Callow made his stage debut in 1973 with The Thrie Estates, Assembly Hall Theatre, Edinburgh.

He was an established stage actor before making his first film appearance in Amadeus in 1984 (having played Mozart in the original stage production at the Royal National Theatre). His first television role was in Carry On Laughing episode Orgy and Bess, in 1975, but it was apparently cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy, Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him a wider audience than his many critically acclaimed stage appearances.

At the same time, Callow was successful both as a director and as a writer. His Being An Actor (1984) was a critique of 'director dominated' theatre, in addition to containing autobiographical sections relating to his early career as an actor. At a time when subsidised theatre in the UK was under severe pressure from the Thatcher government, the work's original appearance caused a minor controversy. In 1995 he directed a stage version of the classic French film Les Enfants du Paradis for the RSC. Unfortunately, the production was not a success. Callow has also directed opera productions.

One of Callow's best-known books is Love Is Where It Falls, a poignant analysis of his eleven-year relationship with Peggy Ramsay (1908-91), a prominent British theatrical agent from the 1960s to the 1980s. He has also written extensively about Charles Dickens, whom he has played in a one-man show, The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd,in the film Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale, and on television several times including An Audience with Charles Dickens (BBC 1996) and in "The Unquiet Dead", a 2005 episode of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who.

Callow appeared with Saeed Jaffrey in 1994 British television series Little Napoleons. In 1996 Callow directed Cantabile in three musical pieces (Commuting, The waiter's revenge, Ricercare No 4) composed by his friend Stephen Oliver.Ricercare No4 was commissioned by Callow especially for Cantabile. In 2004, he appeared on a Comic Relief episode of Little Britain for charity causes. In 2006, he wrote a piece for the BBC1 programme This Week bemoaning the lack of characters in modern politics. He has starred as Count Fosco, the villain of Wilkie Collins's novel The Woman in White, in film (1997) and on stage (2005, in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in the West End).

In December 2004, he hosted the London Gay Men's Chorus' Christmas Show, Make the Yuletide Gay at the Barbican Centre in London. He is currently one of the Patrons of the Michael Chekhov Studio London. Callow narrated the audio book of Robert Fagles' 2006 translation of Virgil's The Aeneid.

In July 2006 the World renowned London Oratory School Schola announced Callow as one of their new patrons. In November 2007 he threatened to resign the post over controversy surrounding the Terrence Higgins Trust (an AIDS charity of which Callow is also a patron). Other patrons of the Catholic choir are HRH Princess Michael of Kent and the leading Scottish composer James MacMillan.

From 11 July 2008 to 3 August, Callow will appear at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada in his new one man show There Reigns Love, a play about the poetry of William Shakespeare ^[2] and also in 2008,he appears at the Edinburgh Festival giving a recital, directed by Patrick Garland,of two stories by Charles Dickens.

In February 2008, he played the psychiatrist in Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Peter Shaffer's Equus.

He has also written biographies of Orson Welles and Charles Laughton. Callow was also the reader of "The Twits" and "The Witches" in the Puffin Roald Dahl Audio Books Collection (ISBN 978-0-140-92255-4). He also was the reader of several abridged PG Wodehouse, Jeeves books including "Very Good, Jeeves" and "Aunts Aren't Gentlemen".

[edit] Personal life

Callow was born in Streatham, London, England, the son of secretary Yvonne Mary (née Guise) and businessman Neil Francis Callow.^[3] He attended the London Oratory School and then went on to study at the Queen's University of Belfast before giving up his degree course to go into acting at the Drama Centre in London.

Callow is one of the most prominent gay actors in Britain, listed 28th in the Independent's 2007 listing of the most influential gay men and women in the UK.^[4] In 1999 he was awarded the CBE for his services to acting.

Callow's domestic partner is director Daniel Kramer. They share a house in Camden, North London.^[5]

He was one of the first actors publicly to declare his homosexuality, doing so in his 1984 book Being An Actor. (In another he revealed his platonic affair with the theatrical agent Peggy Ramsay who was 40 years his senior.) 'I'm not really an activist', he says, 'although I am aware that there are some political acts one can do that actually make a difference and I think my coming out as a gay man was probably one of the most valuable things I've done in my life. I don't think any actor had done so voluntarily and I think it helped to change the culture.'

– Simon Callow: Laughter in the dark, interview^[6]The Independent 2004

• Callow, Simon (2007). Orson Welles: Hello Americans. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-09-946261-3. 

• Callow, Simon (2003). Dickens' Christmas: a Victorian celebration. ISBN 0711220085. 

• Callow, Simon (1999). Love is Where it Falls. Nick Hern Books. ISBN 0140290052. 

• Callow, Simon (1995). Orson Welles: the road to Xanadu. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-03852-4. 

• Callow, Simon (1991). Acting in Restoration Comedy. Applause Theatre & Cinema Book Publishers. ISBN 1-55783-119-X. 

• Dusan Makavejev; Callow, Simon (1990). Shooting the Actor. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 1-85459-035-9. 

• Callow, Simon (1988). Charles Laughton: a difficult actor. London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 0-413-18930-9. 

• Callow, Simon (1985). Being an actor. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-007682-4.