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Peter McNamara

• Acting

Peter McNamara, born in London and attended the National Youth Theatre and trained at LAMDA. Possibly best known as Ralph Passmore, the nemesis of Tucker Jenkin's in Tucker's Luck (1983), the spin off series of Phil Redmond's Grange Hill (1978). Peter was known for his fantastic singing voice in many theatre musical productions including South Pacific. He started out his long list of jobs as a supporting artist, working on such films as Quadrophenia (1979), The Shining (1980), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Star Wars (1977), before being cast in Grange Hill (1978). He worked frequently with Christopher Menaul who cast him as a Chelsea skinhead Rory in The Treatment (1984) and previously Tucker's Luck (1983). He became a well respected character actor in a career that eventually spanned four decades, he was often called upon to play the menacing hard-man and when Denzel Washington came to London to work on For Queen & Country (1988), Peter was asked to show him around and guide him on the Cockney accent. In 1990, Peter starred as Kenno in the controversial football hooligan film, Arrivederci Millwall (1990), one of the first films to tackle that subject. He went onto play Jimmy Cadogan in the children's TV series; Oasis (1993) in 1993 and a spot on 99-1 (1994) which reunited him with Arrivederci Millwall (1990) director Charles McDougall. Despite his hard-man roles Peter often played in a lot of comedy TV shows including Desmond's (1989) and Harry Enfield and Chums (1994). In 1995, he appeared in Funny Bones (1995) with Lee Evans, Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt and Oliver Reed. Then in 1996 he was seen in the series No Bananas (1996) as DS Howard. He was in both the film and TV series of London's Burning (1988) and played recurring roles in numerous other British TV shows including Thief Takers (1995), The Bill (1984), Trial & Retribution (1997), Silent Witness (1996) and Casualty (1986). In 2002, he appeared as Frederick Michael Argyle in The Gathering (2002) where he acted alongside Christina Ricci, Ioan Gruffudd and Stephen Dillane. In 2004, he appeared in an extraordinary experimental drama documentary called Pissed on the Job (2004), Peter played a heavy drinker who was also a teacher, the film which can be seen online is a great example of his work, his subtle performance is extremely realistic in this damning piece about the dangers of alcohol. He showed up as a vampire drug dealer in the film Dead Cert (2010) in 2010 and had been working on some low budget films in the latter years of his career that sadly never got released due to budget and various technical issues. His last credit Dinklebrain (2012) was not the last film he made, rumour has it that he was very much actively making some independent short films, which hopefully will emerge in the near future. Sadly, Peter McNamara died in May 2018 at the age of 57 and he was cremated at Enfield Crematorium on 14th June 2018, a week after what would have been his 58th birthday.

Known For

Casualty

62%

Terry Cooper

1986

A Touch of Frost

76%

Trevor Cooper

1992

Grange Hill

67%

Sixth Former

1978

When I'm Sixty-Four

54%

Aitch

2004

Wycliffe

68%

Donald Ferris

1994

Arrivederci Millwall

60%

Kenno

1990

Tucker's Luck

70%

Ralph Passmore

1983

Smack and Thistle

70%

Ben

1991

Break Clause

Phil

2019

Dead Cert

43%

The Chemist

2010

When I'm Sixty-Four

54%

Aitch

2004

Pissed on the Job

Teacher

2004

The Gathering

56%

Frederick Michael Argyle

2003

Lucky Break

63%

Ward

2001

Thin Ice

100%

Frank Jerome

2000

Tube Tales

53%

Roy (segment "Grasshopper")

1999

Shooting Fish

63%

Geoff

1997

Funny Bones

66%

Canavan

1995

Wycliffe

68%

Donald Ferris

1994
Oasis

Oasis

Jimmy Cadogan

1993

A Touch of Frost

76%

Trevor Cooper

1992

Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery

70%

Undercover Policeman

1992

Smack and Thistle

70%

Ben

1991

Arrivederci Millwall

60%

Kenno

1990

For Queen & Country

53%

Pete

1988

London's Burning: The Movie

85%

Whitey

1986

Casualty

62%

Terry Cooper

1986

The Treatment

100%

Rory

1984

Lassiter

54%

German Guard

1984

Tucker's Luck

70%

Ralph Passmore

1983

The Long Good Friday

72%

Young Man in Pub (uncredited)

1980

The Shining

82%

Dinner Guest (uncredited)

1980

Quadrophenia

70%

Mod (uncredited)

1979

Grange Hill

67%

Sixth Former

1978

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