Robert Lindsay profile

Robert Lindsay has proved himself adept in comedy, musicals and drama on stage and screen, achieving fame both here and the US..

Robert Lindsay

Once a Derbyshire man

He started life as Robert Lindsay Stevenson on 13 December 1949. Born in Ilkeston, Robert Lindsay remains loyal to his Derbyshire roots. His father worked as a carpenter, and spent World War II serving in the Royal Navy on a minesweeper.

Robert's father was a blunt and direct man - and taught his son to be the same way. Lindsay's mother raised the kids and, in later years, became his most reliable critic. She unfailingly viewed all of his work and always gave him her honest opinion.

What hasn't he done?

As with many of Britain's pre-eminent actors, Lindsay honed his craft performing Shakespeare and spent much of the 80s taking on roles in BBC Shakespeare adaptations.

Since then, he has taken on a smorgasbord of roles with a galaxy of stars, including: Give Us a Break with Paul McGann; Fierce Creatures with John Cleese, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis; Me and My Girl on Broadway with Emma Thompson; Nightingales with David Threlfall and James Ellis; and The Hornblower series with Ioan Gruffudd and Paul McGann.

He's also played opposite Paul Bettany in Wimbledon, Rachel Griffiths in Divorcing Jack, Sean Bean and Bill Nighy in an animated version of The Canterbury Tales, and took the role of none other than Tony Blair in the 2005 political satire, A Very Social Secretary. Phew! Plus, of course, he shines as the disgruntled dentist dad, Ben Harper, in My Family.

His family

Despite Lindsay's loyalty to Derbyshire, he now lives in Buckinghamshire with TV presenter and dancer Rosemarie Ford. They have two sons - Samuel and Jamie - but any similarity to the Harpers ends there! Robert balances his family duties with a career that's still going strong. His last major project was a four-part drama called Jericho where he took the role of Detective Inspector Michael Jericho, an East End Londoner with Jewish roots.