Colin Roy Salmon (born 6 December 1961) is an English actor. He is known for playing Charles Robinson in three James Bond films and James "One" Shade in the Resident Evil film series. He has had roles in many television series such as Doctor Who, Merlin, Arrow, and The Musketeers. He also played General Zod on the Syfy series Krypton and provided his voice and likeness as Agent Carson in the PlayStation VR video game Blood & Truth. In 2023, he joined the BBC soap opera EastEnders as George Knight.
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Early life
Colin Roy Salmon was born on 6 December 1961 in Bethnal Green, London, England, the son of Sylvia Ivy Brudenell Salmon, a nurse. He is of Jamaican descent. He grew up in Luton, Bedfordshire and attended Ashcroft High School.
On leaving school, Salmon became the drummer in the punk rock band the Friction, which he formed along with three friends from high school. The band released a 7-inch EP, a live cassette, a cassette-EP and performed regularly around Luton in 1979 and 1980. Salmon briefly worked with another band, the Tee Vees, and was also a singer and trumpeter in Luton-based band Catch in the mid-1980s. He plays trumpet and has his own jazz quartet, playing at venues such as the Dorchester Grill Room and at events such as the Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
Speaking about his quartet to Pete Lewis of the magazine Blues & Soul, in an interview prior to their performance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in May 2008, Salmon stated: In terms of recording, we've done none. We've mostly just done very occasional performances – usually at very special events. You know, keeping a consistent band going is a bit like getting the Aston Martin out the garage – you have to run it every now and then! And what's made that particularly difficult in the last year, for example, is that I've literally just spent an entire 12 months travelling the world acting – from China through to Montreal to Botswana. But, having said that, with the children being older I do have more time when I am at home these days. So we have been able to do some rehearsing together. And, while we've always mostly performed standards, I have actually for the first time written some new stuff in time for this upcoming Cheltenham gig.
