- Born
- Birth nameMichael David Prince
- Height6′ 1″ (1.86 m)
- Michael Praed was born in Berkeley, England to Derrick and Kay Prince, but spent his early years in Iran because his father worked as an accountant for a petroleum company. Michael was sent back to England for a public school education, which he did not enjoy. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As there was already a "Michael Prince" listed in Equity, Michael chose the surname "Praed" from the phone book. He began his career in repertory theatre before moving on to roles in London's West End.
Praed's first big break occurred in playing in Joseph Papp's 1982 revival of "The Pirates of Penzance" with Tim Curry in the West End. The producers of "Robin of Sherwood" spotted Praed and cast him as Robin Hood. The BAFTA winning 'Robin of Sherwood' was a huge hit. After two successful seasons as Robin, Praed was lured to Broadway to star in "The Three Musketeers" with Brent Spiner and Chuck Wagner. His Broadway adventure led to him being cast in 1985 as Prince Michael of Moldavia in Aaron Spelling's prime time soap "Dynasty".
After a stint on "Dynasty", Praed starred in the films "Nightflyers", "Writer's Block", and 'Son of Darkness: To Die For II' . Between films, Michael Praed worked on writing and recording music in his own studio.
At the end of 1991, Praed left Los Angeles for the lead in an Irish production of "Carousel". Immediately following the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, he found himself back in London playing the lead in the West End production of "Aspects of Love" by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The British televised mini-series, "Riders" followed, based on the best-selling novel by Jilly Cooper. His next stage endeavor was Harold Pinter's terse, tense drama "The Caretaker". In 1994 he starred opposite Susannah York in the drama "September Tide" in the West End.
Michael Praed then dived into the role of the devious, womanizing Gary in the comedy film "Staggered", Martin Clunes' first attempt at directing in 1994. Subsequently, he accepted the regular role in the British television series, 'Crown Prosecutor' as Marty James.
In 1995, he returned once again to the West End as a lead, this time opposite Rachel Weisz in Noel Coward's "Design for Living". The role was noteworthy in that Praed was brought as a replacement in the last two weeks of the run and learned the massive three act play over a single weekend.
The next year (spanning 1996 to 1997) was spent as the lead in Barry Manilow's "Copacabana: The Musical", on its first national tour of Britain.
He made a cameo as the Hitman in the film "Darkness Falls" with "Robin of Sherwood" comrade Ray Winstone before heading for North America. Once in the western hemisphere, Praed took the regular role of the Victorian aristocrat Phileas Fogg in the Canadian television series 'The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne' (2000). Like "Robin of Sherwood", this television series developed a devoted following.
An appearance as The Queen in "9 Dead Gay Guys" in 2002 marked another venture into film. The comedy has won both pans and fans. Shunned at Cannes, the film won the Montreal Comedy Festival Comedia Award, as well as the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Dublin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Switching gears, his next appearance was in Susan Stroman's Tony Award winning musical "Contact" with Leigh Zimmerman back in London's West End (2003). Praed and Zimmerman were teamed up again in Carl Djerassi's comedy "Three on a Couch" at the highly regarded fringe theatre, the King's Head, in 2004.
Other stage roles have been as Bernard Kersal in Somerset Maugham's "The Constant Wife" (UK tour 2003), as F Scott Fitzgerald in the musical "Beautiful and Damned" (West End 2004), as Paul Sheldon in "Misery" with Susan Penhaligon (again at The King's Head Theatre, 2006), as hare-brained Tom Madison in Brian Stewart's "Killing Castro" (UK tour 2006), as cynical Neil in the debut of Derek Lister's "Blue on Blue" (2006), and as Milo Tindle with Simon MacCorkindale as Andrew in Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" (UK tour 2008).
Periodically, Praed makes appearances on episodic television and talk shows.
