Movies

Paul John McGann (/məˈɡæn/; born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial The Monocled Mutineer (1986), then starred in the dark comedy Withnail and I (1987), which was a critical success and developed a cult following. McGann later became more widely known for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television film. He is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush in the series Hornblower.

Early life
Paul John McGann was born in Liverpool on 14 November 1959, into a Roman Catholic family. His ancestors immigrated from Ireland in the mid-19th century, having left due to the Great Famine. His mother, Clare, was a teacher, and his father Joe who died in 1984 was a metallurgist. His cousin, Ritchie Routledge, was in the 1960s band The Cryin' Shames. He has an older brother, Joe, and three younger siblings: brothers Mark and Stephen and sister Clare. All three of his brothers are also actors and the four of them played brothers in the 1995 TV serial The Hanging Gale. The same year, McGann also played Grigori Potemkin in the television film Catherine the Great alongside Mark and Stephen.

McGann attended Cardinal Allen Grammar School in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby. He was 17 and working in a shoe shop when he acted on the advice of one of his teachers and successfully auditioned for a place on the acting course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1980, the Principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, selected a scene from an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, which McGann co-wrote with Bruce Payne, to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II in one of her rare visits to the academy. Kenneth Branagh performed a soliloquy from Hamlet at the same event.