profile

    Peter McNamara

    Peter McNamara, born in London and attended the National Youth Theatre and trained at LAMDA. Possibly best known as Ralph Passmore, the nemesis of Tucker Jenkin's in Tucker's Luck (1983), the spin off series of Phil Redmond's Grange Hill (1978). Peter was known for his fantastic singing voice in many theatre musical productions including South Pacific. He started out his long list of jobs as a supporting artist, working on such films as Quadrophenia (1979), The Shining (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Star Wars (1977), before being cast in Grange Hill (1978). He worked frequently with Christopher Menaul who cast him as a Chelsea skinhead Rory in The Treatment (1984) and previously Tucker's Luck (1983). He became a well respected character actor in a career that eventually spanned four decades, he was often called upon to play the menacing hard-man and when Denzel Washington came to London to work on For Queen & Country (1988), Peter was asked to show him around and guide him on the Cockney accent. In 1990, Peter starred as Kenno in the controversial football hooligan film, Arrivederci Millwall (1990), one of the first films to tackle that subject. He went onto play Jimmy Cadogan in the children's TV series; Oasis (1993) in 1993 and a spot on 99-1 (1994) which reunited him with Arrivederci Millwall (1990) director Charles McDougall. Despite his hard-man roles Peter often played in a lot of comedy TV shows including Desmond's (1989) and Harry Enfield and Chums (1994). In 1995, he appeared in Funny Bones (1995) with Lee Evans, Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt and Oliver Reed. Then in 1996 he was seen in the series No Bananas (1996) as DS Howard. He was in both the film and TV series of London's Burning (1988) and played recurring roles in numerous other British TV shows including Thief Takers (1995), The Bill (1984), Trial & Retribution (1997), Silent Witness (1996) and Casualty (1986). In 2002, he appeared as Frederick Michael Argyle in The Gathering (2002) where he acted alongside Christina Ricci, Ioan Gruffudd and Stephen Dillane. In 2004, he appeared in an extraordinary experimental drama documentary called Pissed on the Job (2004), Peter played a heavy drinker who was also a teacher, the film which can be seen online is a great example of his work, his subtle performance is extremely realistic in this damning piece about the dangers of alcohol. He showed up as a vampire drug dealer in the film Dead Cert (2010) in 2010 and had been working on some low budget films in the latter years of his career that sadly never got released due to budget and various technical issues. His last credit Dinklebrain (2012) was not the last film he made, rumour has it that he was very much actively making some independent short films, which hopefully will emerge in the near future. Sadly, Peter McNamara died in May 2018 at the age of 57 and he was cremated at Enfield Crematorium on 14th June 2018, a week after what would have been his 58th birthday. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Shona M

    Movies

    poster
    Break Clause
    0 %|Jul 18, 2019
    Drama, Thriller
    poster
    Dead Cert
    44 %|Aug 26, 2010
    Thriller, Horror, Action
    poster
    When I'm Sixty-Four
    53 %|Aug 4, 2004
    Drama, TV Movie
    poster
    Pissed on the Job
    0 %|Jan 14, 2004
    Drama, Documentary
    poster
    The Gathering
    54 %|Feb 23, 2003
    Horror, Thriller
    poster
    Lucky Break
    62.06 %|Aug 24, 2001
    Comedy, Crime
    poster
    Tube Tales
    53.129999999999995 %|Nov 19, 1999
    Drama
    poster
    Shooting Fish
    62.87 %|Aug 22, 1997
    Crime, Comedy, Romance
    poster
    Funny Bones
    65 %|Sep 20, 1995
    Comedy
    poster
    Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery
    0 %|Nov 14, 1992
    Crime, Drama, TV Movie
    poster
    Smack and Thistle
    0 %|Apr 20, 1991
    poster
    Arrivederci Millwall
    60 %|Jan 3, 1990
    Drama, TV Movie
    poster
    For Queen & Country
    53 %|May 17, 1988
    Action, Drama, Thriller
    poster
    London's Burning: The Movie
    85 %|Dec 7, 1986
    Drama, TV Movie
    actor
    The Treatment
    0 %|Mar 16, 1984
    Drama
    poster
    Lassiter
    53 %|Feb 17, 1984
    Crime, Drama, Thriller, Action
    poster
    The Long Good Friday
    71 %|Nov 1, 1980
    Crime, Thriller, Drama, Mystery
    poster
    The Shining
    82 %|May 23, 1980
    Horror, Thriller
    poster
    Quadrophenia
    70 %|Sep 14, 1979
    Drama, Music

    Series

    poster
    Wycliffe
    60 %|Jul 24, 1994
    Crime, Drama
    actor
    Oasis
    0 %|Jan 5, 1993
    poster
    A Touch of Frost
    74.76 %|Dec 6, 1992
    Drama, Crime, Mystery
    poster
    Casualty
    60 %|Sep 6, 1986
    Drama
    poster
    Tucker's Luck
    55 %|Mar 10, 1983
    Drama, Family
    poster
    Grange Hill
    65 %|Feb 8, 1978
    Drama