DATE OF BIRTH : 19th November 1968
HEIGHT : 5ft 11
BORN : Derby
LIVES : London
CHILDREN : Daughter, Emily, (b.1993) and actor son, Mikey with Claire Laurie.
CAREER / STUDIED : When opting for a career, he couldn’t decide between acting or being a tennis player, but after dislocating his shoulder, it ended his chances of being a tennis player. He went on to train at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, however in his final year he only got a grant of £3.41 – his Mum took out a 2nd mortgage on the house to help him finish the course. He also won the Evelyn Laige Award for ‘Best Actor’.
ON CHARACTER ROB : ‘Rob isn’t the heartbreaker type, he’s academically brilliant and cares about the patients, but it’s his first time in casualty and he’s nervous about getting it wrong, the problem starts when his nerves are mistaken for arrogance.’
ON JOINING CASUALTY : ‘It’s been harder to get used to the medical environment which is fascinating, but pretty horrific. I bought a few medical books, but they don’t prepare you for the reality.’
AFTER VISITING REAL LIFE HOSPITAL : ‘After just on afternoon. I walked out of the hospital convinced I wasn’t going to make it home! In the first few hours I’d been there I must have seen every kind of accident and emergency and it seemed impossible that something like that wasn’t going to happen to me. I am definitely more safety conscious now.’
ON CASUALTY : ‘Casualty has a reputation for being a friendly show’.
WHY HE LEFT CASUALTY : ‘Although I enjoyed Casualty, I felt that I would be typecast as a young doctor if I stayed any longer, I thought the character had a wonderful development to carry on much more would only dilute it.’
REAL LIFE INJURY ON SET : While filming his last scene, being trapped in the fire, he ended up with a piece of cork wedged up his ear. He couldn’t move because he didn’t want to ruin the scene, but afterwards he went to the Bristol Royal Infirmary where a doctor syringed it out.
TELEVISION CREDITS : Casualty; Bugs; Family Affairs; The Bill; A Touch of Frost; Inspector Morse; Second Thoughts; Children in Need ’92; That’s Showbusiness; Highlander; Berlin Breaks; Eastenders; Luther
FILM CREDITS : Wuthering Heights; King Lear; Where there’s Smoke
THEATRE CREDITS : Conduct Unbecoming; The Beggars Opera; Salsa Celestina; A Lion in Winter; Wuthering Heights; Hamlet; A Midsummer Nights Dream; Macbeth; Twelve Angry Men
BOOKS : Appears in ‘CASUALTY : The Inside Story’ by Hilary Kingsley
AGENT : Angel & Francis Ltd, 1st Floor, 12 D’Arblay Street, London W1F 8DU.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Jason took a break from acting in 2000 and became a lecturer for Performing Arts students, where he directed a number of theatre plays, also using his experience as a weapons master. Jason made a return to acting in 2012 having made appearances in Eastenders and Luther.
Twitter : @JasonRiddington
LINKS
