Biography

Nigel Planer

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Overview

Born
February 22, 1953 · Westminster, London, England, UK
Birth name
Nigel George Planer
Height
6′ 3″ (1.91 m)

Biography

Nigel Planer was born in London and educated at the prestigious Westminster School. He then went to Sussex University to study African and Asian Studies. However, he left after a year and decided to pursue his love of theatre. He trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Planer performed at The Comedy Store in a double-act with Peter Richardson, which led to him becoming known to television audiences as Neil in The Young Ones (1982), the dim, unclean but lovable hippie with a fondness for Hawkwind, Marillion and Steve Hillage. The role's popularity even led to Planer releasing a cover of Traffic's 1967 single "Hole In My Shoe" in character as Neil. His cover, released in July 1984, reached number two on the UK singles chart and led to Planer making appearances on Top of the Pops (1964) and Australia's Countdown (1974). Planer also recorded an album called "Neil's Heavy Concept Album", although this failed to chart. In November 1984, Planer even made an appearance as Neil at the recording of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", where he was able to perform an impromptu acoustic version of "Rocking All Over The World" with Rick Parfitt and address Phil Collins as "Joan", which was captured by cameras recording behind-the-scenes footage for a documentary.

Since the 1980s, Planer has established himself as one of Britain's most sought-after comedy and character actors. In 1985, he appeared in Terry Gilliam's acclaimed and influential science-fiction film Brazil (1985). His other appearances have included Shine on Harvey Moon (1982), various roles in The Comic Strip Presents (1982), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), Blackadder the Third (1987) and starring as the title role of Nicholas Craig, the Naked Actor (1990). Planer has also been a successful theatre actor. He has been nominated for Olivier, Theatrical Management Association, What's On Stage and BAFTA awards.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

Family

Spouses
Parents

Self-verified on IMDbPro

Gender / Gender identity
Male

Trademarks

Gloomy, hangdog expression

Trivia

Planer was present, in character as Neil from The Young Ones (1982), at the recording of Band Aid's legendary single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in November 1984. He is captured in a making-of documentary performing an impromptu acoustic performance of "Rocking All Over The World" with Rick Parfitt from Status Quo, as well as addressing Phil Collins to his face as "Joan".
First job was as a gravedigger.
Formed a band with Anthony Head and Joanna Munroe, playing in wine bars around London.
Has narrated numerous Discworld audiobooks, voiced characters in the computer games Discworld II: Mortality Bytes! (1996) and Discworld Noir (1999), played roles in Hogfather (2006) and The Color of Magic (2008) and was also in the audience in Terry Pratchett's Richard Dimbleby Lecture on assisted death.
Comedy partner of Peter Richardson.

Quotes

[on his character in The Young Ones (1982)] There's a lot of me in Neil, obviously.
I'm old enough to remember the very first episode of Doctor Who (1963) ever. I was very scared, I was quite young. They went back to the dawn of man as I remember it, to caveman and Neanderthals. And as it landed, that was the end of the episode. And I remember ... the first time the TV scared me. Patrick Troughton was my favourite 'cos he brought that sense of humour to it.
[on The Young Ones (1982)] There's only 12 episodes of it, that's what's extraordinary. 12 episodes and it seems to have had a long-term effect. And at the time I was in a show called Shine on Harvey Moon (1982), the Neil thing with a wig over the top of an RAF haircut. There was one night, very, very cold, one Friday night, and Shine on Harvey Moon (1982) had, I think, 17 million viewers, and The Young Ones (1982) was on the Thursday and had maybe one and half million viewers, and yet if I walked out in the street nobody recognises me from Harvey Moon and everybody still says "Neil".
It's been a bad year for the gods taking away funny people. Mel Smith, Roger Lloyd Pack, Sam Kelly, our very own Rik [Rik Mayall]. It's been so bad, in fact, that now, when I see a photo of a funny person come up on telly or in the news, my first reaction is to think, "Oh no, not him/her too." What's going on?