Christopher Eccleston

Early life and education

Eccleston was born on 16 February 1964 into a working-class family in Langworthy, Salford, then part of Lancashire. His identical twin brothers, Alan and Keith, were born eight years earlier. His father Ronnie Eccleston was a forklift truck driver and later a foreman. His mother Elsie worked in Toilet Articles. The family lived on Blodwell Street before moving to a council estate in Little Hulton when Eccleston was seven months old. He attended Bridgewater County Primary School, then Joseph Eastham High School, where he became head boy.

He left school in 1979 to resit O-Levels at Eccles Sixth Form College. The school's drama teacher invited Eccleston to perform in a production of Lock Up Your Daughters, which inspired him to pursue an acting career. Eccleston spent the next six months working in a warehouse, before completing a two-year Performance Foundation Course at Salford Tech, and going on to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1983 to 1986. Whilst studying there he worked as an usher at the National Theatre.

Eccleston was influenced in his early years by kitchen sink drama films such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Kes (1969), and socially-aware television dramas as Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) and Play for Today: The Spongers (1978). Albert Finney (another actor from Salford) was a major inspiration to Eccleston.

Career

Early work and breakout (1988–1996)

Eccleston struggled to find acting work for three years after graduating from college and he took a variety of odd jobs: at a supermarket, on building sites, and as an artist's nude life model at Slade School of Art. He stated in 2015: "I'd had very good roles in my final year [at college] but agents looked the other way. I wasn't delivering, and knew it. In every profession you have to believe in yourself. I was an odd mix of dedication and lack of confidence. I sabotaged myself." In 1989 he joined the stage crew of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He was offered a job doing theatre-in-education for a team which needed a driver, but because he couldn't drive, he received half-wages (£70 a week) plus an Equity card. As soon as Eccleston was a member of Equity, theatre director Phyllida Lloyd, who had seen him at Central, offered him the part of Pablo Gonzalez in the Bristol Old Vic's April-May 1989 production of A Streetcar Named Desire. This was his professional stage debut.[[File:Christopher Eccleston London.jpg|thumb|upright|Eccleston in May 2012]] Eccleston's breakout role was as teenage convict Derek Bentley in the 1991 drama film Let Him Have It. Despite a desire to be a theatre actor, he "became a film and television actor by default". He had a guest appearance in the 1991 Inspector Morse episode "Second Time Around". The following year he portrayed Sean Maddox in the BBC miniseries Friday on My Mind. A regular role in the hit crime drama Cracker (1993–94) brought him widespread recognition in the UK. After he decided to leave the series, his character was killed off in October 1994. Eccleston appeared in the Poirot episode "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" (1992).

He co-starred alongside Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox in Danny Boyle's debut film Shallow Grave (1994) as a group of friends who steal money from their dead flatmate. He was considered for the role of Begbie in Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting. Eccleston became involved with the BBC Two television drama Our Friends in the North (1996), which Boyle was originally set to direct. Though offered the part of Geordie Peacock (eventually played by Daniel Craig), Eccleston instead took the part of left-wing activist Nicky Hutchinson. The broadcast of the award-winning television serial made the ensemble cast—which featured Eccleston, Craig, Mark Strong and Gina McKee—household names in the UK. For his performance as Nicky, Eccleston was nominated for the 1997 BAFTA for Best Actor.

Eccleston starred in the 1996 television film Hillsborough, written by Jimmy McGovern, portraying Trevor Hicks, who lost his two daughters in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Eccleston reflected in 2010 that "Hillsborough is the most important piece of work I've ever done and ever will do". He met with Hicks to discuss the project, and the two men remained close; when Hicks remarried in 2009, Eccleston was his best man.

