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John Barrowman
* Biography
* Acting Career
* TV Presenter
* Personal Note
John Barrowman (born 11 March 1967 in Glasgow) is a Scottish-American actor, musical performer, dancer, singer and TV presenter who has lived and worked both in the United Kingdom and the United States. He currently lives in the UK with his partner, British architect Scott Gill. He became a United States citizen in 1985, and holds dual US/UK citizenship.
Barrowman was raised in Joliet, Illinois, and graduated from Joliet West High School in 1985. He is the son of a plant manager of the former Caterpillar Inc. tractor factory in Joliet. While still in high school, he won parts in several musical productions while still a freshman. Between 1983 and 1985 he performed in productions of Hello, Dolly!, Oliver!, Camelot, L'il Abner and Anything Goes. He attended university in San Diego, and returned to the United Kingdom in 1990.
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He has appeared in several West End musicals, including Anything Goes, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, Matador, Hair, Grease! and The Phantom of the Opera (as Raoul).He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in 1998 for his role in The Fix. He has also appeared in the West End in non-musical dramas, such as Rope and the 2005 production of A Few Good Men, in which Barrowman starred opposite Rob Lowe.
Most recently he starred in Jack and the Beanstalk for the 2006-2007 holiday season at the New Theatre in Cardiff, Wales.He has played the role of Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard in the West End and, briefly, on Broadway. His only other Broadway credit is the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together (1999-2000). In 2002, he appeared in the central role of Bobby in Sondheim's Company in the Kennedy Center's Stephen Sondheim Celebration.
He is probably best known in the United States for starring roles in several short-lived prime-time soap operas such as Titans with Yasmine Bleeth in 2000 and Central Park West, as well as the low-budget cult film Shark Attack 3.
He appeared in five episodes of the BBC One science fiction television series Doctor Who (2005) as Captain Jack Harkness, beginning in The Empty Child. The BBC commissioned a 13-part Doctor Who spin-off series titled Torchwood (an anagram of "Doctor Who"), set in modern-day Britain and investigating alien activities and crime. In both shows the character is portrayed as omnisexual. Torchwood has been renewed for a second series. Barrowman is also scheduled to return to Doctor Who in 2007, appearing in three of the final four episodes of the show's third season.
Barrowman's musical abilities have been featured in film: he had a duet with Kevin Kline in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely, and he sang "Springtime for Hitler" in the film of Mel Brooks' The Producers, based on the Broadway adaptation of the original movie.He also recently performed in and co-presented another new BBC One series for Saturday nights, entitled The Sound of Musicals, in which performers from West End musicals sing songs from the shows.
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Barrowman presented many TV-programs for the BBC, Channel Five, and ITV.
Currently (April 2007) he is one of the judges in the BBC1 television series "Any Dream Will Do", searching for the lead in the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat", which will open in July at the Adelphi Theatre in London.
Source: Wikipedia
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Way back in 1989 we went to see Elaine Paige in Anything Goes, and by coincidence witnessed the debut of John Barrowman. What a guy - the voice, the looks, he had it all!
We met both of them at the stage-door that night and they were very relaxed and friendly, they talked to us for about half an hour before heading home.
I still treasure the signed program of that performance (Click the link to view the program - will open in a new window).
Ever since that day, I've followed his career and I'm very happy that TFL approved my application for the John Barrowman Fanlisting.
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