Paul Nicholas

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Paul Nicholas (born Paul Oscar Beuselinck, 3 December 1945 in Peterborough, England) is an English actor and singer who has had considerable success on stage, screen and in the pop charts.

Nicholas' father Oscar Beuselinck was a music business lawyer, whose clients included The Who. Nicholas began his pop career as the pianist in The Savages, the backing band for the eccentric British rocker, Screaming Lord Sutch.

Under the name 'Paul Dean' he released two solo singles in 1965-66. After taking a new stage name, 'Oscar', he began a long association with the Australian born entrepreneur, Robert Stigwood. In 1966 he signed with Stigwood's Reaction Records label and his first single under his new name, "Club of Lights", managed to scrape into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab Forty chart.

The second Oscar single was a version of a Pete Townshend song, "Join My Gang", which The Who never recorded. His third single, a novelty song called "Over The Wall We Go" (1967) is notable for being written and produced by a young David Bowie, and it gained a degree of notoreity because of Bowie's tongue-in-cheek lyrics concerning escaped prisoners and incompetent policemen, which satirised a rash of highly-publicised prison break-outs in the UK.

After settling on the stage name Paul Nicholas, he eventually found success in the UK in musicals, beginning with a role in Hair (which Stigwood produced) before winning the lead role in the original London production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 1975, he gained international attention when played the cameo role of the sadistic Cousin Kevin in Stigwood's film Tommy. In 1976 he embarked on a shortlived but high profile pop career, with two Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart - "Dancing With The Captain" and "Grandma's Party". He released his last single, "Heaven on the 7th Floor", in 1977. This only just reached the UK chart, but was a Top 10 success in the Billboard Hot 100 listings in the U.S.

Nicholas returned to the West End stage in 1979 to play a major role in Cats when it began. The same year, he starred in Two Up, Two Down, a short-lived sitcom co-starring Su Pollard. Then, in 1983, he got his first high-profile television role (he had acted in plays and one-off roles through the 1970s on TV) when he was cast as Vince Pinner in the BBC TV sitcom Just Good Friends, written by John Sullivan.

This role made Nicholas a household name, and a pin-up as he approached the age of forty. His character was a wisecracking, smooth but emotionally insecure bookmaker and former ice cream salesman who had a long-running, on-off relationship with Penny Warrender, played by Jan Francis. The series dealt with the couple's mutual attraction but mistrust of one another after they accidentally meet again, years after Vince had jilted Penny at the altar. The show, for which Nicholas also sang the theme tune, was a success. It ended in 1986 with the marriage of the two main characters in Paris.

Nicholas returned to the theatre afterwards - theatre remained his main source of work - and also played numerous supporting roles on screen in both movie and television projects. In 1997 Nicholas demonstrated a new and surprisingly intense aspect of his talent when he starred as the wrenchingly confused anti-hero of Karoline Leach's "The Mysterious Mr Love" at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End.

In 2004, he auditioned unsuccessfully for the title role in the relaunched Doctor Who series for the BBC. In summer 2006, he was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses.

[edit] Business

In 1990 while staring with David Ian in a production of "The Pirates of Penzance" at the London Palladium, Nicholas offered Ian a partnership in co-producing and starring in a touring production of The Pirates of Penzance. 'Paul Nicholas & David Ian Associates Ltd' were formed to produce the 20th anniversary production of Jesus Christ Superstar on a UK-wide tour, which sold out [1].

The company has since produced numerous shows making both partners millionaires, including: