Dean Sullivan (born 7 June 1955) is an English actor and director, best known for playing Jimmy Corkhill in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

soap opera '' Brookside'' (19862003).

Early life

Sullivan was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

on 7 June 1955. He graduated from Lancaster University with a

B.Ed. A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order fo ...

(Hons) and was a primary school teacher for six years before becoming an actor. He continued to work as a substitute teacher between roles before ''Brookside'' became his full-time job.

Career

Sullivan was a member of Liverpool's

Epstein Theatre The Epstein Theatre, built in 1913, is one of many theatres in Liverpool, England. It has been threatened with closure several times, but reopened in May 2011 after a £1.2m refurbishment. It has now been renamed the Epstein Theatre, in honour ...

(then called the Neptune Theatre) and appeared in the Willy Russell play ''

Breezeblock Park William Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are ''Educating Rita'', ''Shirley Valentine'', '' Blood Brothers'' and ''Our Day Out''. Early life Russell was born in Whiston, Lancash ...

'' and the Phil Redmond play ''Soaplights'' at the

Liverpool Playhouse The Liverpool Playhouse is a theatre in Williamson Square in the city of Liverpool, England. It originated in 1866 as a music hall, and in 1911 developed into a repertory theatre. As such it nurtured the early careers of many actors and actre ...

. He joined '' Brookside'' in February 1986 and remained with the programme until it ended in November 2003, featuring in many of its most popular storylines during that time. In 1994, he offered to resign from the series when reading in his scripts that his character was to take

ecstasy Ecstasy may refer to: * Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness * Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria * Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand outside o ...

; he reportedly urged producers to kill his character off in an attempt to warn youngsters about the dangers of taking drugs, but his offer was rejected. Sullivan has organised " murder weekends" with his company, The Murder Game. In 2001, he appeared on '' Lily Savage's Blankety Blank''. In 2008, he appeared in the sitcom ''Terry Across the Mersey'', and presented a daily show on

City Talk 105.9 Radio City Talk (previously City Talk 105.9) was an Independent Local Radio station in Liverpool, England. In May 2020, it was announced by Bauer that Radio City Talk would cease broadcasting, after concluding that the station was no longer fi ...

from the Radio City Tower until May 2009. However, after

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

ruled that City Talk would also be allowed to play music, he was dropped from the schedule. Recently, he took part in a protest against violence in Liverpool as part of a march organised by charity Term Time. Sullivan was keen to buy Brookside Close, the purpose-built street which was created for the series and was later sold in December 2008, as he wanted to revive the show. However, the houses were sold to a different buyer. In August 2011, he expressed interest in reprising his role as Jimmy Corkhill in other soap operas.

References

External links

* English male soap opera actors 1955 births Living people Male actors from Liverpool English gay actors 21st-century LGBT people {{UK-tv-actor-1950s-stub