its spin-off film In the Loop. In 1995, he won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, which he wrote and directed. He has also won two BAFTA Awards, a Chlotrudis Award, and two British Comedy Awards. As of 25 December 2013, he portrays the Twelfth Doctor in the BBC Television series Doctor Who.
Early life
Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother's family was from Killeshandra, County Cavan, Ireland, and his father's family was from Picinisco, Italy. He was educated at St Teresa's Primary School in the city's Possilpark district, St Matthew's Primary School in Bishopbriggs, and at St Ninian's High School in Kirkintilloch, before attending the Glasgow School of Art.
Capaldi displayed an early talent for performance by putting on a puppet show in primary school. While at high school, he was a member of the Antonine Players, who performed at the Fort Theatre in Bishopbriggs. When an art student, he was the lead singer in a punk rock band called Dreamboys, whose drummer was future comedian Craig Ferguson. In a 1976 issue of Doctor Who International Fan Club Magazine, a piece of Capaldi's art showing a TARDIS was printed, some 37 years before he assumed the leading role of the show.
Career
Capaldi's first significant acting role came in 1983, when he played Danny Oldsen in Local Hero. He featured as Ozzy in a 1985 episode of Minder, and had roles in The Lair of the White Worm and Dangerous Liaisons in 1988. In 1990 he starred in Chain, a four part thriller on BBC2 written by Desmond Lowden and directed by Don Leaver. In 1995, Capaldi won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for his film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, which he directed. In the same year he also wrote Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, which won the Audience Award at the London Film Festival, and wrote and directed Strictly Sinatra. He voiced Chief Petty Officer Grieves in the BBC Radio Ministry of Defence comedy Our Brave Boys, and soon after landed his first starring role on television as Luke Wakefield, a closeted gay man who imagines he has witnessed a crime, in the BBC drama series Mr Wakefield's Crusade. He played fictional Songs of Praise producer Tristan Campbell in two episodes of the sitcom Vicar of Dibley, and a female impersonator in ITV's Prime Suspect 3. In the Channel 4 series Psychos, he played a mathematician with bipolar disorder, made an appearance as a university professor in the sitcom Peep Show, and played a prime suspect in the 2007 series of Waking the Dead. In Neil Gaiman's gothic fantasy Neverwhere, he portrayed the angel Islington.
In 2005, Capaldi was cast as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy series The Thick of It, which he played from 2005 to 2012. The character was said to be largely, if loosely, based upon Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Capaldi himself has said that he based his performance more on Hollywood power players, such as the often abrasive Harvey Weinstein. For his performance as Tucker, he won a BAFTA Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Role and two British Comedy Awards. A film spin-off from The Thick of It, In the Loop, was released in 2009.
In 2007 and 2008, Capaldi appeared as Mark Jenkins in the E4 comedy-drama series Skins. He also appeared in the Midsomer Murders episode "Death in Chorus" and ITV1's Fallen Angel. He played a fictional version of Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii, a 2008 episode of the science-fiction series Doctor Who. He returned to the Doctor Who franchise in 2009, playing civil servant John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth. He appeared as King Charles I in the Channel 4 series The Devil's Whore, aired in 2008, as well as providing his voice for the animated film Haunted Hogmanay and its sequel Glendogie Bogey. He returned to directing with the BBC Four sitcom Getting On, one episode of which he appeared in as a doctor. Later that year, he wrote and presented A Portrait of Scotland, a documentary detailing 500 years' history of Scottish portrait painting. He played Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men in the 2010 BBC adaptation of The Nativity.
Capaldi has also worked as an audio book narrator, and his many titles include several of the works of Iain Banks. He starred as Rory in the television version of Banks' The Crow Road. From 2011 to 2012, he played Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London. He appeared in The Field of Blood as Dr. Pete, for which he received a BAFTA Scotland nomination, and also had a small role as a therapist in Big Fat Gypsy Gangster, written by and starring his Getting On co-star Ricky Grover. In 2012, Capaldi played Randall Brown, the new Head of News, on the BBC2 drama The Hour. He appeared in World War Z (2013), and has been cast as King Kinloch in Maleficent (2014). In 2013, Capaldi directed Born to be King, which he also wrote. He also portrayed Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian newspaper, in The Fifth Estate. In 2013 he made a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci called Inside the Mind of Leonardo. Beginning on 19 January 2014, he is starring as Cardinal Richelieu in BBC One's new drama series, The Musketeers.
On 4 August 2013, it was announced in a live BBC special entitled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor that Capaldi would portray the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, superseding Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. During his appearance in the special, he admitted to having been a lifelong fan; at the age of 15, he wrote to the Radio Times about the series. He did appear for a moment during the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor" which was shown on BBC One on 23 November 2013 and he took over the role at the very end of the 2013 Christmas Day special, "The Time of the Doctor".
Personal life
Capaldi lives in London with his wife, Elaine Collins, and their daughter.
