Simon MacCorkindale is convinced he
would have become the Army's youngest
general. He feels his dogged determination,
dashing looks and slavish adherence to
discipline would have sent him hurtling up
the ranks. Indeed, thanks to his father's
contacts, a glittering military career was once guaranteed;
instead, he chose to become the nearly man of
British cinema, a decision he puts down to an in-built
self-destruct button which he presses whenever his
life is running smoothly.
To the horror of his family, Simon put showbusiness before
the Army, and his role opposite Mia
Farrow in Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile in
1978 won him the Most Promising Film Actor award
when he was 26. From there, anything seemed possible.
Only now, years later, after disappearing from the
movie actor radar, is he acting again, this time as
Harry Harper, a dashing doctor in the BBC's hospital
drama, Casualty. He is expected to cause a stir with
his character, who is married but has a penchant for
sexy girls; a natural extension to the love-rat image
from his TV heyday in the 1980s, when he played
Greg Reardon in Falcon Crest.
Simon, 50, is, of course, excited about his new
venture, which involves mostly living on his own in
a flat in Bristol for three years during filming. His
wife of 17 years, actress Susan George, once voted
one of the sexiest women in the world and who dated
Prince Charles and George Best, might wonder
exactly what aspect he is looking forward to most.
'One of the things about Casualty will be having
an apartment of my own,' says Simon. 'It'll give
Susan and me a chance to have our own space,
which I think is actually necessary because at the
moment everything is too intense. We are forever
finding it difficult to find quality time to ourselves.
If we do grab moments, it's always loaded; it's
always something about work, or it's problem-
driven, so as you wind down you're winding up at
the same time. It's difficult.
'Often we're both trying to relax at different times.
It's that hard. I don't often relax, but when I do I might
watch a bit of telly. So I might want to watch football
and Susie wants to watch something else. She will
always go to sleep in the middle of a programme
while the TV's on and I tend to get wound up by it. By
having a little space it will allow me to concentrate.'
Clearly Simon sometimes clashes fiercely with
Susan. 'Neither of us sulk. We have big rows. I'm the
one with the short fuse. Susie is remarkably calm,
although she will fight back. There are two chiefs but
no Indians — that's the way we are. When we met,
we had two very individual careers and we both knew
what we wanted. I'm a control freak so it's difficult
to delegate and when I think of Susie, I have that
image of the little terrier, with the head'and the tail
going, holding on to a bone — that's Susie through
and through. But I'm the big dog who takes up the
bone and carries it for however long is necessary.'
Whether Simon is about to press the self-destruct
button again is anyone's guess. Once, he was in
what everyone assumed was the perfect marriage,
with actress Fiona Fullerton, a union which raised
his public profile. Together, they were hailed as the
most perfect showbusiness couple — the gorgeous
English gent and the devoted, gamine wife. So it
came as a shock to Fiona and to Simon's family
when he declared their five-year marriage was over
and he left for Hollywood.
"There is a self-destruct button in me and I don't
know where it comes from — every time it looks as
if I'm getting comfortable, I go and throw it all in the
air. It's not a conscious thing. The image I've always
had of myself is of a man leaping off the diving board
without checking whether there is any water in the
bottom. It means making hasty decisions.'
Yet it now emerges Simon wishes he had not left
Fiona so soon. 'I still consider it a failure, and it still
bothers me,' he admits for the first time. 'My marriage
to Fiona was a well-intentioned mistake but I should
have seen it through longer. Instead I said to myself:
"I don't think this marriage is going anywhere and it's
better to get out now before we have the commitment
of children." I was married to Fiona when I was 24.
She was in Angels at that time and I was just an up-
and-comer. I cut and ran. There was an element of
Hollywood beckoning, which was going to be harder
to do still being married. When I felt it was going
wrong, I made a quick jump off the diving board. I
thought it through pretty deeply — but for a short
period of time. I was too quick to act, rationalise
everything and make a quick decision. To be honest
I've never fully reconciled it with Fiona, yet in reality
I should have sorted it out.'
