David Meyer

Between August 1972 and 24 November 1972 and 23 January 1973 and August 1973, David Meyer played a Fairy in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with his twin brother Anthony Meyer playing the role until 13 January 1973. The tour included performances at the Aldwych Theatre in London.{{cite web|url=https://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/mnd197209|title=A Midsummer Night's Dream|publisher=collections.shakespeare.org.uk|access-date=2 September 2022}} In October 1974, Meyer starred in the Lindsay Kemp Broadway play Flowers at the Biltmore Theatre in New York City.{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/flowers-3474#People|title=Flowers-Broadway Special|publisher=Internet Broadway Database|access-date=2 September 2022}} In August 1975 he played Wilf in a Kevin Billington production of Bloody Neighbours at the ICA Theatre in London, a role which Charles Lewsen in The Times described as "hypnotically fascinating".The Times, 4 October 1975, p.22

In 1976 Meyer and his twin appeared in the Celestrino Coronado film adaption of Shakespeare's Hamlet, portraying Hamlet and Laertes.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nothdtzMTRgC&dq=David+Meyer+Hamlet+1976&pg=PA134|title=A Companion to Shakespeare's Works, Volume I: The Tragedies |author=Richard Dutton |author2=Jean E. Howard|publisher=Wiley|year= 2008|page=134|isbn=978-0-470-99727-7 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz-Cb8ZfnwoC&dq=David+Meyer+Hamlet+1976&pg=PA19|author=Wells, Stanley|title=Shakespeare Survey|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=19|year=2002|isbn=978-0-521-52377-6 }} The Shakespeare scholar and author Stephen M. Buhler states that director Coronado had "done a wildly experimental film essay on Hamlet in 1976, stressing the internal divisions and sexual conflicts within the title character and the language he employs: two actors, Anthony and David Meyer."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=velE2B0QnFUC&dq=David+Meyer+Shakespeare&pg=PA147|author=Buhler, Stephen M.|title=Shakespeare in the Cinema: Ocular Proof|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=2012|page=147|isbn=978-0-7914-8975-8 }}

In 1978, the twin brothers portrayed the grown up characters of twins Andrew and Étienne and sons of William Shatner's character in the Canadian film The Third Walker, a film about two families in Cape Breton Island whose infant sons are mistakenly switched at birth by the hospital."Film Reviews: T.C. McLuhan's The Third Walker". Cinema Canada, June 1978. pp. 38-39. The film garnered three Canadian Film Award nominations at the 29th Canadian Film Awards."Four films nominated for Etrogs". The Globe and Mail, 24 August 1978.

David Meyer also played the character of Henry Ingram in the Philip Mackie BBC television mini series An Englishman's Castle alongside actors such as Kenneth More and Nigel Havers.TV Guide (1980), Triangle Productions, p.5. In 1979, Meyer had another lead role playing Ferdinand opposite Peter Bull as Alonso, King of Naples in the Derek Jarman film The Tempest.{{cite book |author=Summar West |author2=Katherine Penny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MndmDwAAQBAJ&dq=David+Meyer+Peter+Bull+The+Tempest+Derek+Jarman&pg=PA104|title=The Tempest|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing|year=2016|page=104| isbn=978-1-5026-2339-3 }}{{cite book|author=Hopkins, Lisa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=69J8cMcpmC4C&dq=David+Meyer+Ferdinand+Peter+Bull+The+Tempest+Derek+Jarman&pg=PR6|title=Screen Adaptations:The Tempest|publisher=A&C Black|year=2008|page=6| isbn=978-0-7136-7910-6 }}

In 1982, Meyer and his brother played the Poulencs in Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlAqSYFos88C&dq=David+Anthony+Meyer+The+Draughtsman%27s+Contract&pg=PA210|author=Keesey, Doug|title=The Films of Peter Greenaway|publisher=McFarland|page=210|year=2015|isbn=978-0-7864-8100-2 }} Meyer played the assassin Mischka, a circus performer with a talent for knife throwing alongside his twin brother (Grischka) in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy.{{cite web|url=https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/villains/mischka_grischska.php3|title=Mischka and Grischska |publisher=Mi6-hq.com|access-date=1 September 2022}} He was credited as "Twin One".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMsqAQAAIAAJ&q=David+Anthony+Meyer+octopussy+circus|title=Kiss Kiss Bang Bang|publisher=Batsford|year=1997|page=155|isbn=978-0-7134-8182-2 }} In 1985, Meyer appeared as Lysander in another Celestrino Coronado adaptation, in a television film production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mkPEAAAQBAJ&dq=David+Meyer+A+Midsummer+Night%27s+Dream+1985+lysander&pg=PA940|title=The British Film Catalogue|editor=Gifford, Denis|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2018|page=940|isbn=978-1-317-83702-2 }} He also portrayed the roles of Moth and Demetrius later in his career in the same play in Peter Brook stage productions.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2oRUsOp6FAC&dq=David+Meyer+actor&pg=PA447|author=Kehler, Dorothea|title=A Midsummer Night's Dream|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2012|page=447|isbn=978-1-135-88667-7 }} David and his brother turned down an opportunity to play Siamese twins in a performance at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool in the mid-1980s.{{cite news|title=Which Twin is Tony?|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2 February 1985|page=13}}

