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Peter McNamara

Known For
Acting

Known Credits
32

Gender
Male

Birthday
Birthday not available

Place of Birth
Edmonton, Middlesex, England, UK

Peter McNamara

Biography

Peter McNamara, born in London and attended the National Youth Theatre and trained at LAMDA. Possibly best known as Ralph Passmore, the nemesis of Tucker Jenkin's in Tucker's Luck (1983), the spin off series of Phil Redmond's Grange Hill (1978). Peter was known for his fantastic singing voice in many theatre musical productions including South Pacific. He started out his long list of jobs as a supporting artist, working on such films as Quadrophenia (1979), The Shining (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Star Wars (1977), before being cast in Grange Hill (1978). He worked frequently with Christopher Menaul who cast him as a Chelsea skinhead Rory in The Treatment (1984) and previously Tucker's Luck (1983). He became a well respected character actor in a career that eventually spanned four decades, he was often called upon to play the menacing hard-man and when Denzel Washington came to London to work on For Queen & Country (1988), Peter was asked to show him around and guide him on the Cockney accent. In 1990, Peter starred as Kenno in the controversial football hooligan film, Arrivederci Millwall (1990), one of the first films to tackle that subject. He went onto play Jimmy Cadogan in the children's TV series; Oasis (1993) in 1993 and a spot on 99-1 (1994) which reunited him with Arrivederci Millwall (1990) director Charles McDougall. Despite his hard-man roles Peter often played in a lot of comedy TV shows including Desmond's (1989) and Harry Enfield and Chums (1994). In 1995, he appeared in Funny Bones (1995) with Lee Evans, Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt and Oliver Reed. Then in 1996 he was seen in the series No Bananas (1996) as DS Howard. He was in both the film and TV series of London's Burning (1988) and played recurring roles in numerous other British TV shows including Thief Takers (1995), The Bill (1984), Trial & Retribution (1997), Silent Witness (1996) and Casualty (1986). In 2002, he appeared as Frederick Michael Argyle in The Gathering (2002) where he acted alongside Christina Ricci, Ioan Gruffudd and Stephen Dillane. In 2004, he appeared in an extraordinary experimental drama documentary called Pissed on the Job (2004), Peter played a heavy drinker who was also a teacher, the film which can be seen online is a great example of his work, his subtle performance is extremely realistic in this damning piece about the dangers of alcohol. He showed up as a vampire drug dealer in the film Dead Cert (2010) in 2010 and had been working on some low budget films in the latter years of his career that sadly never got released due to budget and various technical issues. His last credit Dinklebrain (2012) was not the last film he made, rumour has it that he was very much actively making some independent short films, which hopefully will emerge in the near future. Sadly, Peter McNamara died in May 2018 at the age of 57 and he was cremated at Enfield Crematorium on 14th June 2018, a week after what would have been his 58th birthday.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Shona M

Known For

Acting

2019Break Clauseas Phil
2010Dead Certas The Chemist
2004When I'm Sixty-Fouras Aitch
2004Pissed on the Jobas Teacher
2003The Gatheringas Frederick Michael Argyle
2001Lucky Breakas Ward
2000Thin Iceas Frank Jerome
1999Tube Talesas Roy (segment "Grasshopper")
1997Trial & Retributionas Tom Harris
1997Shooting Fishas Geoff
1996Madsonas Barry Rowe
1995Funny Bonesas Canavan
1994Wycliffeas Donald Ferris
199499-1as DC Wallis
1993Oasisas Jimmy Cadogan
1992A Touch of Frostas Trevor Cooper
1992Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robberyas Undercover Policeman
1992Civviesas Colin
1991Smack and Thistleas Ben
1990Arrivederci Millwallas Kenno
1988For Queen & Countryas Pete
1986London's Burning: The Movieas Whitey
1986Casualtyas Terry Cooper
1985Tandoori Nightsas Angry Diner
1985Lytton's Diaryas Derek
1984The Treatmentas Rory
1984Lassiteras German Guard
1983Tucker's Luckas Ralph Passmore
1980The Long Good Fridayas Young Man in Pub (uncredited)
1980The Shiningas Dinner Guest (uncredited)
1979Quadropheniaas Mod (uncredited)
1978Grange Hillas Sixth Former

Production