John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor. He has starred in many television dramas, including Life on Mars, Cracker, The Lakes, Sex Traffic, State of Play, Crime and Punishment, Exile and Prey. He has been nominated twice for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. An accomplished stage actor, he is a Laurence Olivier Award nominee. His films include Wonderland, Human Traffic, and 24 Hour Party People. In 2010, he played Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre.
The eldest of three children, Simm grew up in a series of places around North West England, including Blackpool, Burnley, Colne, and Manchester. His father, Ronald, was a musician; and, from the age of twelve, John sang and played guitar with his father on stage in the working men's clubs.
In 1986, Simm enrolled at Blackpool and the Fylde College in Lytham St. Annes for three years, and starred in Guys and Dolls and West Side Story at Blackpool's Grand Theatre. However, he soon decided that musical theatre didn't interest him, so he joined an amateur dramatic group and honed his skills in his spare time, playing the title roles in Billy Liar and Amadeus. He then moved to London to train at the Drama Centre London at the age of 19, where he studied Stanislavski's system of method acting and graduated in 1992.
Feel the matress tense beneath me
Like the muscle of nonsleepy
Feathers flexing will defeat me
And it vexes me completely
And the hexes heat covertly
Like a slow low-flying turkey
Like a Texan drying jerky
But his meaty mitts can't hurt me
With my steely will compounded
In a mighty mound that's hounded
By the snap my steel string sounded
Just before your snores unwound it
And in store are dreams so daring
That the night can't stop from staring
I'll swim sweetly as a herring
Through the ether, not despairing
Go to sleep, you stunning sky
Gently creep cunning by
A quiet hum is amplified
By your thumb
That you suck dry
Hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh
Hold your breath and clasp at Cassiopiea
Hundred raging waters snare the lonely sigh
Hold your breath and clasp at Cassiopiea
Cassiopiea, Cassiopiea