FOR MALCOLM McDOWELL:
'OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH'

British actor, Malcolm McDowell has revealed why he continues to live in Hollywood instead of his native England - it's because he loves his four pet dogs so much.

Malcolm, who returned home to film BBC2's epic 9-part drama serial Our Friends in the North, lives with his 25-year old artist wife Kelley in Santa Monica where he also keep close in touch with his 15-year old daughter and 12-year old son by his first marriage.

But he swears that the only thing stopping him from relocating in Britain is the quarantine laws, which would seperate him from his 2 French bulldogs and 2 mastiffs for 6 months.

"Until they change the laws on quarantine, I'm not going to come back and live here. If they change them, I'd be back like a shot, especially in the summer," claims the 50-year old Londoner.

"I'm not campaigning against the quarantine laws, but maybe I'll start right now. You can't put a dog in quarantine for 6 months if you are doing a film for 3 months.

"When Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton hired that yacht and put it in the Thames, I thought, how extravagant - but I understand it now. If I had that kind of money - and I don't - I'd probably do the same thing."

Malcolm visits Britain up to 3 times a year to see family and friends and will be back again in May to make a film about painter Francis Bacon. In Our Friends in the North, he plays Soho porn baron Bennie Barratt - his first UK television role for 15 years.

He first appeared in episode 2 as the evil boss of Geordie Peacock (Daniel Craig) - one of 4 Geordie friends whose life stories unroll across 31 years between 1964 to 1995. Now in episode 4, Geordie finds Bennie has framed him with the police.

Malcolm recently played the killer of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations. This dubious honor earned him 2 death threats on the Internet from outraged Trekkies, so Paramount hired 2 detectives to shadow him during the 2 week publicity tour.

He has been labeled a baddie ever since A Clockwork Orange. "I get a little bit fed up with it, but on the other hand, the best parts are always the heavies, so I really can't complain. It's been paying my mortgage for 25 years!"

Of Bennie Barratt he says: "I've played a lot worse. But to play someone really evil is such a fantastic thrill because you are doing something you can never be in life, hopefully. I'm really nothing like the characters I play at all."

Originally appeared in eGuide Television, February 5,1996. Copyright remains with the publication cited. No infringement of rights is meant or implied.

 

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