Michael McShane talks The Bard. With Laura House and movies with Michael Snyder. Michael McShane is known to American and British audiences from the hit series Whose Line Is It Anyway? One of his larger TV roles was as Kramer‘s nemesis Franklin Delano Romanowski(FDR) on Seinfeld. He also had a cameo role as a doomed hypnotherapist in the film Office Spaceand played the friendly scientist, Professor Keenbean, in the 1994 movie Ri¢hie Ri¢h as well as Friar Tuck in “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”. He also co-starred with Sir John Geilgud, Emily Watson and Rosemary Harris in “A Summer’s Day Dream” for BBC “Performance” series.
In 1995, McShane starred as Harley in the BBC Screen Two TV Movie Crazy For A Kiss, about a young boy who is sent to a mental institution for teenagers in Kansas. Touted as being somewhat biographical of McShane’s childhood, the film has never been released on video or DVD. McShane appeared in Tom and Huck as Muff Potter and on Brotherly Love as the experienced but wisecracking mechanic, Lloyd.
He provided the voice for Cid in the video games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2.He appeared in Tower of Terror, a TV movie based on the Disney attraction as “Q” along withSteve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst. He had also appeared with Tony Slattery in the comedy sketch show S&M, starred with Sandi Toksvig in the sitcom The Big One, and provided voice work in the anime Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, as D’s sarcastic possessed left hand. He also provided the voice of Detective Twitch in the HBO animated series Spawn. Other voice work by McShane includes the characters of Tuck and Roll, the twin pill bugs in A Bug’s Life and the video game of the same name in 1998,he also provided the voice of Shalulu in Disney’s redub of Castle in the Sky. He also portrayed Baron Rakan Harkonnen in the 2001 strategy gameEmperor: Battle for Dune.
He also voiced Rabbit’s dastardly neighbour Wolf in Granada‘s Don’t Eat the Neighbours,Thunderpig, several characters in Clerks: The Animated Series, Hands in the Disney film Treasure Planet, a Mountain Man in King of the Hill, Quozmir in Dave the Barbarian and Rumpelstiltskin inHappily N’Ever After.
He also narrated several episodes of Animated Tales of the World. In 2003, McShane underwentgastric bypass surgery, losing a significant amount of weight. In 2005 he made an appearance as Dr. Phelps in Malcolm in the Middle. In 2006 he was in a production of Talk Radio directed byStewart Lee, with Stephen K. Amos, Phil Nichol. It was the first dramatic production in the Udderbelly, a performing space housed in a giant, inverted purple cow.
McShane appeared as the voice of Audrey II (as well as playing a number of peripheral characters) in the London revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Menier Chocolate Factory inSouthwark between December 2006 and February 2007. The show was a critical success and was sold out for the duration of its run, and Mike had been contracted to continue in the role following the show’s transfer to the West End at the Duke of York theatre. In September 2007 he took part in the British Library’s celebration of Jack Kerouac, reading excerpts from On The Road on the 50th Anniversary of its publication.
In 2008, McShane appeared as a guest performer in Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, a live improv show, and was asked to join the permanent company for three UK tours, and is still ongoing with the group. and as Dr. Vaabit in episode 5 of BBC’s Sitcom Lab Rats,[5] and has appeared twice on the BBC radio programme Just a Minute. In 2012, Mike wrote and starred in, along side Suki Webster, a play called “Mon Droit” based on the incident of the discovery of a body in St. James Park in London. The deceased was an American with a psychological condition known as De Clerembault’s Syndrome, and believed he was receiving messages from Queen Elizabeth the Second to come and be her paramour. It was received favorably, and Mike was nominated for Best Actor by The Stage magazine.
In September 2012, McShane appeared as the character Grayle in the television series Doctor Who in the series 7 episode “The Angels Take Manhattan.” In November of 2012, Mike starred as a CIA military consultant in the new BBC Three comedy series, “Bluestone 4-2”. In February of 2013, Mike created the role of Louis B. Mayer in the new musical “The Tailor Made Man” at The Arts Theatre in Londons’ West End, garnering rave reviews.
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