Jason Donovan
 |
Donovan on the cover of the "Especially For You" single with Kylie Minogue |
Jason Sean Donovan (born
1 June,
1968) is an
Australian actor and singer, with world-wide record sales of over 30 million copies (singles, albums, compilation inclusions, etc.) . In recent years he has mainly worked as a leading man in stage musicals in the United Kingdom.
Born in
Malvern,
Melbourne, son of
Terence Donovan, also a well-known Australian actor (regularly appearing in the top-rated police series
Division 4 and much later playing Doug Willis in the long-running television Australian soap opera
Neighbours), and his half-sister is current
Neighbours star
Stephanie McIntosh. Jason attended the
De La Salle College (Australia).
He made his name as an actor (his screen debut was in 1980, only thre parts in between) in
Neighbours as the second incarnation (after
Darius Perkins) of the character Scott Robinson. After leaving
Neighbours in 1989, Donovan moved to
England, and worked there as a singer and actor, but none of about twenty parts since had a similar notoriety; yet he still regularly appears in various talk and musical shows as himself.
In 1988 he joined
Neighbours co-star
Kylie Minogue in signing for
Stock, Aitken and Waterman's record label
PWL and he started to release singles which appealed to his pre-pubescent fanbase. His duet of the song "Especially For You", with Minogue, was the fourth-highest selling single in the
United Kingdom that year, and 17th in Australia for 1989. Donovan and Minogue dated for a time, during this period. Donovan became the biggest pop star of the time with the album
Ten Good Reasons, which yielded two solo #1 singles in the UK with "Too Many Broken Hearts" and a cover of
Brian Hyland's "Sealed With A Kiss". Between 1988 and 1991 alone, he enjoyed no fewer than 17 hit singles in the UK. His third and final solo album, "All Around The World", was never released in his home country of Australia. He spent a long run playing the character of Joseph in the West End musical
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and had a third UK #1 single with one of its tracks, "Any Dream Will Do".
In 1992, he sued
The Face magazine for libel over allegations that he was
homosexual. He won the case, but lost credibility in the process.
His career later suffered from
drug problems. In 1999, he admitted that he still used
cocaine, saying 'I still have a joint and I still take coke, but not as much as I did two years ago.' (see [
1]).
Jason enjoyed success playing Frank 'N' Furter in the musical
The Rocky Horror Show; on the eve of its London premiere, Jason was famously interviewed by
Dom Joly for the cult
British TV sketch show,
Trigger Happy TV. In it, a drenched Dom claimed to have been attacked by an irate ice-cream van proprietor, who had supposedly hurled him into the serpentine, resulting in his dishevelled appearance. Jason, bemused and outraged at Dom's account, continually interjected, demanding to know the motivation for such an unprovoked attack - at one point asking him, 'Did you punch the f*** out of him?' At this point, the phony ice cream van man appeared on the scene, whereupon Dom broke off the interview to tackle him. The tables were soon turned however, and Dom ended up being chased down a side-street. The piece concluded with Jason - at this point utterly bemused - asking questions to the camera, which were unfortunately not audible.
Jason suffers from the skin condition
psoriasis (see[
2]). According to recent media profiles, his two young children and a steady relationship with their mother have tamed him substantially. He has begun to get more steady work as a serious actor, notably in a role in the high-brow medical-legal drama
MDA (2003), on Australia's ABC network.
In late 2004, he was headlining in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the
London Palladium in England. He finished his original run on
13 March 2005, but was then invited back from June onwards to play in the final two months of the show, until its closure on
4 September 2005. Following this, he has toured the UK performing a few gigs and will return to the stage in 2006 to star in a UK tour of
Stephen Sondheim's
Sweeney Todd, from January. After this, he has confirmed he will return to Melbourne to star in David Eldrige's Australian transfer of the successful London drama
Festen, before continuing with his intention to make a comeback as a
folk rock singer.
Donovan recently lent his voice to the
PlayStation 2 game
"Buzz!".
His phone number, 0403 527 663, has recently been circulating around the web in
Australia, due to an (see[
3]) image, which was taken in
Sydney recently. It appeared that Jason was trying to sell his car, and unwittingly released his mobile phone number to the public. As of
10 September, his answering machine had (see [
4]) this message on it, because he was frustrated by the number of calls he was receiving for no particular reason.
Virgin has since placed (see [
5]) advertisements in several high-profile Australian newspapers, urging people not to call Mr. Donovan, one of their customers. Virgin Mobile has since admitted the photos were all part of a marketing ploy. Virgin also ran TV advertisements showing Mr. Donovan answering prank calls, asking the viewer not to call him, then displaying his number.
Singles
*1988 "Nothing Can Divide Us" - #5 UK / #3 AUS
*1988 "Especially For You" (duet with
Kylie Minogue) - #1 UK / #2 AUS
*1989 "Too Many Broken Hearts" - #1 UK / #7 AUS
*1989 "Sealed With A Kiss" - #1 UK / #8 AUS
*1989 "Every Day (I Love You More)" - #2 UK / #43 AUS
*1989 "When You Come Back to Me" - #2 UK / #40 AUS
*1989 "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (with Band Aid II) - #1 UK / #30 AUS
*1990 "Hang On To Your Love" - #8 UK
*1990 "Another Night" - #18 UK
*1990 "Rhythm Of The Rain" - #9 UK / #44 AUS
*1990 "I'm Doing Fine" - #22 UK
*1991 "R.S.V.P" - #17 UK
*1991 "Any Dream Will Do" - #1 UK / #92 AUS
*1991 "Happy Together" - #10 UK
*1991 "Joseph Mega Remix" - #13 UK (also shown as "Joseph Megamix")
*1992 "Mission Of Love" - #26 UK
*1992 "As Time Goes By" - #26 UK
*1993 "All Around The World" - #41 UK
Albums
*1989
Ten Good Reasons - #1 UK/ # 5 AUS
*1990
Between The Lines - #2 UK
*1993
All Around The World - #27 UK
Other Albums and Compilations
*1989
The Other Side Of Jason Donovan (Japanese release)
*1991
Greatest Hits - #9 UK
*1991
Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (musical soundtrack, with the 1991 London Revival Cast) - #1 UK
*2000
The Very Best Of Jason Donovan*[
6]
IMDb*[
7] Scott Robinson on Neighbours Girls and Boys
*
English fansite (English)
*
English fansite (English)
*
German fansite (German and English)
