Arguably amongst the most dynamic and inventive of world-class actors, yet one also capable of immense charm, humor and poignancy, Malcolm McDowell has created a gallery of iconographic characters since catapulting to the screen as "Mick Travis", the rebellious upperclassman, in Lindsay Anderson's prize-winning sensation, IF…
He is entering new territory with his first western, LAST TRAIN TO FORTUNE, with Mary Steenburgen and Bernadette Peters in support, alongside James Paxton, fulfilling his father Bill’s wishes of wanting to play opposite Malcolm’s marooned schoolteacher. The film is being released in March of 2026.
And he’s just preparing to film season five of the hit Canadian family comedy series, SON OF A CRITCH in which he’s been nominated for his crafty Critch grandfather. Seasons 1-3 are available on NETFLIX in both the U.S. and Canada.
McDowell’s place in movie history was secured when Stanley Kubrick finally found the actor he was searching for to play the gleefully amoral "Alex" in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; when McDowell conceived the idea for the further adventures of "Mick Travis" in Anderson's comedic epic O LUCKY MAN! when he wooed Mary Steenburgen and defeated "Jack the Ripper" as the romantically inquisitive H.G. Welles in Nicholas Meyer's TIME AFTER TIME when he destroyed "Capt. Kirk" in STAR TREK:GENERATIONS, and when he pranced and parried as narcissistic ballet impresario "Alberto Antonelli" in Robert Altman's THE COMPANY.
Those legendary roles have endured with legions of filmgoers while other adherents have been won over by: his compulsive GANGSTER NO.1 in which he created a character both on screen and through nuanced voice-over; his complex villain who taunts Clive Owen and traumatizes Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Mike Hodges' neo-noir I'LL SLEEP WHN I'M DEAD and his conflicted "Yurovsky", who carries out the murder of the Romanovs in Karen Chakhnazarov's ASSASSIN OF THE TSAR. For the latter, the New York Times said, 'Not since reaching his mature years has McDowell given such a fine, strong, crafty performance. It is acted with immense skill.”
McDowell most recently starred opposite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Paul Weitz’ MOVING ON; assumed a perfect Australian accent as Rupert Murdoch in JAY Roach’s BOMBSHELL and chilled as ”Dr. Samuel Loomis" in Rob Zombie's reinvention of HALLOWEEN, which shattered all boxoffice records for the Labor Day weekend. His feature film credits include: Hugh Hudson's My LIFE SO FAR; Richard Lester's ROYAL FLASH; Paul Shrader's CAT PEOPLE; Rachel Talaley's TANK GIRL; Robert Downey Sr's HUGO POOL; Joseph Losey's FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE and Bryan Forbes' LONG AGO TOMORROW.
Also, the brilliant literary editor Maxwell Perkins in Martin Ritt's CROSS CREEK; the Chaplin-esque studio boss in Blake Edwards' SUNSET and the final incarnation of "Mick Travis" in BRITANNIA HOISPITAL, the third film in Anderson's trilogy. McDowell's noted work also includes David Grieco's Russian-made EVILENKO, Alan Arkush's GET CRAZY, Rosiland Ross’ FATHER STU, and SCHWEITZER , in which he plays the world admired humanitarian.
On the concert stage, McDowell has appeared with major orchestras and conductors in sold out musical evenings. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, he acted in two of the three Shakespearean pieces Tchaikovsky wrote, playing "Prospero" in THE TEMPEST and the Ghost in HAMLET. Also at Disney Hall, he narrated the compilation of music from Stanley Kubrick's films, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And backed by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, he starred with Elvis Costello in Strindberg's A SOLDIER'S TALE.
On television, he made his starring debut opposite Laurence Olivier, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren in Harold Pinter's THE COLLECTION directed by Michael Apted. Later television was highlighted by the influential British mini-series, Our Friends from the North, with Daniel Craig and Gina McKee; as the agency head in the hit series, Entourage and as the orchestra conductor for four seasons in, Mozart In The Jungle. He also created major attention for his three-episode role in the Heroes series and was the first non-animated actor in South Park, being Trey Parker's favorite actor.
For PBS, he committed to film his acclaimed "Jimmy Porter" in the Roundabout Theater production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. On the New York stage, he received raves for the American premiere of David Storey's In Celebration at the Manhattan Theater Club, directed by Lindsay Anderson, and for Oscar-winner Ronald Harwood's Another Time at The American Jewish Theater.
In Los Angeles, he and Swoozie Kurtz headlined Hunting Cockroaches at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Arthur Penn. In London, he brought new life to the title character in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloan, opposite Beryl Reid at the Royal Court, later transferring to the West End, and he undertook the Cary Grant role in Philip Barrie's Holiday, opposite Mary Steenburgen, at the Old Vic, directed by Lindsay Anderson.
McDowell's muse-mentor relationship with the gifted, grumbling and giving Anderson was captured in NEVER APOLOGIZE (2007), the performance film of McDowell's one-man show about the provocative filmmaker that premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, London's National Film Theater and at Cannes before the Prince and Princess of Wales. Conceived by McDowell and directed by Mike Kaplan, It chronicles one of the most significant actor-director teamings and shows the full range of McDowell's storytelling charisma in comedic, satiric, and moving encounters with Richard Harris, Bette Davis, Alan Bates, Lillian Gish, John Gielgud, Rachel Roberts and John Ford among their circle of friends and collaborators.
McDowell was born in Leeds, England and acted in several British repertory companies before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. Shortly thereafter, he began his film career with IF...
The Film Society of Lincoln Center, The American Cinematheque, The British Film Institute, The Deauville Festival, England's National Museum of Film, Television and Photography, the French and Australian Cinematheques, and The Turin Festival have all accorded him major retrospectives.
He is married to painter and house designer Kelley Kuhr and is the father of: interior decorator Lilly McDowell, film director Charlie McDowell, singer-songwriter Beckett McDowell and budding actors Finn McDowell and Seamus McDowell.
