Dean Sullivan was born on the 7th of June 1955 in Liverpool. Dean, who grew up in South Liverpool with his sister and five brothers, went to Lancaster University from where he graduated with a B.Ed. (Hons) and went into teaching. He was a primary school teacher for six years before turning to acting and was a member of the Liverpool based Neptune Theatre Company, ( now The Epstein), appearing in the Willy Russell stage play 'Breezeblock Park' and the Phil Redmond play 'Soaplights' at the Liverpool Playhouse. His other stage highlights include; playing Scullery in the North West premiere of Jim Cartwright’s 'Road' (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), a critically acclaimed North West theatre tour of one man monologue 'Chip in the Sugar’ by Alan Bennett and the world premiere of 'Stand Up! the Musical' (with Lionel Blair, Darren Day and Billy Pearce) at the Floral Pavilion, New Brighton. It was in Brookside (1986) that he had his big TV break and which made his name, however he continued to work as a substitute teacher between roles before 'Brookside' became his full-time job. He joined the soap in February 1986, playing Jimmy Corkhill, and remained with the show until it was axed in November 2003. During that time he featured in many of its ratings-pulling storylines, including those around mental health, breakdowns, robbery, hit and run drug driving resulting in death, drug addiction issues and many, many more. In his early days Jimmy was noted as a rogue, often wheeling and dealing around jobs throughout his early years on the Close, during which he only appeared sporadically. As time went on it was clear that Jimmy was a caring family man, however he had his share of rants when things didn't go quite right. Jimmy would often do what he thought was right for his family, especially when it came to his daughter Lindsey. Jimmy also was a known ex-drug addict who once relapsed.
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| The Corkhill family, (L-R) Claire Sweeney, Dean Sullivan, Sue Jenkins, and George Christopher, |
In 1994, he offered to resign from the series when reading in his scripts that his character was to take ecstasy; he urged producers to kill his character off in an attempt to warn youngsters about the danger of taking drugs. However, his offer to resign was rejected and he remained in the series until it was discontinued nearly a decade later. In 1998, he met the Queen at a showbiz reception at Windsor Castle and in 1999 was nominated for 'The British Soap Award for Best Actor'. The following year he and Sue Jenkins won 'The British Soap Award for Best On-Screen Partnership'. After losing out to Martin Kemp in 2002 for 'British Soap Award for Best Actor' in 2003 he was given 'The British Soap Award for Special Achievement'.
Dean also had extensive experience in theatre, directing and writing, having run his own successful theatre production company and directed several shows for the National Trust. He set up his own production company with former Brookside actress Tina Malone and directed the short drama 'Rueben Don't Take Your Love To Town' (2004), written by Tina. Dean also directed numerous films and organised 'murder weekends' with his company 'The Murder Game'. He lately filmed a sitcom 'Terry Across the Mersey' and up until May 2009 was presenting a daily show on City Talk 105.9 from St. John's Beacon. However after the recent Ofcom ruling that City Talk would also be allowed to play music he was dropped from the schedule. Recently, he took part in a protest against violence in Liverpool as part of a march organised by charity Term Time. |
| At the British Soap Awards |
Dean was keen to buy Brookside Close, the purpose-built street which was created for the series and was later sold in December 2008, as he wanted to revive the show. However, the houses were sold to a different buyer. In August 2011, he expressed interest in reprising his role as Jimmy Corkhill in other soap operas. Other super TV roles for Dean have included lead guest parts in BBC’s 'Doctors' (2005), ITV’s 'Crime Stories' (2012) and 'Forward Slash/Jobs' (2019). In 2022 he starred as father Donatello in the short film 'Forgotten World', with a storyline that begins, 'first they banned books. Then they burned them. Now religion has been outlawed and...'
Sadly Dean passed away peacefully on Wednesday the 29th of November 2023 following a short illness.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-linda.html
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