Jack emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932, trained to be a physician at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, in 1933, and became an obstetrician and gynaecologist.
[5][6][7] Suchet's father was of Lithuanian-Jewish descent, the son of Izidor Suchedowitz,[8] originally from Kretinga in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.
At some point, the family name was recorded as "Schohet", a Yiddish word, from Hebrew shochet, defining the profession of kosher butcher.
[6][9][10][11][12] Suchet and his brothers, John and Peter, attended Grenham House boarding school in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent.
He made his West End debut opposite Saskia Reeves in the Kempinski play Separation, at the Comedy Theatre in 1987.
[16][17] He has been starring as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at the Vaudeville Theatre in London since June 2015 and on tour.
In 1988, Suchet played Leopold Bloom in the Channel 4 documentary The Modern World: Ten Great Writers, in which some of James Joyce's Ulysses was dramatised.
"[22] Still unsure, Suchet rang his brother John, who advised him against it, calling Poirot "a bit of a joke, a buffoon.
"[22] Suchet went on to play the role in adaptations of every novel and short story featuring the character written by Agatha Christie.
[4] At Christmas 2006, he played the vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in a BBC adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
Suchet appeared on daytime-TV chat show Loose Women on 6 February 2008 to talk about his film The Bank Job, in which he played Lew Vogel, alongside Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows.
He starred as the main antagonist, Reacher Gilt, in the 2010 Sky TV adaptation of Going Postal, based on Pratchett's book of the same name.
Between 2014 and 2015, Suchet appeared in and narrated two BBC Television documentaries, undertaking an epic journey spanning the Mediterranean, inspired by the life and travels of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul.
In 2016, Suchet took on the role of the narrator in the BBC live production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, where he serves as the sole "professional" among the cast.
His solution is to take Captain Hook's moustache and start acting like Poirot, even delivering his lines in a Belgian accent.
[3][4] Suchet was given a Variety Club Award in 1994 for best actor for portraying John in David Mamet's play Oleanna at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
He later won another Variety Club Award, as well as a 2000 Tony nomination for best performance by a leading actor in a play, for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in a revival of Amadeus.
[36][37] In 1972, Suchet first met his wife, Sheila Ferris, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, where they were both working; he says that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her, and that it took a while to persuade her to go out for a meal with him.
"[42] In 2012, Suchet made a documentary for the BBC on his personal hero, Saint Paul, to discover what he was like as a man by charting his evangelistic journey around the Mediterranean.
[44] Following the time when he bade farewell to his role as Hercule Poirot, Suchet fulfilled a 27-year ambition to make an audio recording of The Bible's New International Version, which was released in April 2014.
[40] In August 2014, Suchet was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the September 2014 referendum on that issue.