Malcolm McDowell's career has spanned five decades moving between film and television and becoming a cult icon.McDowell had pulled pints and been a coffee salesman before he began taking acting classes, which led to extra roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company.He made his big screen debut in British movie If, which statarised life at a public school, in 1969.The film won the Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival and for McDowell roles in Figures In A Landscape and The Raging Moon followed in the early seventies.But a young mcDowell had caught the eye of maverick director Stanley Kubrick and he landed the role of Alex DeLarge in cult classic A Clockwork Orange.Based on Anthony Burgess's disturbing novel about England in the totalitarian future, Malcolm McDowell portrays Alex, a Beethoven-loving, head-bashing punk who leads his gang of "droogs" on ultra-violent assaults, until he is captured by authorities and subjected to nasty behavior-modification therapy.
This was a career defining performance for McDowell, despite causing controversy which led to the film's withdrawal from release in the UK due to it's extreme violence.
But it was met well by the critics and went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, but was beaten by The French Connection.
McDowell teamed up with If's director Lindsay Anderson to make two further movies, O' Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital, as If's Everyman character Mick Travis.
In 1979 he made his Hollywood debut, starring alongside David Warner and Mary Steenburgen, in Time After Time.
Victorian Brits H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper travel through time into late 70s San Francisco. While the author marvels at this Utopian Eden, the psycho killer discovers his spiritual home -- and goes out searching for his next victim.
In 1979 he led an impressive cast in historical epic Caligula, a reputedly faithful cinematic depiction of the historical events of Caligula's Rome, including the decadence and debauchery that marked his reign.
But the film was financed by Penthouse Magazine magnate Bob Guccione, who was accused of inserting hardcore sex scenes after completing photography with the impressive and esteemed cast of British actors.
Upon release the film was panned by critics as 'sickening' and 'shameful trash.'
As well as the cult role in Clockwork Orange and the disaster that was Caligula mcDowell is also well known as "the man who killed Captain Kirk" in the film Star Trek Generations where he played Dr. Tolian Soran.
More recently McDowell has become known for his role as Mr Linderman in NBC's worldwide smash hit Heroes.
His latest project sees him return to British film in Neil Marshall's Doomsday.
After a deadly plague results in the quarantine of the entire country of Scotland, a wall is built around the country preventing anyone from going in or out.
Thirty years later, the British government believes everyone within the wall to be dead, but when they find signs of life and learn of the possibility of a cure, a team of specially trained agents led by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) become the first outsiders to venture inside the country since the epidemic.
They discover that there are plenty of survivors who have splintered into fierce, warlike tribes, living in a lawless society where cannibalism and murder are the order of the day.
Doomsday is released 9th May.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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