Mark Wing-Davey

The son of actor Peter Davey and actress Anna Wing,[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/mark.shtml Profile], bbc.co.uk; accessed 25 November 2015. Wing-Davey attended Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk before studying English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Footlights between 1967 and 1970.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dwid0171bwThe Making of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]'Cambridge tripos: results in Economics and English,' The Times, 1 July 1970.

In February 1968, he performed with Nick Drake at Lady Mitchell Hall, University Of Cambridge.{{Cite web |title=Nick Drake Setlist at Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge |url=https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/nick-drake/1968/lady-mitchell-hall-cambridge-england-bd9c1de.html |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=setlist.fm |language=en}} Wing-Davey played violin in the string section accompanying Drake on orchestral arrangements of his songs by Robert Kirby.{{Cite book |last=Morton Jack |first=Richard |title=Nick Drake The Life |publisher=John Murray |year=2023 |isbn=9781529308105 |pages=156}}

He had a featured role in the 1976 miniseries The Glittering Prizes.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073999 The Glittering Prizes] details, Internet Movie Database; accessed 25 November 2015. This role was later cited by Geoffrey PerkinsThe Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts. Douglas Adams, edited by Geoffrey Perkins. First US Printing, Harmony Books, New York, NY, USA. 1985. {{ISBN|0-517-55950-1}} as the likely reason for his being cast in arguably his most memorable role, that of the two-headed Galactic President, Zaphod Beeblebrox, in the radio and TV versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams. He played a barrister in some episodes of the ITV television series Crown Court, King Henry V in Episode 3 of James Burke's Connections,[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818337 Connections details], imdb.com; accessed 25 November 2015. a record company executive in the film Breaking Glass (1980) and an accountant in Absolutely Fabulous.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/mark.shtml Profile], bbc.co.uk; accessed 25 November 2015.

In the 1983 television production of Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad, Wing-Davey played Prince Hamlet in the re-enactment of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre's 1958 tour of Hamlet to Moscow.{{cite web |title=An Englishman Abroad (1983) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b712307b0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310011951/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b712307b0 |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 March 2016 |website=BFI |access-date=14 August 2023}} His theatre credits include James Stock's Star-Gazy Pie and Sauerkraut (Royal Court Theatre, 1995) and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, for which he won an Obie award.[http://americanrepertorytheater.org/person/mark-wing-davey Mark Wing-Davey profile], americanrepertorytheater.org; accessed 25 November 2015. He was the first Artistic Director of The Actors Centre, London.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

In 2003, he returned to the role of Zaphod Beeblebrox for the Above the Title production of the Hitchhiker's Guide Tertiary to Quintessential Phase radio dramas for BBC Radio 4. More recently he has provided the voice of Judge Ghis in the English version of Final Fantasy XII.{{cite web |title=Mark Wing Davey (visual voices guide) |url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Mark-Wing-Davey/ |website=Behind The Voice Actors |access-date=4 July 2023}} Wing-Davey directed the off-Broadway production of Unconditional by Brett C. Leonard at The Public Theater. It was put up by Philip Seymour Hoffman's theater group, LAByrinth Theater Company, of which he is a member. It opened in February 2008.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

In May 2008, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts announced that Wing-Davey had been named Chairman of, and arts professor in, the School's Graduate Acting Program.{{cite press release|url=https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2008/may/nyu_tisch_school_of_the_arts_nyu70.html|title=NYU Tisch School of the Arts Appoints Mark Wing-Davey Chair of Graduate Acting Program|publisher=New York University|date=12 May 2008|accessdate=29 January 2025}} He reprised the role of Zaphod Beeblebrox in 2012 for a live tour of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Also in 2012, Wing-Davey directed the world premiere of Brett C. Leonard's "Ninth and Joanie" in a LAByrinth Theater Company production.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} In 2013, he directed William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

In 1973, while working as a theatre company member in Sheffield, he met actress Anita Carey. The two began living together the following year after they appeared in a production together. They got married in 2002. The pair had two children together. Carey died in 2023.{{cite news |last1=Hayward |first1=Anthony |title=Anita Carey obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/aug/06/anita-carey-obituary |access-date=6 August 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=6 August 2023}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0934983|name=Mark Wing-Davey}}
• [https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/grad-acting/104306630 Profile] at Tisch School of the Arts

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Category:1948 births

Category:Living people

Category:English male film actors

Category:English male comedians

Category:English male radio actors

Category:English male stage actors

Category:English male television actors

Category:English male voice actors

Category:British expatriate male actors in the United States

Category:Male actors from London

Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Category:Tisch School of the Arts faculty

Category:Comedians from London