Instead, it was Fiona who, devastated, spoke out
publicly, and complained that although Simon said he
wanted a working wife to bring him stimulation, that
he used to complain when she wasn't around. Both
were bom into Service families and had similar
upbringings, moving around the world with their
fathers to different bases. But Simon felt they weren't
compatible. He felt they were stifling each others'
careers and that as soon as they married, Fiona was
squandering her talent. He also has such a marked
streak of independence that he admits he isn't the
easiest of people to live with. 'I can't take four hours
off to sit in front of a television set to be company for
someone,' he says.
His burning ambition took him to Hollywood to
look for work. 'I had to believe it was going to
happen. I had had it all in England and furthermore,
because I had left, Fiona was able to have an open
field with the Press and, of course, she had to do it.
But I never spoke to a soul. I was the bad guy.'
Simon and Fiona were married in 1976, before
Death On The Nile made him famous. 'Looking back
I wasn't ready,' he admits. 'I believed in the structure
and sanctity of marriage but what I fell in love with
was the residue of my upbringing. I fell in love with
the idea of being a married, responsible person. 1
think that was part of it — wanting my Mum and
Dad to be pleased.'
Although Simon's father Peter, an RAF group
captain then station commander, had always been
supportive, he was floored when his eldest son
decided to become an actor. Simon may appear to
have a stiff upper lip, but he looks vulnerable when
he admits: 'What I learnt afterwards was that my
father was having a hell of a time for two years
while I was going through drama school. I'd
basically emasculated him. He'd groomed me for a
military career and I had flung it up and said: "No,
I don't want to do that." All Dad knew about
showbusiness was homosexual actors, drugs,
broken marriages and unreliability.'
A turning point came at the end of Simon's first
year at drama school when he appeared in a George
Bernard Shaw play. His parents came to see him
perform for the first time. The next night they came
again. 'That moment turned everything around
completely,' explains Simon, 'because Dad came on
my side. He never told me his worries but Mum did
and I was then able to meet him head on and help him.
So a few years later when I did a show with Sir John
Mills, T made a point of introducing him to John and
his wife Mary who have been married for so many
years. That helped enormously — to show my parents
two pillars of society with their pillar-of-society
marriage — and made them more at ease.'
But their confidence was shattered when Simon's
marriage to Fiona broke up. They were supportive, but
'very, very disappointed', says Simon, and it took him
a long time to come to terms with what he saw as a
personal failure. Thankfully, he was able to fall back
on his internal emotional support system: hard work.
This kind of focus always served him well throughout
his school days. Simon relished the structure offered
by the discipline which came with the territory. He
used it to his advantage. On the day he arrived as a
boarder at Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, he
admits: 'I said to myself: "I want to be head boy." I
became head boy and the youngest prefect.
'My father wanted me to go into the Army. I
had wanted to follow him into the Air Force, but
after my eyesight failed me I thought
about the diplomatic corps. Being
head boy was a logical part of that
process. Without wanting to
sound arrogant, I said to myself,
as long as I keep my nose clean I
could be the youngest general
in the army. But at 18 I didn't
want to know what I'd be
doing at 42 and saw a whole
bunch of people in the
Services who were unhappy
and here was a kind of
mirror. I didn't want to go
down that way.'
Simon found there were
more parallels in the
entertainment business
and the military than he
might have imagined,
such as strict time-
keeping, teamwork and
being driven. In this way,
his father was a huge
inspiration. With his
good looks and bullish
manner Simon could
give the impression of
being haughty and
arrogant. In fact, he is
quietly humble, even
insecure. He admits he is not
the most talented actor
around and was never
comfortable as a leading
man. In fact, at prep
school he discovered a talent
for writing and directing
plays, producing Sleeping
Beauty at the age of
nine. 'My ambition was not
to be centre stage. I was
never very extrovert and I
knew I wouldn't get into
one of the big drama
schools like RADA because
I knew I wasn't an actor.
My mental brief was to
lean how to act so I could
direct. I wanted to be a
control freak. I'm a serious grafter — I won't let go.'
