When Michael was 2 years old the family moved to Iran as Michael's father had secured a job there as an accountant.

Michael's brother Richard was born in Iran.

Until the age of 8 years old Michael attended an Anglo-American school in Abadan, Iran. There was no further schooling available there so Michael was sent back to England for schooling.

He attended Ascham Preparatory School in Eastbourne, East Sussex. It was far from a pleasant experience for Michael. In an interview he said of the school:

Michael: "It was my preparatory school that was absolutely vile in the extreme. I mean those places are redolent of any lunatic asylum you care to name."

Interviewer: " 'Cause you were sort of a Colonial boy weren't you? Your father was working abroad?"

Michael: "That's right, father was an accountant in Iran. And of course there was no schooling after the age of 8 so we had to be sent away.

But it was just a system and a country which I didn't understand and it was vile and barbaric. And we were incarcerated and thrashed often.

And you know children are awful to each other at the best of times and you get a brace of those monsters around and, you know, it's carnage.

And I suffered greatly from it and I think I bear some of the scars till this day."

It was also reported in another interview:  'Michael admits that, despite his professional confidence, he is shy when it comes to expressing himself. He went to boarding school until he was 16 and hated every minute of it.'

Michael: " My parents lived abroad and had no choice, so I never told them how wretched and miserable I was.  It has taken years for me to shake off the effects."

Next Michael attended Eastbourne College which is actually the same as an American high school.

At the age of 16 students take what was then known as O-levels. Today they are called GCSE's (General Certificate of Secondary Education) Generally you take about 9 exams and the results decide whether you go on to further education (college/university). Michael had to choose between pursuing the Arts or Sciences.

Michael: "It was then I remembered my father's salient words of advice, which were, 'It doesn't matter what you do for a living, Michael, as long as you pick a profession you absolutely think you're going to enjoy.' My dad was an accountant, and I think what he was guardedly telling me, although I never quizzed him about it, was, 'I wish I had been anything but an accountant.' So I thought, 'Okay, what do I really love?' and the answer was acting."

So it was off to London and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He didn't complete his studies there. Instead he obtained his actors equity card and began his professional career.

In July of 1980 Michael played Jesus in "Godspell" at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester. Michael says of the production:

Michael: I played Jesus - very badly - as I recall one of the reviews said something like, 'The disciples are a bunch of Muppets and Michael Praed as Jesus heads the cast as Kermit.' It was an absolutely dreadful production, to a man, absolutely dreadful."

If that review was right then he has come a long, long way.

In the fall of 1980 he was in "The Tempest" and he was Eddie in "Leave Him To Heaven" at the Nuffield Theatre, University of Southhampton.

In 1981 he was in "Beauty And The Beast", "The Servant Of Two Masters", and "The Resistable Rise And Fall Of Arturo UI" by Brecht. 

That winter ('81-'82) he was Gabriel in "Rockstar" at the Civic Theatre in Chesterfield.

Then in 1982 Michael got his big break in the role of Frederick in Joe Papp's West End production of "The Pirates of Penzance".  The show debuted on May 26, 1982 at the Drury Lane Theatre for a 12 month run.

On November 8, 1982 Michael and the cast took part in "The Royal Variety Performance" at the Drury Lane Theatre.  They performed "Tarantara" from "Pirates...".

It was while on stage in "Pirates of Penzance" that Michael was discovered by Richard Carpenter and Paul Knight, the writer and producer of "Robin Of Sherwood". 

From December 8, 1983 - January 21, 1984 Michael was Aladdin in "Abbacadabra" a fairytale musical panto using music by Abba with new lyrics by Don Black. 

Don Black was one of two people connected with the play that would turn up again later in Michael's life.  Don Black also wrote the lyrics for "Aspects Of Love" in which Michael later starred . 

The other person was the actress that played Cinderella, Finola Hughes.  She was a girlfriend of Michael's several years later.

"Robin Of Sherwood" first aired from April 28, 1984 - April 13-1985 on HTV.

As might be expected when you get a group of young, high spirited people together mayhem sometimes ensued.  The whole Robin of Sherwood cast was also banned for life from a holiday (at Bamburgh and Alnwick)  for floating a bed in the river and attempting to capture a TV presenter who also staying there and tie him naked to the gates of Bamburgh castle. (Michael says he was innocent, but????)

