Mark attended stage school in London, England as a young child and made his film debut in The Counterfeit Constable (1964) at the age of six. He made countless TV appearances and became very well known in England. Worldwide fame developed as a result of his portrayal of a stuttering child in Our Mother's House (1967). Producers of Oliver! (1968) ...
I tried everything that was going - drink, dope, acid, whatever was on offer. Coke was selling at £60 a gram and I was buying it for myself and my house guests at the rate of four grams a day. I abused it mercilessly.
2
I've no regrets, you live and learn from your mistakes and I've had opportunities to travel and meet people that I might not otherwise have had. Obviously it was more glamorous then, but I certainly prefer what I do now.
3
Michael was absolutely sharp as a razor, really focused. It's the best I've known him in a long time. He said he couldn't wait to get back on stage and that his kids were going to see him perform - it was one of the main reasons for him doing the shows. That's why the whole thing is such a shock. I've never seen him taking anything or any evidence that he was on something. I'm an acupuncturist. One time he got a bad spider bite that wasn't healing. I offered to treat it but he said, 'No, I hate needles, hate them.' That's why I find it so bizarre that he was supposed to be having these injections. We were on the phone for about an hour and all of the kids spoke to him. We were talking about the show. He said he'd been rehearsing and he'd just done a Pop Idol-type competition with the dancers. We wanted to sit at the front and he said we could have the whole front row. He was supposed to be coming over next week for rehearsals. People have said he was suffering from stage fright but I don't think Michael ever had stage fright. Performing was what charged him. He told Harriet he wanted her to come on stage with him when he sang his song Dirty Diana. He was really fired up. I asked him what was in the show but he didn't want to tell us too much. He said, 'I want it to be a surprise. You're going to be amazed by it.' He was so excited. His children had never seen him perform and he wanted them to see Daddy at what Daddy did best. That's what Michael does. He loved the attention. He loved being 'Michael Jackson'. He was driven by it. I was with him in the car on the way and he was really relaxed. Afterwards the whole family went to stay with him at The Lanesborough hotel. We went out to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal and spent the whole weekend with him. He did not look like a person who would drop dead a couple of months later. He wasn't unfit. He showed no signs of being unwell.
4
On meeting Michael Jackson in 1982: I was with my sister at the time and she nearly fell off the chair. A few days later we went to see him at the Montcalm Hotel in Park Lane. He came over, gave me a hug and said, 'Mark, it's so nice to meet you.' I was very nervous but we had tea and then ordered up burgers and chatted. We shared a common baseline. He was much more famous than me but we had both been child stars and we were the same age. He said that in the teeny mags in America it would be him on one page, me on another and David Cassidy on another. He always used to say we were like the positive and negative, the black and white.
5
Michael loved junk food. In March 2007 he came back to Cheltenham with us. It was the first time he'd been here. We watched DVDs and the kids played computer games. I think we had pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch and in the evening we had fish and chips from the local shop. Michael loved fish, chips and mushy peas with lots of ketchup. It was his favourite thing. Wherever we were, whatever restaurant, he'd have to have fish and chips. Everyone imagines he'd have some kind of weird macrobiotic diet, but he wasn't like that. The thing people never understood about Michael was that he was very clever at illusions. The thing with the veils was just an act. He used to say to me, 'I do it to create an illusion. I'm an illusionist.' We saw Billy Elliot and he was quite shocked at the language. He said he wouldn't have taken the children if he had known. He was very firm with his own children. They weren't spoilt. He was much more normal than people realised. We'd go out for dinner or a coffee and he would notice women walking past and say, 'She's so cute, she's got a nice tush,' but then he would be very apologetic. In many ways Michael was asexual, but he had an eye for beauty.
6
We were together in Miami when he saw it. Michael was just dumbstruck. He didn't shout. I never heard him once raise his voice his whole life but he was very upset. Most of all he just seemed confused by it all. That was Michael. He didn't see a problem with it. He just loved children. He saw himself as the Pied Piper. At Neverland he had an enormous oil painting covering one wall and it was Michael as the Pied Piper leading hundreds of children of all colours, races, sizes. Some were in wheelchairs. Michael was dancing and these kids were in a huge crocodile line behind him. He always told me he wrote his songs for the age group of ten to fourteen. He would never do anything to hurt anyone and I don't believe that anything ever happened with Gavin Arvizo. When I thought about what Michael did for that family, it made me sick to think that they could do that to him. The experience did make him more withdrawn. He took himself away and hid from everyone.
