Wikipedia: Callow was born in Streatham, London, England, UK, the son of Yvonne Mary (nee Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of English and French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. He was brought up Roman Catholic.Callow attended the London Oratory School and then went on to study at Queen's University Belfast ('Queen's') in Northern Ireland before giving up his degree course to go into acting 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. It was while watching actors rehearse that he realised he wanted to act.Callow made his stage debut in 1973, appearing in The Thrie Estates at the Assembly Rooms Theatre, Edinburgh. In the early 1970s he joined the Gay Sweatshop theatre company and performed in Martin Sherman's critically acclaimed Passing By. In 1977 he took various parts in the Joint Stock Theatre Company's production of Epsom Downs and in 1979 he starred in Snoo Wilson's The Soul of the White Ant at the Soho Poly.He made his first film appearance, as Schikaneder, in Amadeus in 1984 (having played Mozart in the original stage production at the Royal National Theatre in 1979). His first television role was in Carry On Laughing episode "Orgy and Bess", in 1975, but it was apparently cut from the final print. He starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy, Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him a wider audience than his many critically acclaimed stage appearances.Callow is one of the most prominent gay actors in Britain, listed 28th in the Independent's 2007 listing of the most influential gay men and women in the UK.] In 1999 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting. For some time, Callow lived with director Daniel Kramer. They shared a house in Camden, North London, but have now ended their relationship. He was one of the rst actors publicly to declare his homosexuality, doing so in his 1984 book Being An Actor. (In another, he revealed his platonic relationship with the theatrical agent Peggy Ramsay who was 40 years his senior.) -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner. https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/893144 Accessed January 22, 2025.