Nick Tate was born in Sydney, Australia on June 18th, to the well-known Australian theatrical couple John Tate and Neva Carr-Glyn. Apart from a couple of appearances as a child actor, Nick was drawn to the production side of television at first, training to be a television director. But soon the lure of the lights pulled him in front of the cameras.
At 21, Nick joined an actors’ workshop and by 1964 he was the supporting lead in the Australian television series The Purple Jacaranda and the co-lead in the award winning My Brother Jack. His parents were divorced and Tate decided to follow his father to England, picking up roles in series such as The Troubleshooters, Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. One of Nick’s earliest roles, on arriving in England, was Private James in A Pior fo Private James and then with his father in BBC’s Sherlock Holmes, episode The Boscom Valley Mystery.
Film roles followed with parts in A Man for All Seasons, Submarine X-1 and The Battle of Britain, before his big break, returning to Australia to play Nicholas the Gallant in a musical version of The Cantebury Tales. He was asked to stay on in Australia and join his father as co-stars in a television series called Dynasty (no relation to the later US series) which ran for two seasons. Nick also appeared in several episodes of the detective series Boney in the recurring role of Sgt. Peter Irwin.
More theatre work involved Nick in productions of The Real Inspector Hound, An Awful Rose, and Don in Don’s Party, which was a smash hit. Nick then played the lead in two pilots The Racing Game and The Chaser, but Australia couldn’t afford these series, so Nick headed back to the UK in 1973.
It was here that the producer of The Chaser, Bruce Gingell, introduced Nick to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. He won the role of Astronaut Capt. Alan Carter in Space 1999. Nick was originally contracted for only one episode, but Nick’s character suited the series so well that he was asked to stay and by series end he was getting most of the fan mail.
At the end of the first season, Nick was invited back to Australia by Fred Schepisi to play one of the lead roles in the award winning film The Devi’s Playground, for which Nick won the 1976 AFI Best Actor award as Victor, the alcoholic priest. Then Nick went back to England to star as Captain Harry Masters in Gerry Anderson’s The Day After Tomorrow pilot episode Into Infinity. He stayed in England to continue the second series of Space 1999
When Space 1999 ended, Nick commuted regularly between the UK and Australia with parts in the films Summerfield and The Men, television appearances in Danger UXB, Number On End and The Gentle Touch, and theatre roles in Duty Free and Winter Journey. It was while touring in Duty Free that Nick married Hazel Butterfield at Dulwhich College Chapel. Hazel gave birth to their son, Thomas, in 1979.
Throughout Thomas’ early years, Nick concentrated his work in Australia. During this period, he made many television appearances in series such as Scales of Justice, A Country Practice, Sons and Daughters and The Flying Doctors – and also landed film roles in The Coolangatta Gold (aka The Gold and the Glory), The Empty Beach, Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom and Return from the River Kwai. Hazel then gave birth to their second child, Jessica, in 1986.
In recent years, Nick has achieved a strong level of international recognition with films such as A Cry in the Dark. In 1989, after completing the CBS/Paramount series Dolphin Cove, Paramount invited Nick to try out for Fox’s new sitcom Open House. This success relocated Nick and family to Los Angeles, where his career has flourished in both Television and Film. He appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Hook as Noodler, then The Public Eye and Bed of Roses.
On television, he guest starred in episodes of Murder She Wrote (two episodes), Matlock, Stephen Bochco’s Civil Wars, Party of Five, FX: The Series, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, JAG, The X Files, Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek:DS9, Dick VanDyke’s Diagnosis Murder. He also guested in the TV movies Jackie Collin’s Lady Boss and The President’s Child, and most recently Attack on the Queen.
Additionally, Nick has an extremely successful career as one of Hollywood’s premiere voice-over artists. In addition to the numerous television commercials and promos, Nick has risen to become one of a handful of voice-over artists to be regularly featured on trailers for major motion pictures. His voice can be heard in the trailers of such hits as Jurassic Park, Braveheart, GoldenEye, The Lost World, Schindler’s List, Independence Day, G.I. Jane, The Peacemaker, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Edge, Deep Impact, Snake Eyes, Small Soldiers, The World is Not Enough and hundreds more.
He has recently finished writing his first screenplay The Legend of the Black Fire Opal and is already working on several other projects.