July 15, 1985

What's in a Name? Actor Mark Lindsay Finds Out

By William Plummer

Unknown English actor Mark Lindsay, 30, never tried to hide who he was. He told the director his given name when he auditioned for the role of John Lennon in the upcoming NBC-TV movie Imagine: The Story of John and Yoko. "How bizarre," was all the director said. That seemed to be that. Mark got the part. In fact it seemed that Mark had finally gotten his first big break—until the movie company's publicity types thought hard about Mark's given name and suggested he be given a gentle heave-ho. Mark Lindsay's real name, you see, is Mark Chapman, which, grotesque but true, also happens to be the name of the man who on Dec. 8, 1980 murdered John Lennon.

The movie folks connected with Imagine and the hiring and firing of Lindsay seem to be embarrassed but hamstrung by the incident. "The name problem didn't really occur to us at first," says executive producer John McMahon. "When it became apparent to us, it just seemed inappropriate to have an actor named Mark Chapman playing John Lennon, especially since we are focusing on the love story between John and Yoko. It would be like having an actor named Lee Harvey Oswald play John F. Kennedy. We thought it was in the best interest of the production to recast."

Lindsay, meanwhile, despite being drummed out of his first major role, is being a good sport. "I have no malice toward anybody at all," he says. "I am trying to keep a reasonable head on it. Of course I'm disappointed. I'm only human after all."

Mark explains that he began to use his middle name "Lindsay" for the stage when he applied for his Equity card and found there already was someone using the name "Mark Chapman." He also remembers being the butt of a tasteless joke after Lennon's slaying. "It didn't click with me at all," says Lindsay, who was touring with a rep company at the time. "When I came back a friend said, 'I knew you were desperate to be famous, but I didn't think you were that desperate.' If people were making jokes then, think of the jokes that would be around when I was doing the film." He has only sympathy for Yoko Ono. "The last thing I'd want to do would be to rake up bad memories for her."

Only if his money runs out will Mark return to his fallback vocation, bricklaying, a trade as much a part of his background as acting. The second child of a peripatetic bricklayer who moved the family from London to Sierra Leone when Mark was 3, Lindsay says his family encouraged his nascent interest in acting: "I used to imitate people, and my parents egged me on." As for his showbiz pedigree, he says, "You won't believe this, but my great-great-grandmother came over [to England] with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. She was an Oglala Sioux Indian and used to do juggling tricks." Lindsay later studied acting in England, toured with a rep company Time Bandits and Hawk the Slayer.

He's philosophic about the big chance that got away. "I believe that got away. "I believe that for every door that closes, there's another one that opens." He may have some cause for this sunniness. Lately he's been approached by the William Morris Agency in L.A. and there are, he says, "a few roles coming in. I should have a film to do in six months or so." Given his druthers he'd like to play Errol Flynn, something swashbuckling where he could show off his fencing and riding skills. He would gladly settle, however, for a part in a spaghetti western. Until then, he says, "I've always got my bricklaying."

   Contributors:

         Jonathan Cooper.

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