Malcolm John Taylor (photo ©Georges Biard), this is his birth name, was born on June 13, 1943, in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

Malcolm McDowell’s father owned a pub and to give him the chance to have a better life sent him to a private college in Kent. The young Malcolm was good at school but decided he wanted to be an actor. Initially, he did various jobs, even at his father’s pub, and in 1964 joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. When he got into the Screen Actors Guild he chose the stage name of Malcolm McDowell taking his mother’s maiden surname to avoid being confused with a British actor named Malcolm Taylor.

Malcolm McDowell’s debut in cinema took place in 1967 in the movie “Poor Cow” and in 1968 he played an important role in the movie “If….”, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. McDowell became famous in the UK but the big worldwide fame came with “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick. The role of Alex DeLarge, however, marked his career for his importance and for his typecasting as a villain.

In 1973 Malcolm McDowell was also a writer besides being the star of “O Lucky Man!”, The sequel to “If…”. The third film in the trilogy directed by Lindsay Anderson, “Britannia Hospital”, was released in 1982.

At the end of the ’70s, British cinema went into a crisis. Malcolm McDowell, after being the protagonist of the Italian-American production “Caligula” (1979), moved to Hollywood. His first American movie was “Time After Time” (1979).

In the ’80s Malcolm McDowell worked in various movies but had many problems because of the abuse of alcohol and drugs. His hair turned prematurely gray and for this reason, he struggled to find roles in major productions. As a result, he participated in several movies of a level lower than he was used to.

In the ’90s, things went better for Malcolm McDowell, with roles in movies such as “Star Trek: Generations” (1994), which renewed his reputation as a supervillain since his character killed Captain Kirk. In 2008, he starred in the movie “Doomsday”, together with his nephew Alexander Siddig, a Star Trek veteran.

Malcolm McDowell had various roles in television productions of various nations such as the British “Our Friends in the North” in 1996, the Canadian “Lexx” in 1997 and the American “Heroes” in 2007.

In recent years he has also lent his voice to several animated productions, from “South Park” to “Metalocalypse” but also documentaries, videogames and radio programs.

In the course of his life, Malcolm McDowell has been married three times: from 1975 to 1980 with Margot Bennett, from 1980 to 1990 to actress Mary Steenburgen, with whom he had two children, and since 1991 with Kelley Kuhr, with whom he had three children. In 2012 he became a grandfather for the first time.

Malcolm McDowell has participated in over one hundred movies but his career was inevitably marked by his role in “A Clockwork Orange”. It’s really hard to tell if better management of his life would have allowed him to have more quality roles to be remembered for. In the end, he did it quite well.