Trevor Eve

Biography: A British film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the lead in the detective series Shoestring and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.

Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, the son of Elsie (nee Hamer) and Stewart Frederick Eve. His father was English, and his mother was Welsh. Educated at Bromsgrove School, he had little acting experience during his school days. In his early years Eve wanted to be an artist but was dissuaded from this career path by his father for financial reasons. He instead initially studied architecture at Kingston Polytechnic College in London, but dropped out of the course to enrol at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

Eve has enjoyed a long and successful acting career on stage, television and film, with his career spanning back to the 1970s. One of his early stage successes was portraying Paul McCartney in Willy Russell?s play John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert at the Lyric Theatre in London?s West End in 1974.

His first major film role was in Dracula (1979), playing Jonathan Harker. Eve appeared in Hindle Wakes (1976) directed by Laurence Olivier as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents TV series. In 1979 and 1980 he became famous throughout the UK for playing the role of the private investigator Eddie Shoestring in Shoestring.

Trevor Eve played Tom Schwartz in the TV series Lace in 1984. He co-starred with Natasha Richardson and Stephen Rea in the 1987 London stage production of Cole Porter?s High Society.

In 1994, Trevor starred in the movie Don?t Get Me Started.

He played Superintendent Albert Tyburn in the 1998 Carlton Television/WGBH Boston television series Heat of the Sun, which was filmed in Zimbabwe.

In September 2000 Eve starred in the pilot episode of the award-winning BBC drama series Waking the Dead. Eve plays the central role of Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd, the head of a team of CID detectives, the Cold Case Unit. Eve has continued to play Boyd throughout the subsequent nine series of the drama, until the show?s final episode on 11 April 2011.

In 2004 he played the role of Velior in Troy, with Brad Pitt. Following this he played Dr Patrick Stowe, a fertility expert in The Family Man in 2006.

Eve co-owns a TV company called Projector Productions which produced Twelfth Night for Channel 4.

In April 2008 Eve starred as game show host and TV personality Hughie Green in the BBC Four biographical film Hughie Green, Most Sincerely.

In 2010, Eve played the father of the female lead, also his daughter, in She?s Out of My League, and starred as Peter Manson in the ITV/Mammoth Screen remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire.

In January 2011, he starred in the three-part ITV drama Kidnap and Ransom, filmed on location in South Africa.

In 1982 he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for "Best Actor in a New Play" (1981 theatre season), for his performance in Children of a Lesser God.

In 1997 he was awarded his second Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his 1996 performance in Uncle Vanya at the Noel Coward Theatre.

In 1979, Eve met actress Sharon Maughan when they both had parts in the West End show Filumena. In 1980, they married and now have three children, Alice Sophia (born 1982) who is also an actress, Jack (born 1985) and George (born 1994). Eve, Maughan and Alice all appeared in She?s Out of My League casting as father, mother and daughter. Eve appeared as Maughan?s ex-husband in the famous television advertisements for Nescafe Gold Blend coffee.

Eve?s interests include golf, painting, squash and tennis. In 1995, while playing polo, he was seriously injured when he fell badly from his pony. Temporarily unable to act, he took up production.