On screen
For three decades Robin Hawdon was a successful actor, whilst plying a parallel trade as a playwright. In his early twenties his face became well known to British television viewers through regular appearances in such series as ‘Play For Today’, ‘Armchair Theatre’, ‘Compact’, ‘Wives and Daughters’, Flying Swan’, ‘Robin’s Nest’, etc.
Hawdon played the part of Barry Southern in the long-running BBC series ‘Compact’, and later co-starred with Jonathan Pryce in the ITV play ‘Spasms’, and with Michael Crawford in the ITV sit-com ‘Chalk and Cheese’. He made a number of films – starring in ‘When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth’ and the spoof James Bond movie ‘Zeta One’.
Robin was also scheduled to film test for the part of the real James Bond, but this was cancelled when Roger Moore accepted the role.
On stage
On stage Hawdon was seen in several roles in London’s West End. He also played a number of classical leads around the country, such as Hamlet, Henry V and Henry Higgins in ‘Pygmalion’. Hawdon curtailed his acting in the 1980s to concentrate on his writing and directing careers.
Now however reviving his screen acting career in advanced age (for the parts that Brian Cox has turned down):-
Go to app.castingnetworks.com/talent/profile/249051045 & app.showcast.com.uk/#/
Playwright
There have been productions of Hawdon plays in the West End and on Broadway and in more than forty countries. Mainstream productions in London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Bonn, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Krakow, Sydney, Zurich, Johannesburg, Russia, Scandinavia, Italy, Turkey, etc.
His early plays Barn Dance, The Secret, and The Hero were seen at such venues as the Hampstead Theatre and the Edinburgh and Salzburg festivals. The first major commercial success for Hawdon was The Mating Game which achieved a long run at London’s Apollo Theatre, and has subsequently played in over thirty countries around the world. This was followed by other much performed plays such as Birthday Suite, Revenge, Don’t Rock The Boat, Perfect Wedding, and the huge success of Don’t Dress for Dinner (based loosely on an early French play by Marc Camoletti) which ran in the West End for six years, and has played all over America, Australia, Canada and the English speaking world. “A better constructed farce than Boeing-Boeing.” New York Times.
(All published by Samuel French/Concord Theatricals.)
His dramatized version of Kingsley Amis’s Booker Prize winning novel, The Old Devils, toured Britain and America in 1989 (published by Josef Weinberger)
More recently his play God And Stephen Hawking, about the phenomenal advance of modern science and its effect on traditional philosophical thinking, caused something of a stir in the national press when Stephen Hawking himself took objection to being portrayed on stage, despite the fact that the play was seen by most people as a tribute to his extraordinary life and career. (published by Josef Weinberger)
Director
Hawdon has also directed a number of stage productions, and in the nineteen-eighties founded the Bath Fringe Festival, and subsequently became Director of the Theatre Royal Bath, one of England’s premier touring theatres.
Author
Hawdon has 5 books published.
Buy his books at Amazon.com OR Amazon.co.uk
