David Suchet

David Suchet studied at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Wellington School and National Youth Theatre. The recorded working language is English. Distinctions recorded are Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Knight Bachelor and Malice Domestic Poirot Award.

David Suchet was born on 2 May 1946 in the Paddington area of London, the son of Jack Suchet and his wife Joan Patricia (née Jarché; 1916–1992), an actress. Jack emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932, trained to be a physician at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, in 1933, and became an obstetrician and gynaecologist. Suchet's father was of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, the son of Izidor Suchedowitz, originally from Kretinga in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. At some point, the family name was recorded as "Schohet", a Yiddish word, from Hebrew shohet, defining the profession of kosher butcher. Suchet's father changed his surname to Suchet while living in South Africa. David's mother was born in England and was Anglican. She was of Russian-Jewish descent on her father's side, and English Anglican on her mother's side. He was raised without religion, but became a practising Anglican in 1986, and was confirmed in 2006. Suchet and his brothers, John and Peter, attended Grenham House boarding school in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent. Then, after attending another independent school, Wellington School in Somerset, he took an interest in acting and joined the National Youth Theatre at the age of 16. He trained and graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he later became a vice president, retiring in 2018.

Suchet began his acting career at the Gateway Theatre, Chester in 1969. He then appeared in many reps, including Worthing, Birmingham, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Liverpool Playhouse, and the Watermill Theatre. In 1973, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1981–82, he played Bolingbroke in Richard II opposite Alan Howard. In 1993 he played "John" in the drama Oleanna at the Royal Court Theatre. It was directed by Harold Pinter, and co-starred Lia Williams as "Carol". He made his West End debut opposite Saskia Reeves in the Kempinski play Separation, at the Comedy Theatre in 1987. In 1996–97 he played opposite Dame Diana Rigg in the West End production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was featured as Salieri from 1998 to 2000 in the Broadway production Amadeus. In 2007, at the Chichester Festival Theatre, he played Cardinal Benelli in The Last Confession, about the death of Pope John Paul I. In 2014, he reprised the role of Benelli in the Australian tour of the play. He has been starring as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at the Vaudeville Theatre in London since June 2015 and on tour. In January 2022, Suchet had a three-week residency at the Harold Pinter Theatre performing Poirot and More, A Retrospective.

After starting work at Stratford-on-Avon in 1973, Suchet had a narrowboat named Prima Donna fitted out to his specification as a residence there. He later became vice-president of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Trust, whose most challenging achievement has been securing funding, via an appeal and from influencing government decisions, concerning the building of the new M6 Toll motorway, where it cuts the lines of the Lichfield Canal and the Hatherton Canal, both of which the Trust wishes to see reopened. He was voted in as chairman of the River Thames Alliance in November 2005. At the July 2006 Annual General Meeting of the River Thames Alliance, he agreed to continue being chairman for another year. He is a patron of the River Thames Boat Project.

In 1972, Suchet first met his wife, Sheila Ferris, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where they were both working; he says that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her, and that it took a while to persuade her to go out for a meal with him. They were married on 30 June 1976; the couple have a son and daughter. Suchet is the brother of John Suchet, a former national news presenter for Five News, and former ITN newscaster, and presenter of the evening concert on Classic FM (2020). Suchet's maternal grandfather, James Jarché, was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot (1909) and the Siege of Sidney Street. Suchet first became interested in photography when his grandfather gave him a Leica M3 camera as a present. The Jarché family was originally named Jarchy, and were Russian Jews. Suchet's great-great-great-grandfather, George Jezzard, was a master mariner. He was captain of the brig Hannah, which sank nine miles off the coast of Suffolk during a violent storm on 28 May 1860, in which more than 100 vessels sank and at least 40 people died. Jezzard and six others of his crew were saved by local rescuers just before their ship sank.

Raised without religion, in 1986 Suchet underwent a religious conversion after having read Romans 8 in his hotel room. Soon afterwards, he was baptised into the Church of England. Suchet stated in an interview with Strand Magazine: "I'm a Christian by faith. I like to think it sees me through a great deal of my life. I very much believe in the principles of Christianity and the principles of most religions, actually—that one has to abandon oneself to a higher good." In 2012, Suchet made a documentary for the BBC on his personal hero, Saint Paul, to discover what he was like as a man by charting his evangelistic journey around the Mediterranean. In 2014, he filmed a documentary about the apostle Saint Peter. In November 2012, the British Bible Society appointed David Suchet and Dr Paula Gooder as new vice-presidents. They joined the existing vice-presidents: John Sentamu (Archbishop of York), Vincent Nichols (Archbishop of Westminster), Barry Morgan (Archbishop of Wales), David F. Ford (Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge), Joel Edwards (International Director of Micah Challenge) and Lord Alton of Liverpool. Following the time when he bade farewell to his role as Hercule Poirot, Suchet fulfilled a 27-year ambition to make an audio recording of The Bible's New International Version, which was released in April 2014.

In August 2014, Suchet was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the September 2014 referendum on that issue.

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (2006)

David Suchet interviewed by Clive Anderson BBC, Wogan 1990s The Agatha Christie code ITV 2005 David Suchet on playing Hercule Poirot – Dead Man’s Folly Q&A – BFI David Suchet Final Poirot scene hardest of my career BBC 2013 Au revoir Hercule Poirot – BBC News Poirot's David Suchet ITV The David Suchet Interview by Studio 10 (Australia) The ultra-smooth talking David Suchet aka Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot drops by Studio 10. Premier.tv: David Suchet talks about Poirot Holly and Phil chat with David Suchet BBC – 13 November 2013 The Mystery of Agatha Christie ITV Perspectives, 2013. Agatha Christie BBC documentary Being Poirot BBC documentary (2014) Today Tonight – David Suchet Channel Seven, Perth (Australia) 2014 David Suchet on Poirot's Death Loose Women ITV 2015 Travels With Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet, More4 2025 Mysteries on the Nile with Sir David Suchet, 2026

David Suchet on the Orient Express (TV documentary) (2010) David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Paul (BBC documentary) (2012) David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Peter (BBC Documentary) (2015)

The One Show: David Suchet – Interview (30 April 2015) BBC Long Day's Journey into Night David Suchet on acting, Digital Theatre Plus 2013 Roles, Characters, Empathy: David Suchet (On) Acting 2012 Suchet receives CBE BCC 2011 David Suchet, Actor – A Birthday Tribute 2011 International Emmy Winner – David Suchet BBC 2009 David Suchet – Who Do You Think You Are BBC 2009 Cannes Interview with David Suchet May 1997