Christopher Biggins (born 16 December 1948) is an English actor and television personality. He became widely known for his roles in television series such as Porridge, Poldark and I, Claudius in the 1970s. He later became known for making frequent appearances as a celebrity on television, which included winning the 2007 series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and has performed frequently in pantomime.
Early life
Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of William and Pamela Biggins. He was brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, attended St Probus school, where he took elocution lessons, and participated in local drama groups. His first lead stage role was at the age of 17 in a Stage '65 production of Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui, leading to work with a local repertory theatre company. He also studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School at the same time as Jeremy Irons.
Career
Television
One of Biggins' earliest roles was on Upstairs, Downstairs in Series 2, as the character Mr. Donaldson in the episode "An Object of Value" (1972). He appeared as the regular character Lukewarm in the situation comedy Porridge (1974–1977) starring Ronnie Barker. Other comedy shows he appeared in include Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973) and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973, 1978).
He played the Roman emperor Nero in the BBC's version of I, Claudius (1976), dramatised from the novels by Robert Graves, having been selected for the role partly on the strength of a television commercial for Heineken in which he had played Nero presiding over the games. He appeared in the BBC's Poldark (1977) as the Reverend Osborne Whitworth, in Minder in the episode "The Bounty Hunter" (1979) and the TV miniseries Masada (1981).
On children's television, he had a regular role as department store owner Adam Painting in the children's television programme Rentaghost (1978–1983) and also played Reverend Whiting in Southern Television's Brendon Chase, produced in 1980. He had a leading role in The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997) and a supporting role as villainous antique dealer, Mr. Benger, in the Look and Read serial "Dark Towers" (1981).
Biggins' co-hosting of Surprise Surprise and hosting children's game show On Safari (1982–1984) for TVS, led to his being typecast as a "bubbly personality". He was asked in 2005 if he resented this situation replying: