Yet another "finest actor of his generation," British-born Malcolm McDowell was performing onstage in a production of "Twelfth Night" when he learned he had landed the role of Mick Travis in Lindsay Anderson's fantasy-tinged satire "If..." (1968). The film, ostensibly about a youthful rebellion in a rigid tradition-ridden British private boarding school, introduced his blithely amoral, anti-authoritarian persona to international audiences and revealed Anderson as one of the more individual and dynamic filmmakers on the British scene. Boyish and charismatic, McDowell, himself just a few years removed from such an educational setting, delivered an electrifying portrayal as the anarchistic upperclassman who foments armed revolt after being beaten for an indiscretion. He would reprise the Travis role in the subsequent installments of Anderson's surreal trilogy attacking corrupt British institutions, "O Lucky Man!" (1973) and "Britannia Hospital" (1982). Additionally, the actor starred under Anderson's direction in a highly-acclaimed 1980 Off-Broadway revival of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger".
Stanley Kubrick deemed McDowell the only man who could play Alex, the coolly brutal gang leader of "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), likening the role to Richard III in his ability to win people over "despite his wickedness, because of his intelligence and wit and total honesty." The somewhat bug-eyed leering face of this sadistic punk progenitor shot in loving close-up was the film's arresting first image and a recurring visual motif. In the movie's early scenes, his charismatic cruelty, balletic grace (Alex, while kicking the husband of his imminent rape victim, punctuates his rhythmic, soft-shoe kick-dance with the lyrics of "Singin' in the Rain"), and general exuberance suggests a young James Cagney. Charming, chilling, despicable or deliciously over-the-top as required, McDowell traveled the twisted arc from hedonist to beaten zombie after undergoing an experimental form of aversion therapy. His ability to elicit audience empathy and sympathy helped make the director's argument for respecting man's free will--even to do wrong--in a timeless (even prophetic) film which has not lost a degree of its potency.
McDowell did his best to temper the villainous image from his early films, impersonating a Prussian nobleman in Richard Lester's comic swashbuckler "Royal Flash" (1975) and giving one of his most engaging good-guy portrayals as a time-traveling H G Wells pursuing Jack the Ripper (David Warner) to modern-day San Francisco in "Time After Time" (1979), a film which also cast him as a rare romantic lead opposite future wife Mary Steenburgen. Still, the baddies proliferated. He did his best to humanize the title character in the regrettable "Caligula" (1980), a lavish porn film masquerading as historical epic, noting "I loved [that film] and I had a good time. I don't think it did my career any good, but that's another story." He fared much better with a simply demented (and effective) performance in Paul Schrader's gory remake of "Cat People" (1982), essaying the accursed brother of Nastassja Kinski, a sinister cat man who spends the entire movie putting the make on his sister. His sharpened features lent a palpable cruelty to his sadistic Colonel Cochrane in "Blue Thunder", and he also acted with Steenburgen in both Martin Ritt's "Cross Creek" and in Showtime's "Faerie Tale Theatre" presentation of "Little Red Riding Hood" (all 1983).
Over the next decade, McDowell worked steadily, if unspectacularly, cashing his checks and paying his mortgage. There was his titular turn as "Arthur the King" (CBS, 1985), perhaps the worst ever adaptation of the "Camelot" story and an embarrassment to all involved. (The network had sat on the film for some three years before actually airing it). Then there was the Blake Edwards' misfire "Sunset" (1988), which cast him as a Charlie Chaplin-like studio head, showcasing his superb acrobatic skill as a mime. When his career hit a lull, he did four straight-to-video pics in 1990, but always he worked, whether contributing a cameo (as himself) to Robert Altman's 1992 hit "The Player" or starring in that year's often unbearably bad low-budget American indie "Chain of Desire". McDowell went to France for "Vent d'est" and played a supporting role as a ruthless captain of the South African government's Special Branch in Morgan Freeman's little-seen "Bopha" (both 1993) before gaining his widest exposure in years as the nemesis of two Enterprise captains in "Star Trek: Generations" (1994). For knocking off Captain Kirk, he received death threats, but his villainous portrayal of the evil Dr. Soran also revitalized his career.
Since "Star Trek", McDowell has been one of the busiest actors around. In addition to TV and features, the now white-haired thespian portrayed Admiral Sir Geoffrey Tolwyn in several "Wing Commander" video games (as well as voicing the character for the USA Network's animated series "Wing Commander Academy" 1996-97) and reprised Dr. Soran for the "Star Trek: Generations" video game in 1997. McDowell made his American TV series debut as a regular on the CBS sitcom "Pearl" (1996-97), playing a demanding professor (modeled after his friend and mentor Lindsay Anderson) to Rhea Perlman's recently returned to college widow. Commanding his lectern like an emperor mad with his own power, the actor got a chance to display his comic chops for many who still only considered him a villain. He then returned to series work as the new Roarke in ABC's remake of "Fantasy Island" (1998-99), bringing a delicious darkness to the role once inhabited by Ricardo Montalban.
The actor soldiered on, typically playing villains of varying levels of evil in countless films of varying levels of quality, most notably in "Gangster No. 1" (2000), "Hidalgo" (2004) and "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" (2004), and had an especially effective turn as the artistic director of a ballet company in director Robert Altman's "The Company" (2003), a demanding, brilliant and autocractic leader (said to be based not just on Gerald Arpino, the Joffrey's legendary director and choreographer, but on Altman himself) who employs an assistant to summon him away any time an exchange with a dancer gets troublesome.
McDowell has survived, though his greatest roles are more than 30 years behind him, because of his healthy attitude: "It's just a business and if you manage to find a film occasionally that is both an artistic and commercial success you've done brilliantly."
After appearances in the Middle Eastern horse racing adventure "Hidalgo" and the golf biopic "Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius" (both 2004), McDowell had a gleefully malicious turn in 2005 as Terence, the powerful and ruthless boss of Hollywood agent Ari Gross (Jeremy Piven) on the hit HBO comedy "Entourage."