Simon Phillip Hugh Callow CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in A Room with a View (1985), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). He has also starred in Amadeus (1984), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Victoria & Abdul (2017). His television work includes Chance in a Million (1984) and Outlander (2014).
Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, south London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. Callow was a student at the London Oratory School in west Brompton, and then went on to study briefly at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he was active in the Gay liberation movement. He gave up his degree course after a year to take a three-year acting course at the Drama Centre London.
Callow's immersion in the theatre began after he wrote a fan letter to Sir Laurence Olivier, the artistic director of the National Theatre, and received a response suggesting he join their box-office staff. While watching actors rehearse, he realised he wanted to act.

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