Established actor (1996–2004)

Eccleston built on his early successes, appearing in a wide variety of films and working with high-profile directors including David Cronenberg in eXistenZ (1999), Michael Winterbottom in Jude (1996) (as the title role) and 24 Hour Party People (2002), and collaborated again with Danny Boyle on 28 Days Later (2002). He played the Duke of Norfolk in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998) and husband to Nicole Kidman in The Others (2001). Eccleston made his Hollywood debut in the action heist film Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Despite his role as car thief Raymond Calitri, Eccleston had not passed his driving test at the time of filming. He criticised the film and his performance as "terrible". He turned down a role in Saving Private Ryan and unsuccessfully auditioned for The Thin Red Line, both war films in 1998. He starred in the independent films A Price Above Rubies (1998) and The Invisible Circus (2001). Eccleston took the lead role in Revengers Tragedy (2002), adapted from Thomas Middleton's play of the same name.

He also appeared in a variety of television roles, mostly British dramas, including Hearts and Minds (1995) for Channel 4, Clocking Off (2000) and Flesh and Blood (2002) for the BBC, a modern version of Othello (2001), and the religious fantasy epic The Second Coming (2003) for ITV, in which he played Steve Baxter, the son of God. He made guest appearances in the comedy-drama Linda Green (2001) and the macabre sketch show The League of Gentlemen (2002). Eccleston appeared in Hamlet in the 2002 production at Leeds's West Yorkshire Playhouse. From March to April 2004, he returned to the venue in a play called Electricity.

He was nominated again for the BAFTA for Best Actor in 2004, losing to Bill Nighy who took the award for his performance in State of Play. Eccleston won the Best Actor category at the 1997 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Our Friends in the North. In 2003, he won the Royal Television Society Best Actor award for his performance in Flesh and Blood. In 2005, The Guardian wrote that Eccleston had "cornered the market in troubled masculinity". Eccleston stated in 2011 that "in the past I was attracted to angry roles. After all, anger is about grabbing attention and you want to do a lot of that as a young actor."

''Doctor Who'' (2005)

On 2 April 2004, the BBC revealed that Eccleston was to play the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the revival of Doctor Who. Eccleston was the first actor born after the inception of the original series to play the role. It debuted on 26 March 2005, and a few days later, on 30 March, the BBC released a statement, ostensibly from Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave the role after just one series to avoid becoming typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that the statement had been falsely attributed and released without Eccleston's consent. The broadcaster admitted that it had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly that the actor had only intended to do one series. The statement had been issued following inquiries from journalists to the press office. Following his departure, Eccleston was replaced by David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010. For his performance, Eccleston won a National Television Award and was nominated for a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and BAFTA Cymru Award.

On 11 June 2005, when asked about his feelings about working on Doctor Who, Eccleston told a BBC interviewer: "Mixed, but that's a long story". Eccleston's reasons for leaving the role continued to be debated in Britain's newspapers: On 4 October, Alan Davies told The Daily Telegraph that Eccleston had been "overworked" by the BBC and had left the role because he was "exhausted". Eccleston later stated that he had left the show because he "didn't enjoy the environment or the culture that the cast and crew had to work in", but that he was proud of having played the role. He subsequently said: "My relationship with my three immediate superiors – the showrunner, the producer and co-producer – broke down irreparably during the first block of filming, and it never recovered." Eccleston said that The Daily Telegraphs quote was partially falsified, stating that he "didn't find [the job], physically, too tiring. When The Telegraph said that, any other producer reading that would go 'Oh, no, we can't employ Chris Eccleston because he gets tired.' So, it was a lie." He stated: "When I left, I gave my word to Russell T Davies that I wouldn’t do anything to damage the show. But they did things to damage me. I didn’t criticise anybody. I didn’t issue a statement." In 2011 Eccleston stated "I didn't agree with the way things were being run, or like the culture that grew up around the series... I hope I'll be remembered as one of the Doctors. I have no ill feeling towards the character or the series".

Eccleston was voted "Most Popular Actor" at the 2005 National Television Awards for his portrayal of the Doctor. In July 2012, Eccleston spoke positively of his time on Doctor Who during a talk at the National Theatre. This led to speculation he was considering making a return appearance as the Doctor for the show's 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor", in 2013. Matt Smith, who portrayed the Eleventh Doctor, stated that he would have loved Eccleston to return. After discussions with executive producer Steven Moffat, Eccleston declined to return. In a 2018 interview Eccleston said that the BBC had "put [him] on a blacklist" when he left.

