Understanding Damian Lewis; Another American Translation
Damian Lewis was born on February 11, 1971 in St. Johns Wood England. He lived with his parents and his two brothers and a sister in the City of Westminster for the early part of his life. He actually lived on Abbey Road. Yes, I do mean the very same road that was made famous by the Beatles in a song and album sharing the name.
At a young age Damian was sent away to an exclusive
co-ed boarding school called Ashdown House in Sussex.
And by exclusive, I mean, a quick google shows that
it'd be quite cost prohibitive to the average Joe.
Seriously. Wow.
From here Damian hopped on over to another very
exclusive stopover for the children of the titled and
wealthy. Damian Lewis attended Eton College. I am
seeing the name of this place a lot lately as it
turned out another favorite actor of mine. It seems
that both Hugh Laurie and Damian Lewis did their time
at Eton College. It's got lots of history, as
do most things English. Intellectually you know that
England is "old" and that America is "not". But,
until you do something like innocently check the names of past
student's and spot the name of saints on the list a brain really does not
even BEGIN to fathom the breadth of the chasm. In
fact I vote England just retire the word "old"
altogether. It's just redundant. Just say it's
English and we'll check the guest list to see if any
of the apostles attended the ribbon cutting.
To learn more about Eton College or the actor Hugh Laurie:
The Original Hugh Laurie Site
He seems to have always been an actor. He formed
his own theater company at 16 years of age and worked
in London and traveled to Africa. In the early 90's
he studied at Guildhall School of Music and spent a
lot of time on stage including a lot of work for the
Royal Shakespeare Company. It was while on stage that
Steven Spielberg spotted him and began plotting to
make a Richard Winters out of him. He was cast in
that role in the award winning HBO/BBC mini-series
Band of Brothers. He played the part of an American
military man to perfection.
Damian Lewis has been married to actress Helen
McCrory since July 4, 2007 and together they have two
children. They have a daughter named Manon, born in
September of 2006 and a brand new son named Gulliver
born in November of 2007.
Damian now takes the role of Charlie Crews on the
NBC show Life. He plays a cop who was falsely accused
and imprisoned for murder. A slick lawyer lady and
DNA exonerate him and now he's back on the force to
the dismay of some of his fellow cops. He is again
playing a rather flawless American. In this role he
gets to play around with a lot of goofball quirks,
such as a serious passion for fruit, and Zen-like
philosophies apparently brought on by his time spent
in prison. He is amusing and fascinating to watch with
his robotic and straight man delivery. It's a kind of
Star Trek Next Gen. Data meets Leslie Nielsen Naked
Gun with a serious twist sort of thing. He's like a
21st century Holmes with a personal pineapple instead
of a pipe. He is always watching and he seems to miss
nothing. In his non- emotive way he somehow manages
to express great empathy. You can see him tamping down
on emotion of his own as it flickers briefly and then
fades quietly beneath his surface. It's a great treat
to watch! There is a definite child like quality and
humor to his character even amidst some serious
issues.
Damian Lewis does an
outstanding job in his new role. It is rather like
another favorite hidden Brit series of mine. I would
not watch House without Hugh Laurie at the helm, and I
wouldn't watch Life without Damian Lewis. Seriously,
Life may not sound like your kind of show but I think
it's gonna hook a whole slew of skeptics mainly by
dint of Lewis. He is just fascinating to watch and a
talent of high order. If you haven't checked him out,
well, you just gotta.