- Born
- Birth nameMichael Anthony Claudio Wincott
- Height1.79 m
- Widely respected among peers for his fearless commitment, Michael Anthony Claudio Wincott was born to an English father and Italian mother in Scarborough, a working class suburb of Toronto. His career began fortuitously in 1976 at the CBC, cast by Deidre Bowen, Clare Walker and director Mike Newell as the troubled protagonist, Cole Buckley, opposite Kate Reid in writer Rochelle Kosar's Earthbound. He continued his novitiate in the city's leading contemporary theaters, working with Ken Gass at Factory Theatre Lab, Bill Glassco at The Tarragon Theatre and William Lane at Toronto Free Theatre. Supported by grants from The Ontario Arts Council and The Canada Council of The Arts, he moved to New York City to study on a full scholarship at The Juilliard School where he performed, among other roles, Teddy in Mark Medoff's When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?, Flute in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Soranzo in John Ford's T'is Pity She's A Whore and Tilden in the school's much-lauded first production of a Sam Shepard play, Buried Child. In the spring following graduation, he began a rewarding relationship with Joseph Papp's Public Theater both on and off Broadway with his creation of the role of Kent in Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio. He last appeared onstage in New York opposite John Malkovich, originating the role of Stubbs in Shepard's States of Shock. He has worked with some of cinema's most gifted reprobates, including Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Julian Schnabel, Gerard Depardieu, Jim Jarmusch, Ridley Scott, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Dennis Hopper, Michael Cimino, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, John Hurt, Javier Bardem, Benicio Del Toro, Terrence Malick and Oliver Stone. Among those he hasn't, he has expressed a wish to work with the great French actress, Isabelle Huppert. "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion" Albert Camus- IMDb mini biography by: edith grove
- ParentsWilliam WincottLucia Wincott
- RelativesJeff Wincott(Sibling)
- Deeply rasping voice
- Frequently cast by Julian Schnabel.
- He plays a multitude of instruments including drums, harmonica, guitar and piano.
- He is known for his apathetic stance on celebrity and the ideals of Hollywood, often stating that he holds art in higher regard than money.
- Has appeared in two films based on Alexandre Dumas' works: Les trois mousquetaires (1993) and La vengeance de Monte Cristo (2002).
- The Juilliard School (Drama Division), 1982-1986 (graduated).
- Of English and Italian descent.
- [about his working relationship with Anthony Hopkins on Hitchcock (2012) ] He's been just a remarkable human being and I think, once again in my experience, that the remarkably talented are also... it's because they are remarkable people.
- It's not what's underfoot but in your veins. My father was a working man. He did all manner of things to house and feed his wife and three boys: sold encyclopedias, insurance, was a steamfitter. One day, at thirty-four years of age, on a construction site in twenty below zero, he decided to change his life. He labored by day and, two or three nights a week, placed his safety helmet in a locker at a University. Two degrees later, he became a teacher. He taught me determination and the value of literature and humour. My mother spent Sundays making ravioli by hand. She taught me patience, refinement and the value of one's passions. Of the three sons, I was the only one allowed into the kitchen. She wasn't fond of people around her there. For her it was a sacred place, spending hours rolling the dough, mixing the filling, making the circles of pasta with the open end of a cup. When we'd, at last, sit at the table, the first mouthful seemed like proof of the divine. Sundays were sublime.
- It's good to dress well. Elegance expresses greater expectations of life. The current culture of slovenliness conveys a spiritual and intellectual surrender.
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