Life and career

Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes (née Cooper), a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, an arranger and conductor for the BBC. He grew up in the North Finchley district of London. At the age of eight he undertook dancing lessons, making his stage debut as the White Rabbit in a stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

After a series of short term "fill-in" jobs that included catering, farming and journalism, he secured a position at the Chichester Theatre where he worked as an assistant stage manager and later as a stand-in producer. He auditioned in 1968 for a production of Alan Bennett's new play, Forty Years On, which featured John Gielgud as the headmaster of a British public school during the First World War period. Andrews was cast as Skinner, one of twenty schoolboys; the role gave him the opportunity at an early age of working with Gielgud.

In June 1977, Andrews was cast in the role of Bodie in the TV series The Professionals, but after three days of filming, the creator and producer Brian Clemens felt that the chemistry between Andrews and Martin Shaw (Doyle) did not work and that "the pair did not have the required undercurrent of menace to carry off the concept." Andrews was replaced in the part by Lewis Collins. Following this, in 1979, he was the main star of the ITV television series Danger UXB, in which Andrews played a British bomb disposal officer in World War II during the London Blitz. The series first aired in the United States in 1979 on Masterpiece Theatre.

His subsequent work includes the leading role of Lord Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. In 1982, he won a Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Award for his performance and was nominated for an Emmy Award. In the United States, Andrews is best known for his portrayal of the titular character in Ivanhoe as well as that of Sir Percy Blakeney in the 1982 film, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

He played Professor Higgins in a stage version of My Fair Lady (2001) and Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White.

He was the narrator for a 21st Anniversary BBC Radio 2 special broadcast of Cameron Mackintosh's musical Les Misérables, sung by the then West End cast at the Mermaid Theatre in London on Sunday 8 October 2006. Andrews appeared as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in the 2010 film The King's Speech, for which he won a SAG Award along with Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush and Timothy Spall.

In 2003 Andrews survived a case of water intoxication. The condition, known as hyponatraemia, is caused by the dilution of sodium in the body. It has similar symptoms to dehydration, such as headaches, nausea and cramp. Whilst performing as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady he would consume up to eight litres of water a day. He lost consciousness and spent three days in intensive care.

He married Georgina Simpson of the Simpsons of Piccadilly department store family. Their daughter Amy is a god-daughter of Princess Anne, The Princess Royal.

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	A Day Out	Brother
1974	Percy's Progress	Catchpole
1974	Take Me High	Hugo Flaxman
1975	The Adolescents (es)	Jimmy
1975	Operation Daybreak	Jozef Gabcik
1981	Mistress of Paradise	Buckley
1982	Ivanhoe	Wilfred of Ivanhoe
1982	The Scarlet Pimpernel	Sir Percy Blakeney
1983	Sparkling Cyanide	Tony Browne
1984	Under the Volcano	Hugh Firmin
1985	The Holcroft Covenant	Johann von Tiebolt / Jonathan Tennyson
1987	The Lighthorsemen	Maj. Richard Meinertzhagen
1987	The Second Victory	Maj. Hanlon
1988	Bluegrass	Michael Fitzgerald
1988	Hanna's War	McCormack
1990	Hands of a Murderer	Professor Moriarty
1991	Lost in Siberia	Andrei Miller
1995	Haunted	Robert Mariell
1997	Mothertime	Robin
2000	David Copperfield	Edward Murdstone
2010	The King's Speech	Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	The Wednesday Play	Harry
1972	Dixon of Dock Green	Paul Richards
1972	Doomwatch	Carlos
1972	Follyfoot	Lord Beck
1972	A War of Children	Reg Hogg	American (CBS) TV film set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles
1972	Thirty-Minute Theatre	Michael Warren / Vernon Warren	Episode "The Judge's Wife"
1974	The Fortunes of Nigel	Sir Nigel Olifaunt
1974	QB VII	Stephen Kelno
1974	The Pallisers	Lord Silverbridge
1974	David Copperfield	James Steerforth
1975	Upstairs, Downstairs	Lord Robert Stockbridge / The Marquis of Stockbridge
1976	The Duchess of Duke Street	Marcus Carrington
1976-1977	Play of the Month	Various characters	In "French Without Tears", "London Assurance", and "The Country Wife"
1977	Wings	Lt. Walker
1977	ITV Sunday Night Drama	Harry	Episode "A Superstition"
1978	Romeo and Juliet	Mercutio	BBC Television Shakespeare
1979	Danger UXB	Brian Ash
1981	The Love Boat	Tony Selkirk
1981	Brideshead Revisited	Lord Sebastian Flyte	British Academy Television Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1984	Play for Today	John Loomis	Episode "Z for Zachariah"
1985	A.D.	Nero
1988	American Playhouse	Johnnie Aysgarth	Episode "Suspicion"
1988	The Woman He Loved	King Edward VIII
1989	A Fine Romance	Michael Trent
1989	Columbo: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine	Elliot Blake
1989	Nightmare Classics	Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde	Episode "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
1992	Jewels	William Whitfield
1992	Screen Two	Christopher Edwardes
1996	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries	Luke Crossland
1996	Tales from the Crypt	Jonathan
2001	Love in a Cold Climate	Boy
2003	Cambridge Spies	King George VI
2004	Rosemary & Thyme	Richard Oakley	Episode "The Invisible Worm"
2006	Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs	Tommy Beresford
2012	Birdsong	Colonel Barclay
2015	The Syndicate	Lord Hazelwood

Producer

• Lost in Siberia (1991)
• Haunted (1995)

Theatrical roles

• Count Fosco in The Woman in White.
• Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.
• Pastor Manders in Ghosts.
• Seasons with The New Shakespeare Company and Chichester Festival Theatre.
• Somerset Maugham's The Letter at the Wyndham's Theatre, London (2007).
• Oscar in premiere of Bully Boy at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton (2011).
• Coming In To Land at the National Theatre, London.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]