Steven Berkoff

Born: August 3 1937
Where: London, UK

The actor and writer has forged a reputation for uncompromising, experimental theatre work as well as lucrative sideline as a Hollywood villain.

Film highlights include A Clockwork Orange, Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop and The Krays.

After studying drama at Ecole Jacques LeCoq and the Webber-Douglas Academy, Berkoff made his London stage bow in a 1959 staging of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.

He then went on to establish the London Theatre Group, famed for its risk-taking, experimental theatrical pieces.

As a playwright, Berkoff displayed an obsession with Franz Kafka: among his Theatre Group offerings were such Kafka adaptations as The Trial and Metamorphosis.

He has also written such original plays as East, and has expressed his life-and-work philosophies in his books I Am Hamlet and Overview.

Early film roles included uncredited appearances in I Was Monty's Double before his debut proper in the forgettable Prehistoric Women in 1967.

He played Pankrazkov in Nicholas & Alexander before being cast in Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange alonside Malcolm McDowell in 1971.

Roles followed in Barry Lyndon, McVicar and Outland before his profile was raised as Bond villain and insane Russian general Orlov in Octopussy.

Next up was his most memorable baddie - the despicable white-collar miscreant Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy.

Typecasting continued with Rambo: First Blood Part II and the horror yarn Underworld.

Roles followed in American Civil War saga Revolution, Julien Temple's ill-fated adaptation of Absolute Beginners and Prince's Under The Cherry Moon.

He also made his directorial debut with Decadence (which he also wrote and starred in with Joan Collins, Christopher Biggins and Michael Winner).

Berkoff then opted to concentrated on theatre with the occasional foray into film including the part of George Cornwell in The Krays, the Errol Flynn biopic Flynn and the disposable Rancid Aluminium.

Recent work includes the skateboard action thriller Riders and the embarrassing gay Lock, Stock-influenced effort Nine Dead Gay Guys.

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