Along with his acting, Praed has also recorded a number of narrations through the years, ranging from the erotic classic "Venus in Furs" by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (who gave "masochism" his name) to works of children's author Caroline Lawrence. In 2006, Praed became a co-narrator on the Oneword Radio series "Mills & Boon at the Weekend".
In 2007, Praed was a cast member of the Blake's 7 audio adventure 'Rebel' for B7 Media. The production was the result of a landmark agreement establishing performance rights and payment schedules for Equity members participating in internet podcasts.
The 2007 airing of a Hindenburg docudrama co-produced by the UK's Channel Four International, Germany's Zusammenarbeit and USA's Smithsonian Museum, marked Michael Praed's return to the television screen. He portrayed passenger Nelson Morris in a reexamination of the German zeppelin's spectacular explosion over New Jersey on the eve of World War II.
Michael Praed has also been the regular narrator of BBC TV's award winning "Timewatch" documentary series for the last several years (2003-08).
- IMDb mini biography by: ChrisRHood@aol.com and Sharon Wells albion@genie.geis.com, webmaster@michael-praed.com
- SpousesJosefina Gabrielle(2014 - present)Karen Landau(November 1994 - 2009) (divorced, 2 children)
- He is kept busy doing audio books and seems to be in demand, owing to his distinctive vocal talents.
- He has a son, Gabriel, born 1994 and a daughter, Frankie, born 1996. The family lives in London, where Michael may be seen in various West End productions, or is kept busy doing narration work and audio books.
- He has the lead role in the West End musical, "The Beautiful And The Damned", which charts the lives of F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.
The play runs till mid-August 2004. - Used to have a crippling fear of flying. To overcome his fear, he took flying lessons and became a pilot.
- He will tour Britain in a stage performance of 'The Constant Wife' from late August till early December.
- [on how he got the role of Robin Hood] Kip Richard Carpenter and Paul Knight came to see the show I was doing [the London revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance - I think because they wanted to see Cats and they couldn't get in. I suppose I was lucky in that I was very well cast in Pirates, so they saw me in a good light, as it were. At that time, I had long hair, which was for an actor unusual. I'd learned to fence when I was very young and am quite comfortable around swords - maybe that helped. They had an idea of what they wanted their leading man to look like, and I think I must have fit a version of what they were looking for. It's a question you don't really ask: 'Why did you pick me?' I never really had an official audition for them. They took me out for lunch and it was very low-key. I remember that they talked about this project, but it was so unlike the typical audition, where you go and you have a tie and you sit on a seat, and there's a whole bunch of faces behind a desk firing questions at you. It's a horrible process, the audition, because it's just very difficult to be normal. But at lunch, it was very quote-unquote normal. They explained to me what they were attempting with this Robin Hood. They wanted to do a Magnificent Seven, a big buddy picture, with all these very different-looking people. It sounded really exciting to me, and then the offer came through.
- [on Jason Connery taking over the role of Robin Hood]: It's much harder for someone to take over a role. You get compared to what the other person did, and that's really unfair. Because they're their own person, doing it their own way. But you can't get that elephant out of the room.
- The thing about Robin of Sherwood (1984), is it was the right show at the right time. Why was it such a success? It all comes down principally to Richard Carpenter. And we helped a bit.
- I now know what it feels like as a young man to open on Broadway. I'll never forget, after opening night, sitting in my dressing room and taking it in. This mayhem that we'd been through - a producer died during rehearsals, they fired a director. Crazy shit happened on that show. I made my entrance from the back of the stalls... on a horse. It was crazy. And I remember thinking, whatever happens, it's been fun.
- When I was young, about 16 or 17, I asked a very wise old lady, 'If you could pass on something to my generation, what would that be?' And she fixed me with her beautiful blue eyes - I can see her now, with her intense stare - and she grabbed my arm and held onto it, and she said, 'Michael, in your lifetime, you're going to have three opportunities. Picture them as a bird with feathers. And what you must do is grab onto those feathers, and hold on for dear life, regardless of what happens. And you'll know. You'll know.'
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