Born Malcolm Taylor to working-class parents in 1943, Leeds, England.
Malcolm McDowell changed his name at the age of 20 due to an existing
actor having the same name. After leaving school McDowell worked in
his father's Liverpool pub and as a coffee salesman - an experience
he would later call upon in O Lucky Man! (1973). He spent nearly two
years in extra roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company that led to
TV work and his first film, Ken
Loach's Poor
Cow (1967). Before McDowell's scene were cut from that film, it
had attracted the attention of director Lindsay
Anderson, who cast him as a rebellious schoolboy in the satire If...
(1968). Director Stanley
Kubrick was similarly impressed by McDowell's ability to project
working-class arrogance and cast him as the futuristic anti-authoritarian
Alex who undergoes aversion therapy in the controversial adaptation
of Anthony Burgess' A
Clockwork Orange (1971). In 1973 he linked up with Lindsay Anderson
once again to appear in another attack on corrupt British institutions,
O Lucky Man!
(1973).
Soon McDowell began to shed his earlier radical characterizations,
appearing as Captain Harry Flashman in Richard
Lester's rollicking romp, Royal Flash (1975), and as the charming
H.G. Wells in pursuit of Jack the Ripper in Time After Time (1979).
McDowell also played the sex-obsessed lead in the Penthouse version
of the life of one of Rome's most decadent emperors, Caligula (1979).
He appeared in the final instalment of Lindsay Anderson's satirical
institution trilogy with Britannia
Hospital (1982). Firmly ensconced in Los Angeles, McDowell's later
films were a mixture of poor choices, TV serials and sci-fi films including
Star Trek: Generations (1994) and Tank Girl (1995). He enjoyed a revival
of form with a magnificent portrayal of gangster's descent into old-age
and madness in Paul McGuigan's violent Gangster
No 1 (2000).