Eccleston began appearing as a guest at Doctor Who conventions for the first time in 2018. He had previously expressed his reluctance to appear at conventions, saying in 2017 that he preferred to "just earn [his] living by acting". He has since said that his experience of meeting fans at conventions "healed something in [him]" and made him re-evaluate his relationship to the series.

On 9 August 2020, it was announced that Eccleston would reprise his role of the Ninth Doctor in audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, across four boxsets to be released between May 2021 and February 2022. This would be the first time he had portrayed the role in 16 years. Eccleston was later confirmed to appear in a further four boxsets, releasing in 2022 and 2023, as well as an episode of the 60th anniversary audio series Once and Future. He has said that it is unlikely that he will reprise the role on television as his relationship with the BBC "has not healed". When asked in 2023 what it would take for him to return to the character on television, Eccleston replied, "sack Russell T Davies, sack Jane Tranter, sack Phil Collinson, sack Julie Gardner and I'll come back."

Other work (2005–2010)

On 30 October 2005, Eccleston appeared on stage at The Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Navin Chowdhry, Bruno Langley, David Warner, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel. Eccleston sat on the 2nd Amazonas International Film Festival Film Jury in November 2005. The Canadian born director Norman Jewison was chairman of the Jury. In December 2005, Eccleston travelled to Indonesia's Aceh province for the BBC Breakfast news programme, examining how survivors of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami were rebuilding their lives.

Late in 2006 he starred in Perfect Parents, an ITV drama written and directed by Joe Ahearne, who had directed him in Doctor Who. Eccleston joined the cast of the NBC TV series Heroes in the episode "Godsend", which was broadcast on 22 January 2007. Eccleston played a character named Claude who has the power of invisibility, and helps Peter Petrelli with his powers. Eccleston appeared as the Rider in a film adaptation of Susan Cooper's novel The Dark Is Rising.

Eccleston appeared on the BBC Four World Cinema Award show in February 2008, arguing the merits of five international hits such as The Lives of Others and Pan's Labyrinth with Jonathan Ross and Archie Panjabi. In 2009, Eccleston starred opposite Archie Panjabi in a short film called The Happiness Salesman. Eccleston agreed to do the film because of Panjabi and the fact that it was a winner of the British Short Screenplay Competition. He also appeared as the villainous Destro in the G.I. Joe film, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2018 he described his experience working on the film as "horrendous". He did not return for the 2013 sequel.

Eccleston was cast as John Lennon in the BBC television film Lennon Naked, which aired in the UK on 23 June 2010, with Naoko Mori, who had previously appeared with him in Doctor Who, as Yoko Ono. In November 2010, Eccleston starred in the first episode of BBC One anthology drama Accused. He won an International Emmy Award for his role. In May 2011, he starred as Joseph Bede in The Shadow Line, a seven-part television drama serial for BBC Two.

Later work (2011–present)

Eccleston played the role of Pod Clock in a 2011 adaptation of Mary Norton's children's novel The Borrowers on BBC One. In July 2012, he starred in the political thriller Blackout on BBC One. In the same month, he starred as Creon in an adaptation of Antigone at the Royal National Theatre; his performance in the play was called "charismatic" and "intense". In September 2012, Eccleston starred in the film Song for Marion, also known as Unfinished Song with Terence Stamp.

In 2013, Eccleston portrayed the villainous Malekith in Thor: The Dark World, the sequel to Thor and the eighth instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2018 he compared working on the film to having a "gun in your mouth". Later that year, he played John Aspinall in Lucan, a mini-series about the disappearance of Lord Lucan. From 2014 to 2017, Eccleston starred as Reverend Matt Jamison on the HBO drama series The Leftovers and earned consistent acclaim for his performance across all three seasons. In 2015, Eccleston starred in the television series Fortitude as a scientist based in Arctic Norway alongside Stanley Tucci and Michael Gambon before he and Marsha Thomason played a married couple who own a guest house in the Lake District in the series Safe House. Later in 2015, Eccleston starred as Leonard "Nipper" Read in Legend, a film about the Kray twins, opposite Tom Hardy.

In 2016, Eccleston began appearing as Maurice Scott in the BBC drama The A Word. Maurice is the eccentric but lovable dad to his daughter who, with her husband, has an autistic son. The second series began airing in November 2017 both in the UK and the US, where The A Word airs on Sundance TV. A third series was confirmed and aired in the spring of 2020.

Eccleston played the lead role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth in 2018. The production was streamed on BBC Four. Also in 2018, Eccleston starred in two films; opposite Tom Wilkinson as crime boss Harvey in Dead in a Week or Your Money Back and as Nazi officer Heinz in Where Hands Touch. That same year he appeared in King Lear as Oswald and in the television mini-series Come Home, the latter of which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actor. In 2021, Eccleston starred in the six-part television mini-series Close to Me.

Further projects include playing Fagin in the series Dodger and in a television adaptation of the award-winning novel My Name is Leon.

Personal life

Eccleston married Mischka, a copywriter, in November 2011. The couple had a daughter and a son, and divorced in December 2015.

Eccleston is a lifelong supporter of Manchester United, and was a regular marathon runner until 2000.

In September 2007, as part of a £9.5 million building project, Salford's Pendleton College named its new 260-seat auditorium the Eccleston Theatre.

Eccleston became a Mencap charity ambassador on 28 April 2005, and is a supporter of the British Red Cross. He also supports research for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia; his father, Ronnie, had vascular dementia in his later years, from 1998 until his death in 2012.

In his autobiography, Eccleston described chronic anorexia, body dysmorphia and depression, and said that he had considered suicide. Speaking about his poor mental health, he wrote that he was "a lifelong body hater". He was hospitalised in 2016 with severe clinical depression.

Eccleston has frequently referenced the importance of being from Salford to his self identity.

Political views

Eccleston has criticised the Conservative Party and has held them responsible for the decline in opportunities for working-class actors. He said in July 2017, "It's always been a policy of the Conservative government and party to destroy working class identity. If you prevent them from having a cultural voice, which is what's happening, they achieve that. They hate us, they want to destroy us, so we're being ruled out of having a voice."

In 2016 he described Brexit as "a huge step backwards", stating it "was an absolute disaster, and I am deeply ashamed of my country."

Eccleston endorsed Labour Party incumbent Andy Burnham in the 2021 Greater Manchester mayoral election.

Eccleston is a British republican who supports the abolition of the British monarchy.

Religious beliefs

On his religious upbringing, Eccleston said in 2015: "My dad's family were Catholic. My mum was very Church of England – still is – but it doesn't work for me." In 2016 he stated he was agnostic: "when I was stomping around saying I was an atheist, I was not thinking about it enough... there is certainly a huge part of me that feels intense anger against organized religion. But I do feel, at the moment, a little more spiritually open to what may be religious beliefs. I mean, if anything, Buddhism is - which is a philosophy, of course - the thing that makes the most sense to me, I would say. In 2017 he identified himself as "a peace-loving atheist", criticising organised religion and calling for "a spiritual revolution". In 2019 he stated he was an atheist.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Performances with unknown dates

• Woyzeck – Birmingham Repertory Theatre
• The Wonder – Gate Theatre
• Encounters – National Theatre Studio

Short films

Music videos

Radio and narration

Audio dramas

Books

Awards and nominations

BAFTA Awards

BAFTA TV Awards

BAFTA Cymru Awards

[[Emmy Awards]]

[[International Emmy Awards]]

Others

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

References

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106. Andy For Mayor. "Christopher Eccleston is backing Andy for Mayor. Use your vote this 6 May and vote Andy.
     Our Voice: for the Homeless
     #GMelects #LocalElection #AndyforMayor".
107. Dunkin, Jamie. "Fans of a famously anti-royal ex-'Doctor Who' actor are ready for his hot take".
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