- published: 08 Feb 2010
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Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch, 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. Initially labelled as an imitator of Bob Dylan, Donovan quickly developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music (notably calypso). He has variously lived in Scotland, London, California and Ireland, and currently lives with his family in County Cork in Ireland.
Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan shot to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!. Initially signing with the British label Pye Records in 1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music vein, but after signing a new contract with the US label Epic Records his popularity rapidly spread to the US and other countries. After extricating himself from his original management contract, he began a long and successful collaboration with Mickie Most, one of the leading British independent record producers of the era, scoring a string of hits in the UK, the US, Australia and other countries. His successful records in the 1960s included the UK hits "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" in 1965, while "Sunshine Superman" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year, and reached #2 in Britain. Donovan was the first artist to be signed to CBS/Epic Records by then-new Administrative Vice President Clive Davis, who later became head of the CBS Record empire.
Mark Donovan (born 12 October 1968) is a Welsh character actor best known for grotesque roles in productions such as Shaun of the Dead, Black Books, In Bruges, and Murder Investigation Team. He also played a brief scene of Hamlet in an episode of the David Renwick comedy-drama, Love Soup. His stage roles include Gozark in Singin' in the Rain and Inspector Clay in Plan 9 from Outer Space.
He is also an accomplished voice actor, providing voiceovers on the long-running BBC news programme Newsnight and extensively with Big Finish Productions on their range of audio dramas. He has appeared in the The Tomorrow People, Dalek Empire, 2000 AD, Sarah Jane Smith, Bernice Summerfield and Luther Arkwright plays, but is best known for his various appearances in the Doctor Who range, most notably as the companion Shayde in the Fifth Doctor play No Place Like Home.
In October 2004 Donovan appeared on the cover of international magazine Fangoria to illustrate the magazine's coverage of Shaun of the Dead.
Actors: Paul Hillier (miscellaneous crew), Anthony Head (actor), Chris Wilson (miscellaneous crew), Angelica Pressello (miscellaneous crew), David Schaal (actor), Neil Cairns (miscellaneous crew), Martin Trenaman (actor), Rosa Romero (producer), Justin Miller (miscellaneous crew), Alex Macqueen (actor), Henry Lloyd-Hughes (actor), Angie Conners (miscellaneous crew), Darren O'Connell (miscellaneous crew), Tarik Freitekh (producer), Harry Dixon (miscellaneous crew),
Genres: Comedy,Actors: Richard Venture (actor), Woodrow Parfrey (actor), Martine Beswick (actress), Carol Burnett (actress), Harriet Medin (actress), Dina Merrill (actress), Peter Matz (composer), Cynnie Troup (miscellaneous crew), Keith Michell (actor), Rex Robbins (actor), Joe Seneca (actor), Ray Aghayan (producer), Joan Tewkesbury (director), Joan Tewkesbury (writer), Alberto Vazquez (actor),
Genres: Drama, Romance,