A very familiar face to television, film and theatre audiences, Sam was born in Manchester, brought up in Liverpool and trained at LAMDA.

Theatre appearances include The Two Ronnies (Palladium), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (National) Dead Funny and HMS Pinafore (Savoy), Toast and Under The Whaleback directed by Richard Wilson (Royal Court) and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Edinburgh Festival).

Two of his films were premiered at the National Film Theatre Who’s Who and the highly acclaimed Grown Ups. Others include Blue Ice with Michael Caine, Arthur’s Hallowed Ground, Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy and All or Nothing and Honest starring The All Saints directed by Dave Stewart.

Sam’s television work includes drama - ‘Hitler’ in Stalag Luft, the lead in Days At The Beach, ‘Mr Mould’ in Martin Chuzzlewit, A Touch of Frost and comedy - four series of Barbara, numerous series with Ronnie Barker, Victoria Wood, Les Dawson etc.
Voice work includes lots of radio plays, series and audio book readings.

My First Panto
My first pantomime was at Plymouth Theatre Royal in 1982 playing an Ugly Sister with the late, great Rikki Fulton in a Cinderella originally written for Tommy Steele by Rodgers and Hammerstein as a TV musical. His part was played by Mark Wynter. We had a problem: Rikki, a HUGE star in Scotland, was about as well-known in Plymouth as my mother - and she's from Manchester. I was but a minor TV person from Porridge. The consequence was that the Sisters might as well have not really been there, such was the audience response to these two unknowns. Rikki was not happy. And I wasn't delirious, either. But we got on with it and eventually had a very good time indeed. It was Rikki's 28th panto, so he was a great teacher and I was eager to learn. However, he would never let me into the secret of how he erected a deckchair with the flick of a finger, a piece of 'business'  that mesmerised me every night. That was the first and last time (so far) that I appeared in drag in pantomime, subsequently playing various Idle Jacks, Wishee Washees,  Emperors of China and Baron Hardups - and now, to my delight,  Alderman Fitzwarren. But I must surely be in line for a frock soon. Probably due to Ian McKellen's great Widow Twankey at The Old Vic, there seems to be something of a resurgence of the panto tradition, and I for one am absolutely delighted.