{{Short description|British actor (born 1953)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person | image = MichaelTarnAClockworkOrange.png | caption = Tarn in ''A Clockwork Orange'' | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1953|12|18}} | birth_name = | birth_place = London, England | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1970–present | notable_works = ''A Clockwork Orange'' | spouse = }}
'''Michael Tarn''' (born 18 December 1953) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Pete in Stanley Kubrick's film ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971).
== Biography == Michael Tarn was born in London in 1953 to a father who worked as a stuntman in the film industry.<ref name=":1">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10_YTYzWDto |title=Michael Tarn {{!}} Working With Stanley Kubrick, Morecambe & Wise, And More... |date=2021-11-01 |last=David Kis |access-date=2025-09-15 |via=YouTube}}</ref> He is married with one son, Chris, who works in lighting, and one daughter.<ref name=":1" /> In the mid 2000s, he and his wife moved to Spain but returned to the United Kingdom a few years later for family reasons.<ref name=":1" />
== Career ==
=== Early career === He had attended Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts part time since he was around ten or eleven years old and found work as a teenager as a background extra in television productions.<ref name=":1" /> While he was in grammar school, he landed a role as Fleance in a production of Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Company, featuring Paul Scofield and Vivien Merchant.<ref name=":1" /> On one night, around sixty of his classmates came to see Tarn in the show; during that show, the actor who played the third apparition fell ill, so Tarn stepped in, and had what he described at "ffiteen seconds of glory" of him and Paul Scofield on stage.<ref name=":1" />
=== ''A Clockwork Orange'' === In summer 1969, the Italia Conti academy was one of many schools that were given a phone call from Stanley Kubrick's casting directors looking for fourteen to fifteen year old boys for an upcoming film, ''A Clockwork Orange'';<ref name=":1" /> Tarn was sent over to audition at fifteen years old, and was given the final slot of the day for a five minute audition.<ref name=":1" />
When Tarn found out he got the job, he was working a saturday job selling electric shavers in Kingston upon Thames when he received a phone call from his agent that he got the part, however because so much time had passed since the audition, he forgot it ever happened and at first was confused when his agent told him he "got the part as Pete" until he discovered it was for the production of ''A Clockwork Orange''.<ref name=":1" />
Tarn's character, Pete, was a part of Alex DeLarge's "droog" gang, and was the only of the droog actors (Tarn, Warren Clarke, James Marcus) who was actually a teenager at the time, as Clarke and Marcus were in their mid to late 20s (Malcolm McDowell was also in his late 20s at the time).
=== Later career === Tarn played the title character in the three-part series ''Zigger Zagger'' in September/October 1975, which eventually became a stage show that did not feature Michael.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Tarn Biography |url=https://www.fandango.com/people/michael-tarn-662344/biography |access-date=2025-09-15 |website=Fandango |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Schedule - BBC Programme Index |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_one_london/1975-09-23 |access-date=2025-09-15 |website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> In 1976, his father was asked to be a stuntman on the film ''At the Earth's Core'', and managed to get Michael a role as a dinosaur on the film, which he notes as his "biggest part in film".<ref name=":1" />
By the late 1970s, Tarn was still acting but noticed that directors kept casting him to play teenagers, despite pushing thirty, and when playing these typecast roles, mentioned that he felt like "Warren (Clarke) and Jimmy (James Marcus) must have felt when I'd come in (''A Clockwork Orange'' audition) as a teenager and they were playing teenagers".<ref name=":1" />
Tarn's career began slowing down when he received an audition for an upcoming sitcom, only for the role to be turned down by his agent on his behalf (even though Michael had no say in the agreement) as he thought Michael was "worth more money (than what) they were offering" and according to Tarn, "when he declined that (audition), the industry doors closed on me".<ref name=":1" />
Tarn, who had just got married and had a child on the way, decided to stop acting and start teaching drama with his wife, eventually forming their own drama group.<ref name=":1" /> He played small roles occasional roles, his last being in the 2002 film ''Shooters'' as Vic.
==Filmography==
=== Film === {| class="wikitable" !Year !Title !Role !Note |- |1971 |''A Clockwork Orange'' |Pete<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Michael Tarn {{!}} Actor |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0850533/ |access-date=2025-09-15 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref> | |- |1972 |''Made'' |Charlie<ref name=":0" /> | |- |1976 |''At the Earth's Core'' |Dinosaur<ref name=":1" /> |Uncredited |- |1999 |''Stanley and Us'' |Himself<ref name=":0" /> | |- |2002 |''Shooters'' |Vic<ref name=":0" /> | |} {| class="wikitable" !Year !Title !Role !Note |- | rowspan="2" |1973 |''Owen, M.D.'' |Ben |One episode<ref name=":0" /> |- |''Marked Personal'' |Russ Riley |Two episodes<ref name=":0" /> |- |1974 |''Intimate Strangers'' |Dale | rowspan="2" |One episode<ref name=":0" /> |- | rowspan="3" |1975 |''Shades of Greene'' |Third boy |- |''Zigger Zagger'' |Zigger Zagger |Three episodes<ref name=":0" /> |- |''It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow'' |Michael Ellis<ref name=":0" /> |Television movie |- |1975—1976 |''Play for Today'' |Charlie Jackson (1975) Mark (1976) |Two episodes<ref name=":0" /> |- | rowspan="2" |1978 |''1990'' |John Brooks | rowspan="2" |One episode<ref name=":0" /> |- |''The Sweeney'' |Charlie Pearce |- | rowspan="4" |1979 |''Scum'' |Background extra |Uncredited<ref name=":0" /> |- |''Thundercloud'' |L.S. Hodge | rowspan="2" |One episode<ref name=":0" /> |- |''Shoestring'' |Radio technician |- |''Apprentice for Living''<ref name=":0" /> |unknown | |- |1981 |''Thicker than Water'' |Malcolm Lockwood |Unaired pilot<ref name=":0" /> |- | rowspan="2" |1995 |''Hamish Macbeth'' |Mick Jensie |Uncredited<ref name=":0" /> |- |''Empire of the Censors'' |Himself |Archive footage<ref name=":0" /> |- |2006 |''O Lucky Malcolm!'' | rowspan="3" |Pete | rowspan="4" |Archive footage<ref name=":0" /> |- |2011 |''Turning Like Clockwork'' |- |2015 |''Six Different Kinds of Light John Alcott'' |- |2018 |''The Directors'' |Himself<ref name=":0" /> |}
=== Theatre === {| class="wikitable" !Year !Show |- |1972—1973 |''Peter Pan''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Production of Peter Pan {{!}} Theatricalia |url=https://theatricalia.com/play/f5/peter-pan/production/1d35 |access-date=2025-09-15 |website=theatricalia.com}}</ref> |- |1976 |''Jumper et al''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Production of Jumpers {{!}} Theatricalia |url=https://theatricalia.com/play/4t8/jumpers/production/agy |access-date=2025-09-15 |website=theatricalia.com}}</ref> |}
=== Podcasts === {| class="wikitable" !Year !Title |- | rowspan="2" |2021 |''David Kis Podcast<ref name=":0" />''<ref name=":1" /> |- |''Kubrick's Universe: The Stanley Kubrick Podcast<ref name=":0" />'' |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0850533}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarn, Michael}} Category:English male film actors Category:English male television actors Category:Living people Category:1953 births {{Authority control}}