Honorary degree for actor Andy Serkis

By John Freeman on July 19, 2019

Lancaster University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E. Smith and actor Andy Serkis. Photo courtesy Lancaster University

Actor Andy Serkis has received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Lancaster University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark E. Smith at this year’s graduation ceremonies.

A world-renowned actor, director and producer, Andy Serkis has taken leading roles in some of cinema’s biggest movie franchises. A pioneer of performance capture, his roles as Gollum (Lord of the Rings), Supreme Leader Snoke (Star Wars) and Caesar (Planet of the Apes) have become legendary, alongside significant non-performance-capture roles, including Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.

A Lancaster alumnus, Andy’s first acting role came in Barrie Keefe’s Gotcha. As a member of of Lancaster’s Dukes Theatre, he took a lead role in their first Theatre-in-the-Park promenade production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A successful stage career followed, before movie stardom beckoned.

Andy has also most recently taken to a career as a film director – serving as second unit director on The Hobbit franchise, and then his directorial debut Breathe (2017), through his company, The Imaginarium.

Andy remains a leading innovator in CGI and performance capture, including through directing Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, released in 2018, also voicing Mowgli’s friend, Baloo the bear.

• The Imaginarium

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.