Simon MacCorkindale was born 12 February 1952 in Cambridge (Cambridgeshire, England, UK) into the home of Peter and Gill MacCorkindale. He planned to follow his father into the air force and train as a pilot, but his eyesight began to deteriorate when he was 13. He then considered joining the diplomatic corps and possibly becoming an ambassador, but became fascinated with the theatre and decided to be a stage director.
       Upon leaving high school he was accepted as a drama student at Studio 68 of Theatre Arts in London, England. He made his professional stage debut at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England, in A Bequest to the Nation. And, as luck would have it, by the end of his first year he was signed to play a leading role in George Bernard Shaw's The Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
       After a number of appearances in the regional theatres in England, he made his West End debut in the highly-acclaimed 1974 production of Pygmalion, starring Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg. The actor went on to work extensively in British television. His first international television assignment was in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth in which he played Lucius, the centurion who was strongly featured in the last hour of the six-hours epic. Curiously enough, he also played Lucius, the son of Emperor Augustus, in I Claudius.
       Among his roles on British TV have been Sir Thomas Walsingham in Will Shakespeare, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, the callous vet in Baby, poet Siegfried Sassoon in Out of Battle, the naive Oxford graduate in Elinor Glyn's Three Weeks, along with appearances in Just William and Dr. Dady in the series set in a woman's prison, Within These Walls.
       What he considers the major break of his career was his being cast as Simon Doyle, the smooth, avaricious young murderer in Death on the Nile. He was presented to the Queen at the Royal Premiere in London, by which time he had completed a role in marked contrast, the tough sailor hero in Erskine Guilders classic spy story, The Riddle of the Sands.
       The London Evening News liked his work so much in these two films that it presented him with its "Most Promising Actor" award, which necessitated a flight for the presentation from Los Angeles where he was working both for the screen and on stage, guest starring in The Dukes of Hazzard and a comedy pilot, Scalpels, at Paramount for NBC. On his return he starred in The Gayden Chronicles on stage in Los Angeles, and soon after was flying back to London to play the title role in "Macbeth" with Gayle Hunnicutt.
       He starred with Charles Bronson in Cabo Blanco, playing an MI5 agent. He also played Joe Kapp, a young astronomer who teams up with Professor Quatermass (Sir John Mills) to fight an alien force that is harvesting Earth's children in the 1979 ITV Science Fiction series Quatermass and the movie version, Quatermass Conclusion. Next came "A Visitor from the Grave" of cult hit Hammer House of Horror British TV series and his plum TV assignment was when he was named to play Lt. David Clement of the Royal Hussars in The Manions of America, in which he co-starred with David Soul, Kate Mullgrew, Linda Purl, Nicholas Hammond and Pierce Brosnan. It was ABC's top- attraction opener for the fall '81 season.
       He returned to Los Angeles in February, 1981, to make his highly successful American debut as the director of The Merchant of Venice on the Globe Theatre's stage, and followed this with performances of his one-man show, The Importance of Being Oscar, also at the Globe.
       Other 1981 assignments were on Fantasy Island and in An Outpost of Progress for the American Film Institute. Outpost was followed by his starring role in The Sword and the Sorcerer, and the video production of Macbeth. He also returned to England to present his one-man show at the Cambridge Festival and rounded off the year with the incorporation of his own company, Allied International Productions, in which he is partnered with Ron Marshall Glazer, his manager, Linda Purl and Scott Adler, an attorney at law.
       If 1981 was an active year, it would be hard to find an adjective for 1982. The year commenced with Allied's own presentation of A Doll House at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. Simon directed, Linda Purl and Nicholas Pryor starred.
       Then it was off to nearby La Mirada where MacCorkindale directed Howard Keel in Sleuth and hardly had that show opened than he had to take over from Nicholas Pryor in A Doll House on a three-day warning and one rehearsal.
       Next came Houston to direct James Whitmore Sr. and Jr. in Sleuth for the Windmill Theatre, and without being able to see the opening night, he was winged off to Mexico to film Falcon's Gold (aka Robbers of the Sacred Mountain) with John Marley.
       Other series included episodes of Hart to Hart and Dynasty. Prior to starring in Jaws 3D with Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong and Lou Gossett,Jr., MacCorkindale directed Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Noel Harrison in Sleuth at Granny's Dinner Theatre in Dallas and finished his post-production work on Falcon's Gold. Also he had a London based company, Pendant Entertainment Productions, which he runs with his brother Duncan and actor Gareth Thomas. He worked on a number of other projects including his novel, Ronnie.
      In 1983 Simon starred in his own NBC series Manimal as Professor Jonathan Chase. The Manimal pilot and its seven episodes were sold around the world and, thanks to the advent of cable television, the show became a cult hit and further boosted MacCorkindale's popularity worldwide. After Manimal MacCorkindale played Greg Reardon for two seasons in Falcon Crest and also directed several episodes.
       MacCorkindale and his wife, actress Susan George, returned to Britain in 1986 to fulfill his ambition of creating his own production company and in 1987 they formed AMY International. Since then the actor has developed, produced, directed, written or co-written a variety of projects.
      Since 1990 Simon MacCorkindale acted as executive production consultant and also played a lead role in Counterstrike, for which he received a GEMINI nomination for Best Actor in a Series. The show is the USA Network hit series about billionaire industrialist Alexander Addington (Christopher Plummer) whose passion for justice is implemented by a three-member strike team. He formed his strike team after his wife was kidnapped by an international terrorist organization. Simon was magnificent as Peter Sinclair, a former Scotland Yard inspector - the youngest in the history of the Yard - was also a legendary hostage negotiator. The show ran for three years and still receives high ratings in syndication.
      After Counterstrike Simon MacCorkindale acted as a writer and a director of The House that Mary Bought movie, starred his wife Susan George. It was a mysterious drama about a brilliant artist and her husband (Ben Cross), who became subject to a series of bizarre occurrences in their isolated house in Brittany and they both had suspected that the other person is responsible.
      His following works include TV films The Way to Dusty Death with Linda Hamilton, based by Alistair MacLean's novel; also At the Midnight Hour with Patsy Kensit, A Family of Cops with Charles Bronson, While my Pretty One Sleeps and The Sands of Eden.
      The fans of sci-fi genre for certain set eyes on MacCorkindale recent works in such TV series as La Femme Nikita, Mentors (as Oscar Wilde), Earth: Final Conflict, Dark Realm, where he starred together with Lysette Anthony. He was tremendous as Reed Horton in MGM's Poltergeist: the Legacy, the horror show about a secret and ancient society The Legacy leading the battle against the evil forces that desire to steal the innocence from humanity.
       Simon MacCorkindale made his return to British TV on BBC ONE’s top-rated medical drama, Casualty. He said: 'I’ve always been a fan of Casualty and it’s great to be joining such an established show with a great bunch of people. Having spent so much of the last 15 years working abroad, I’m really pleased to be back filming on home turf particularly since we’ve just moved to the South West and Casualty is Bristol based.' Simon’s first episode transmitted in May.
      MacCorkindale is the producer of The Power of Love co-executive producer and screenwriter of The Rolex Murder, co-producer of Dick Francis Presents and co-executive producer of Queen Of Swords.
       On the personal side, Simon enjoys a variety of pastimes such as photography, tennis and swimming, classical music and an assurance in his belief that he's an accomplished handyman, decorator and gardener. He collects elephant figurines, enjoys opera and delights in his friends.
      

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Biography on Simon MacCorkindale fansite
Queen of Swords - Simon MacCorkindale
Bio on Manimal site (in French)