7
Jack was like a brother to me during the making of the film and was always very protective. I gained a lot. The chemistry between us was just something very, very special, which lasted throughout our lives. [Remarks following the death of Jack Wild]
#
Fact
1
Mark is an osteopath (one who treats patients with joint or muscle pain) in Cheltenham, England. He and his ex-wife, Jane, lived in a three-story Georgian house with their four children until their 2005 divorce. [2004]
2
Gave up acting in the early Eighties, but was coaxed back to acting, for the first time in over 30 years, in 2012 as King Harold in a historical drama, 1066, about the Norman conquest of England in the year 1066.
3
In an interview with the British newspaper News of the World in August 2009 he confirmed that he had donated sperm to his longtime friend Michael Jackson as a gift. He claims that Michael's daughter Paris-Michael K. Jackson could be his own child and expressed a willingness to take a paternity test to prove either way.
4
He is of Russian Jewish and English descent.
5
Remained close friends with his Oliver! (1968) co-star Ron Moody.
6
Made several films in Italy when he was not receiving film offers in Britain.
7
By the age of fourteen, was earning £100,000 a year as he starred in an average of two films a year.
8
His singing voice in Oliver! (1968) was dubbed by Kathe Green, although this was not made public until 1988.
9
He was a close, long-time friend of American rock singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, and they were godfathers to each other's children. Lester spent Christmas 2003 at the Neverland Ranch, and vocally defended Jackson throughout his trial on child molestation charges in 2005.
10
He is a black belt in karate.
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
1066
pre-production
King Harold II
Finding Driscoll
filming
Dominic Driscoll
Metered
2011
Short
Crossed Swords
1977
Edward / Tom
Closed Up-Tight
1975
Love Under the Elms
1975
Franz
Scalawag
1973
Jamie
Sotsugyô ryokô
1973
Mike Richard
Senza ragione
1973
Lennox Duncan
What the Peeper Saw
1972
Marcus
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
1972
Christopher Coombs
Black Beauty
1971
Joe
Melody
1971
Daniel
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
1970
TV Series
Davey
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
1970
TV Movie
Davey
Sudden Terror
1970
Ziggy
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
1969
TV Series
Mark Helmore
Then Came Bronson
1969
TV Series
John Beaman
Run Wild, Run Free
1969
Philip / Philip Ransome
Oliver!
1968
Oliver
Our Mother's House
1967
Jiminee
Fahrenheit 451
1966
Second Schoolboy (uncredited)
Secret Agent
1966
TV Series
Boy
Court Martial
1965
TV Series
Paolo Stevens
Spaceflight IC-1: An Adventure in Space
1965
Don Saunders
The Human Jungle
1964
TV Series
Small boy
The Counterfeit Constable
1964
Gérald
Assistant Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
Metered
2011
Short assistant director
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
The 10 Faces of Michael Jackson
2015
TV Movie documentary archive
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Metered
2011
Short special thanks
A Sense of Carol Reed
2006
Video documentary short special thanks
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Who's Doing the Dishes?
2016
TV Series
Himself
Loose Women
2016
TV Series
Himself
The One Show
2016
TV Series
Himself
Pointless Celebrities
2015
TV Series
Himself - Contestant
The 10 Faces of Michael Jackson
2015
TV Movie documentary
Himself - Longtime Friend & Godfather to Michael's Children
Secret Voices of Hollywood
2013
TV Movie documentary
Himself - Actor, Oliver!
The Unforgettable Harry Secombe
2010
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Gone Too Soon
2010
Documentary
Himself
Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story
2010
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Michael Jackson: The Inside Story - What Killed the King of Pop?
2010
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Celebrity Shock List 2009
2009
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Entertainment Tonight
2009
TV Series
Himself
5 News
2009
TV Series
Himself
This Morning
2009
TV Series
Himself
The Podge and Rodge Show
2008
TV Series
Himself
I'd Do Anything
2008
TV Series
Himself - on screen contributor (uncredited)
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
2007
TV Series
Himself
British Film Forever
2007
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
Celebrate 'Oliver!'
2005
TV Movie
Himself
The 100 Greatest Family Films
2005
TV Movie documentary
Himself
After They Were Famous
1999-2005
TV Series documentary
Himself
The 100 Greatest Musicals
2003
TV Movie documentary
Himself
The Salon
2003
TV Series
Himself
GMTV
2003
TV Series
Himself
Louis, Martin & Michael
2003
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Child Stars
2002
TV Movie
Himself
Wogan
1987
TV Series
Himself - Guest
Film Night
1971
TV Series
Himself
The David Frost Show
1969
TV Series
Himself
The 41st Annual Academy Awards
1969
TV Special
Himself - Co-Presenter: Honorary Award to Onna White
$700,000