In 1989, Meyer reunited with director Derek Jarman, playing a minor role as a businessman in his 1989 film War Requiem in a cast which included Laurence Olivier, Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lg0IAQAAMAAJ&q=David+Meyer+War+requiem+Derek+Jarman+olivier+swinton+sean+bean|title=Film Review|publisher=W. H. Allen|year=1989|page=125|isbn=978-1-85227-106-0 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1c7eCwAAQBAJ&dq=David+Meyer+War+requiem+Derek+Jarman+olivier+swinton+sean+bean&pg=PA974|title=The British Film Catalogue|editor=Gifford, Denis|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2018|page=974|isbn=978-1-317-74063-6 }} He portrayed the doctor Frederick Treves alongside David Moylan as Joseph Merrick in Phillip Grout's directed play The Elephant Man at the Boulevard Theatre. Gerald van Werson, reviewing for The Stage, stated that Meyer "steals the show", playing the doctor with "fastidious zeal and self-doubt".BOULEVARD: The Elephant Man, The Stage, 29 September 1989, p. 14.

In 1992, Meyer appeared as a doctor in the TV series Inspector Morse.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RW6_BgAAQBAJ&dq=David+Meyer+inspector+morse+dr&pg=PT383|author=Bishop, David|title=The Complete Inspector Morse|publisher=Titan|page=383|year=2011|isbn=978-0-85768-955-9 }} In 1996, Meyer portrayed Alonso on stage in The Tempest.Shakespeare Quarterly Vol. 48, No. 5, 1996 (1997), Oxford University Press, pp. 753-761.

In 1997, Meyer portrayed a Gestapo man opposite Clive Owen and Ian McKellen in Sean Mathias's British-Japanese drama film Bent, based on the 1979 play of the same name by Martin Sherman.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1JSRAAAAIAAJ&q=David+Meyer+sean+matthias+gestapo+bent+clive+owen|title=Sight and Sound, Volume 8, Issues 1-6|publisher=British Film Institute|page=39|date=1998}} The film is about the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany after the murder of SA leader Ernst Röhm on the Night of the Long Knives.{{cite book|title=Le ragioni di un silenzio|editor-first=Circolo|editor-last=Pink|publisher=Ombre corte|language=Italian|page=46|year=2002}}

Meyer later joined the Shakespeare's Globe. In 2008, he played the role of the nervous stage manager in Richard Jones's Pagliacci at the London Coliseum. In 2011 he portrayed Sir Isaac Newton, touring the US and appearing at the Royal Society.{{cite web|url=https://physicsworld.com/a/newtons-three-body-problem/|title=Newton's Three Body Problem|publisher=Physicsworld.com|date=28 March 2011|access-date=1 September 2022}} In his review of the play for Nature, writer Philip Ball stated that the Meyer was one of three actors, including a woman, to portray Isaac Newton at different points in his life.Ball, Philip – [https://www.nature.com/articles/472168a.pdf?origin=ppub Newton's Rainbow], Nature, Volume 472, 14 April 2011., p. 168.

In 2015 he played Danny's (Ben Whishaw)'s father in the series London Spy. In 2017, Meyer played Saturn in James Wallace's production of The Woman in the Moon at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.{{cite web|url=https://beforeshakespeare.com/2017/12/14/the-woman-in-the-moon-interviews-with-the-cast/|title=The Woman in the Moon: Interviews with the Cast|publisher=Beforeshakespeare.com|date=14 December 2017|access-date=2 September 2022}} For his performance as Ed in Entertaining Mr Sloane, he was awarded the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award for his performance.{{cite web|url=https://www.1984pm.com/david-meyer|title=David Meyer|publisher=1984 Personal Management|access-date=2 September 2022}}

{{div col}}

• Hamlet (1976) – Hamlet / Laertes
• An Englishman's Castle (1978, TV Mini-Series) – Henry Ingram
• The Third Walker (1978) – Andrew Maclean
• The Tempest (1979) – Ferdinand, his son
• Parsifal (1982) – 3rd Squire
• The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) – The Poulencs
• Octopussy (1983) – Mischka
• State of Wonder (1984) – Captain Benson
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1985, TV Movie) – Lysander
• War Requiem (1989) – Businessman
• Snakes and Ladders (1989, TV Series) – Ronald
• Inspector Morse (1992, TV Series) – Dr. Hallett
• The Bill (1994, TV Series) – Terry Bird
• Bent (1997) – Gestapo man
• The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003) – Lame Man
• London Spy (2015) – Danny's Father
• Institute (2020, TV Movie) – Karl's Father

{{div col end}}

• The Big Ugly (2020, TV Movie) – hillbilly leader

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0583074 |name=David Meyer}}
• {{IBDB name|99767}}
• [https://theatricalia.com/person/41x/david-meyer David Meyer] at Theatricalia

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Category:1947 births

Category:English male film actors

Category:English male Shakespearean actors

Category:English male television actors

Category:English stage actors

Category:English twins

Category:Living people

Category:Male actors from Watford