John Barrowman best known as TV actor and presenter and is also a singer and a writer.
He is well known for his self-produced program in the CBBC Tonight’s the Night and his role as Captain Jack Harkness in the science fiction series Dr. Who and Torchwood.
Background
John was born on 11 March 1967 at Glasgow, Scotland. He is the youngest child of John and Marion and has a sister Carol and a brother Andrew.
His mother was a singer and worked as a clerk in a record shop while his father worked for Caterpillar. In 1975 his family was relocated to Aurora, Illinois by his father’s company where his father managed the Caterpillar Tractor Factory.
Education
He studied at Joliet West High School where his music and English teachers inspired him to pursue his love for performing and enriched his true artistic potentials.
With support from his teachers, he was able to compete with other schools in statewide speech competitions where he furnished his skills reading scenes for plays. As a freshman he won parts in several musical productions such as Oliver!, Camelot, Hello Dolly!, Lil Abner and Anything Goes.
He spent the senior years of his high school shoveling coals for an Illinois Power company but he didn’t like the job. He graduated in 1985 and became a naturalized citizen of The US but maintains dual citizenship of The UK and The US.
Barrowman's professional acting career began in London's West End in 1989, playing the role of Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's Anything Goes at the Prince Edward Theatre, alongside Elaine Paige as Reno Sweeney and Bernard Cribbins as Moonface Martin. He continued to appear in West End productions for the next decade, taking the title role of Domingo Hernandez in Matador at the Queen's Theatre in 1991; as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1992; as Claude in Hair at the Old Vic Theatre in 1993; as Chris in Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1993; as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre from 1994–1995; and as Beast in Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre in 1999.
Barrowman was part of the musical Godspell in 1994, and was a soloist in two songs, "We Beseech Thee" and "On The Willows". He was lead vocalist on a rendition of Strike Up the Band in Who Could Ask for Anything More? A Celebration of Ira Gershwin at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, and he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 1998 for originating the role of Cal Chandler in The Fix, a performance he repeated in Cameron Mackintosh's 1998 gala concert Hey, Mr Producer!. Barrowman played Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard in the West End and, briefly, on Broadway. His only other Broadway credit is in the role of Barry in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together (1999–2000) at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre opposite Carol Burnett and George Hearn. In a review of Putting It Together, theatre critic Tom Samiljan noted Barrowman's "fine baritone voice and suave looks". In 2002, Barrowman appeared as Bobby in Sondheim's Company in the Kennedy Center's Stephen Sondheim Celebration.
Barrowman returned to the role of Billy Crocker in Trevor Nunn's 2003 West End revival of Anything Goes, and appeared in West End non-musical dramas, such as his role as Wyndham Brandon in Rope at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester in 1993, and he starred as Lieutenant Jack Ross opposite Rob Lowe in the 2005 production of A Few Good Men.
Barrowman starred in pantomime productions of Cinderella at the New Wimbledon Theatre (Christmas, 2005–06) and in Jack and the Beanstalk at Cardiff's New Theatre (Christmas, 2006–07). He played the title role in Aladdin at the Birmingham Hippodrome over Christmas 2007–8 and as a guest act for the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in 2008. Barrowman played the lead in the Robin Hood pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome for the 2008–09 season. He presented Andrew Lloyd Webber's 60th birthday party in London's Hyde Park on 14 September 2008. Exactly one year later, Barrowman succeeded Roger Allam as Zaza/Albin in the West End revival of La Cage aux Folles, at the Playhouse Theatre.
In 2012, Barrowman guest presented three episodes of This Morning with Kate Thornton.
In July 2012, Barrowman co-hosted the G4's 2012 Live Comic-Con in San Diego with Candace Bailey.
In 2013, Barrowman began hosting the BBC One game show Pressure Pad and in 2014, he hosted Channel 4 show Superstar Dogs: Countdown to Crufts, which began airing on 17 February 2014.
In 2014, Barrowman hosted the Channel 4 programme Small Animal Hospital and in October 2016, he was a guest team captain for an episode of Celebrity Juice and he guest presented an episode of The One Show.
In Melbourne, Australia on 16 January 2018, Barrowman performed his first and only show to a packed audience at the Melbourne Arts Centre Hamer Hall. The audience was thrilled with the singer and many hope that he will keep his promise to return with "all the bells and whistles".
(An Evening with John Barrowman: John Barrowman, Steve Kem...)
Politics
Barrowman was one of 48 British celebrities who signed a public notice warning voters against Conservative Party policy towards the BBC prior to the 2010 general election. In 2011, he released his own skin care line, entitled HIM. In the 2012 presidential election, Barrowman endorsed Democrat Barack Obama, who was running for re-election. Barrowman publicly supported Scotland remaining in the United Kingdom in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence.
Views
Recently his sparkly blue tardis outfit has grabbed a lot of attention among paparazzi and critics as to whether his attitude intends to serve as a mockery to women ridicule feminism.
However, he has denied critics saying he never meant to be sexist or transphobic.
Barrowman worked with Stonewall, a gay rights organization in the UK, on the "Education for All" campaign against homophobia in the schools. In April 2008, the group placed posters on 600 billboards that read, "Some people are gay. Get over it!" Barrowman contributed his support to the project asking people to join him and "Help exterminate homophobia. Be bold. Be brave. Be a buddy, not a bully." That same month, Barrowman spoke at the Oxford Union about his career, the entertainment industry, and gay rights issues. The event was filmed for the BBC program The Making of Me, in an episode exploring the science of homosexuality.
In June 2010, Barrowman met with the then Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, as a representative of the LGBT community.
Personality
Barrowman learned an American accent after schoolchildren mocked his Scottish accent when he moved to the United States. His General American accent is often said to hint at or is called Mid-Atlantic.
John Barrowman often gets into controversies either be it his homosexuality or his public comments on transgenders or his flamboyant styled outfits.
He is active on social media. He has 450k followers on Twitter, around 747k followers on Instagram and about 1.2 M followers on Facebook.
Physical Characteristics:
John Barrowman is 6 feet tall and has an athletic body type. The color of his hair is dark brown and his eyes are blue. Information on his dress and shoe size is unknown.
Connections
Barrowman is openly gay: he met his husband, Scott Gill, during the production of Rope at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1993, after Gill came to see Barrowman in the play. The couple has houses in London, Cardiff, and Palm Springs. Barrowman and Gill entered into a civil partnership on 27 December 2006. A small ceremony was held in Cardiff with friends and family, with the cast of Torchwood and executive producer Russell T Davies as guests. The pair were legally married in the state of California on 2 July 2013, following the United States Supreme Court's decision to deny an appeal to overturning California Proposition 8 in Hollingsworth v. Perry.
In mid-March 2017, Barrowman and his husband held a "big bad garage sale" in their Palm Springs home. The garage sale was packed with Doctor Who and Torchwood memorabilia. Neighbors and fans showed up for the occasion and Barrowman documented most of the day on his social media accounts via pictures and short videos.