Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale was a British actor, film director, writer and producer. He spent much of his childhood moving around due to his father serving as an Officer with the Royal Air Force. Poor eyesight prevented him following a similar career in the RAF, so he instead planned to become a theatre director. Training at the Theatre of Arts in London, he started work as an actor, making his West End debut in 1974. He went on to appear in numerous roles in television, including the series I, Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, before starring as Simon Doyle in the film Death on the Nile. This proved to be a breakthrough role and allowed him to move to the United States, where he appeared in a variety of films and TV series including Quatermass, The Riddle of the Sands, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and Jaws 3-D.

In 1983, MacCorkindale starred in the short-lived series Manimal as the lead character, Dr. Jonathan Chase, before taking up the longer-running role of lawyer Greg Reardon in Falcon Crest. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s he directed and produced many stage, TV and film productions through his company Amy International Artists, such as the film Stealing Heaven (1988). Moving to Canada, he starred as Peter Sinclair in the series Counterstrike for three years. He returned to the United Kingdom in 2002 and joined the cast of the BBC medical drama Casualty, appearing in the role of Harry Harper for six years until 2008.