Simon .says he always felt rather apologetic about
his handsome looks and felt it was luck which had
won him good roles and a film industry award. It was
at the age of 30, when he arrived in Hollywood, that
he finally felt confident in his talent as an actor, then a
director. But the first months there were spent
wrestling with the trauma of his marriage break-up to
Fiona. "There was a large hole and a lot of pain which
I tried to get over by throwing myself into work. It
was cathartic and became incredibly exciting through
great directing opportunities in the theatre.'
He fell in love with actress Linda Pearl and they
worked on several television and theatre productions
together. But Simon hit a crunch time while he was
directing her in the play A Doll's House. She was
captivated by the leading man while still in a relation-
ship with Simon. 'Linda is a great actress and a super
girl, but she had one problem and that is she loved
talent,' explains Simon matter-of-factly. 'So she loved
me while I was helpful and directed her. Then the next
"talent" came along. That hurt. That was tough. It
went from bad to worse because he went on to do a
film and I took his role in the play. Linda wanted me to
play it like him and thought I'd messed up her performance.
But I said: "I'm not going to copy him.'"
It was around this time that Simon's friendship with
Susan George deepened. They'd first met at a dinner
function in 1977 and became good friends. It was
Susan he turned to during his emotional turmoil with
Linda. 'Susie came to see the play and took me out to
dinner and she commiserated with me. I was strung-
out beyond belief through the work situation.' Six
months later, it was Simon's turn to offer a shoulder
for Susan to cry on when her relationship with her then
manager Derek Webster ended.
There was no immediate passion
between them, but through their
friendship they recognised a
meeting of minds. It wasn't
long after meeting that they
set up their own company,
Amy Productions.
'Susie's very driven,' he
says. 'She's hardworking.
She had extraordinary
maturity from a young age
because of her background
of having to support her
parents. We became great
mates. I never had a problem
with the fact she was a super-
star. I still am in some ways
Mr George and I've never
bothered about that.'
Today, apart from his role
in Casualty, he is also in the
process of setting up a new
business, Anglo Films International, which is producing
a string of Dick Francis TV thrillers, and establishing
a stud farm at his and Susan's Exmoor home,
complete with 114 acres. But his contract with
Casualty means that, over the next three years, he will
be returning to the farm only on his days off.
In the past, there has been little respite for both
Simon and Susan, from both work and domestic
commitments. 'When we lived in California we had
more time. When we came back to England, we
formed the film company and that caused an
enormous amount of pressure. Four years later I went
to Canada for work, then Susie's sister came to live
with us in 1987. Her dad died in 1992, then her mum
came to live with us until she died in 2000. So we
always had another member of the family with us
which was absolutely the right thing to do but, of
course, it put a strain on our relationship as there was
always somebody in the house.'
Similarly, time and career commitments overshadowed
plans to start a family. 'Susie and 1 wanted to
wait and have some time together, without paying too
much attention to the biological clock, then that didn't
work in the way we wanted it to when we wanted to
start a family. Then I was working away for three
years. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want children. But
it hasn't happened and so I'm philosophical about it.'
Susan has credited Simon as being the rock in her
life. He jokingly says she wouldn't say that any more
and there may be a hint of truth in that. 'I think she
finally thinks I've gone over the edge and I'm
barking,' he laughs. He admits that although he is
protective of Susan when it comes to work issues, he
is no longer romantic. 'I think I used to be. Now I've
got too much on my mind — it just got pushed back.
I've lost the plot slightly. It's perfectly possible to get
it back. But at the moment everything's coming to
a critical point — and I can be pretty volatile.'
The one area in his life which seems to be
progressing smoothly is his acting career which
he is relishing after a long stint directing. Far
from feeling his leading man days are over,
Simon argues: 'I made my career break at 25,
but I knew the dashing leading man role would
work against me at some point. There was also
a sadness after Death On The Nile because I knew
there wouldn't be many more roles like it for me.
'I don't regret any of my decisions. When
I came back from California in 1986 I
decided to quit acting because
I wanted to be in control and be
responsible if something did
or didn't work out. Now I've
that, I can use my
experience to go back to
acting. I am a slow bum
and I've always felt my
time as an actor and
leading man is now.'
