Mark Anthony McGann was born on the 12th of July 1961 in Kensington, Liverpool to a metallurgist father, an ex Royal Marine Commando, and a teacher mother named Clare. He attended De La Salle Grammar School and went up to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre straight away, bypassing drama school. He did a couple of years there, which is, he says, the equivalent of training at a drama school. Having first been earmarked for elevation from the Everyman Youth Theatre the previous year by the then Artistic Director Ken Campbell, he joined the Everyman for their 1981/82 rep season under Bob Eaton. His first break-through role was as the eponymous hero in the company's production of 'Lennon' (1981) which, thanks to his uncannily accurate portrayal, received outstanding reviews and ran for 10 months at the London Astoria Theatre winning Mark the first of his two Olivier Award nominations for best actor in a West End theatre production. He was later to reprise the role for the film 'John and Yoko: A Love Story' for NBC television in the United States in 1985. Yoko cast him as John in the film which she was involved in as a producer. His first television appearances were in 'Studio' (1982) opposite Peter Howitt and Robert Stephens for Granada TV, and 'Moving On The Edge' (1984), a BBC 'Play for Today' TV Drama starring Eleanor Bron. He then appeared as 'Mad Dog' in the C4 TV series 'Scully' (1984) by Alan Bleasdale, with Cathy Tyson and Elvis Costello, the first of three separate collaborations with Bleasdale which included the films 'No Surrender' (1985) and 'Pleasure' (1990) for Channel 4. Further TV work followed including 4 episodes of 'Zastrozzi:A Romance' (1986), 6 episodes of 'The Manageress' (1989) and 6 episodes of 'Yellowthread Street' (1990).
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| Mark as John Lennon |
His long career in TV has seen him play a huge variety of characters including Niven Craig in Peter Medak's 'Let Him Have It' (1991) with Christopher Eccleston and Tom Courtenay; Marcus Bannerman in the World War I era drama series by Russell T. Davies, 'The Grand' (1999) for Granada TV; Joseph Bazalgette, the great Victorian industrial engineer, in the award winning factual drama/doc 'Seven Great Industrial Wonders of the World' (2002) for the BBC and 'Tom Crean the Irish companion of Ernest Shackleton in 'Shackleton' (2002) opposite Kenneth Branagh.
He also appeared as Conor Phelan in the multi-BAFTA nominated 'The Hanging Gale' (1995), a BBC drama set against the backdrop of the Irish Potato Famine of 1846 which also starred his three actor brothers Joe, Paul and Stephen, and which was loosely based on his own family history. Mark has also appeared in many successful theatre productions including Mickey in 'Blood Brothers' (1984), by Willy Russell, and at the National Theatre in 'On the Ledge' (1993), then in 'An Inspector Calls' (1999), by J. B. Priestley for a National Theatre Tour in which he played 'Inspector Goole'. Other notable theatre appearances include Macbeth in 'Macbeth' by Shakespeare, Mosca in 'Volpone' by Ben Jonson for the Cambridge Theatre Company, twin brothers Rupert & Evelyn in 'Corpse' by Gerald Moon, Scott in 'Up On The Roof' at the Donmar Warehouse and Apollo Theatre London - which gained him a second Olivier Award nomination for best actor - Javetts in 'Yakety Yak' at the Astoria London, Gethin Price in 'Comedians' by Trevor Griffiths at the Young Vic London, 'Killers' at the Royal Court London with Ian Rickson in 1992 and as Don Giovanni in 'Don Giovanni' at the Greenwich Theatre London.
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In 'The Hanging Gale'
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Writing and Directing original works for stage and screen include: 'Two of Us', the Lennon & McCartney Songbook for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra co-written with Bob Eaton and directed by Mark for the RTE Orchestra Dublin, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Liverpool, The Northern Sinfonia Newcastle and the Sibelius Orchestra Lahti, Finland; 'Imagine Lennon' for the Stadsteatern Gothenburg Sweden co-written with Bob Eaton; 'Perplexed Music', a film written and directed by Mark; 'Backstories' written and directed by Mark for the Merton Music Foundation and performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 2015; 'The Sunderland Saga' an educational commission written and directed by Mark for Sunderland City Council in 2011; 'The Legend of Spottee's Cave', a film project commissioned by Sunderland City Council and produced and directed by Mark in 2011 which received a UK Arts and Culture Award nomination for best educational film and 'The Could Lad of Hylton Castle' directed by Mark for writer Colin Swash.
Since 2007 he has been the director of Drama Direct Ltd, a creative production company which has produced many original productions and projects for the entertainment and education industries.
His belief in the necessity for ongoing high quality professional actor training has led to the development of his perennially popular Stage and Screen Acting Masterclasses and Workshops, which he continues to deliver throughout the UK and that have led to the creation of two complete online acting courses titled The McGann Acting Academy written by Mark who continues to mentor actors both privately and via Drama Direct Ltd group workshops, supporting professional and student actors and helping develop them in the rich theatrical tradition unique to the UK. This includes the vocational continuation of the work of Peter Hall and John Barton in his traditional approach to acting Shakespeare's blank verse and prose and how to use the rhetorical devices to find the clues in Shakespeare's text.
Also a published songwriter, he has written many original compositions, including for the West End production 'Up On the Roof' with co-writer Simon Moore and three original compositions for the album 'The McGanns' in 1999 which he recorded with his brothers Joe and Stephen for Coalition/Warner Bros. One of his compositions, 'A Heartbeat Away' was released as a single in 1999. Mark lives with his wife Caroline Guinness-McGann in Frome, Somerset.
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