Michael's nearsightedness caused him a lot of problems.  When they were filming in Bristol, the short sighted Michael took a tumble in the rented house they were staying in and completely destroyed a Victorian banister. (He had to replace it at great cost.)

Michael’s nearsightedness also earned him trouble with the stuntmen.  Who seemed to take revenge to new heights. 

Michael: “In the first episode, I was fighting a stuntman, and I’m a notoriously bad puncher.  I was trained in Theatre mode of punching. It’s completely different than films. We’re filming the first fight sequence and the stunt director, Terry Walsh, wanted me to punch the stuntman.  Not wanting to say ‘I’m not very good at this,’ I said, ‘Okay, pal.’ I was so nervous and eager to get this thing right, that I smacked the stuntman in the mouth!  I didn’t hit him very hard, but I knocked one of his teeth out.  He had to go to the hospital.  I felt so wretched.  But stuntmen are brilliant, they never forget.”  His voice lowers dramatically, “They’re like elephants.”

“We had a fight sequence about a week later and the stuntman was D.D. Powell, who was fourth-ranked heavy weight champion of Great Britain in 1950.  The man eats children for breakfast.  He’s strong.  Have you ever met people who are unbelievably strong?  Terrifying.  The scene’s action was that I was on the floor and I had to be picked up and put against the wall.  And then punched.    Denny said, ‘All right, Mike, I’ll pick you up.’  I said, ‘No, no, Denny, go on, throw me!’  He said, ‘Are you sure?’ And I said- this was mistake number one- ‘Yea, I’m all right, that’s what I got the pads on for.’  I had elbow pads on and a back brace.  He said, ‘Are you sure, Mike?’  I said, ‘Yea, I’m all right.’  The director said, ‘Do you want to rehearse it?’  I said, ‘No, let’s go for it!’ 

Praed shakes his head in disbelief that he could have set himself up so thoroughly.  “Mistake number two! It was ‘Action!’ and all I can remember is, I saw these hands-“  He hold up both hands menacingly in front of his face-“grabbing me.  Denny picked me up as if I was this glass, “ pointing to a glass of water on the table, “and I took off! Watch very carefully in that first episode what happens when I get thrown.  I literally take off and hit the back of the stage- and it takes me so much by surprise.  Then, Denny punched me and hit me!  Just hard enough- and I thought I was going to die.  I was determined not to show any pain. He had this glint in his eye, ‘That’ll teach you.’ I never hit another stuntman in my life.”

Of course the stuntmen didn’t give up on revenge.  There were other incidents, most obviously to us fans in the episode “The Enchantress”.  When Robin is battling Baron ___ on the castle wall and is tossed of by the Baron’s magical power.  If you watch when Michael hits his back you will see two words pass his lips, you can’t hear them because of wind effects.  He says S--- and F---, because the stunt had been over rigged.  He had a cable tied to him to pull him back and give the effect of being thrown by something.  But the stuntmen rigged it so it slammed him into the ground, hard, flat on his back!  I don’t know about you but I thought stuntmen were supposed to protect actors.  Especially our lovely, Michael!

They also had problems with some “over reality” in the magical bits.  Perhaps Richard “Kip” Carpenter got a little too authentic. 

Michael:  “There was one episode, ‘Swords of Wayland’ about a lady who invokes the devil incarnate.  Kip, researched the invocations and incantations so they were quite accurate.  As we were filming, weird things happened to the women in the cast.  Three of the ladies crashed their cars.  The others fell over, hurt themselves.  There were about six or seven ladies involved and it was all too coincidental for me.  We were filming in the crypt and I got really sick down there.  I felt very strange.  I happen to believe that anything is possible and I’m sure there is black magic.  If you dabble in that-even harmlessly- I’m quite prepared to believe that something could happen as a result. It could be coincidence, but it’s interesting that throughout the entire series, injuries on such a scale never happened except on this one episode.”

Michael also got a taste of the strange side of fame as well.

Michael:  “Mark [Ryan], Clive Mantle and I all went out for a drink in a disco.  The first Robin of Sherwood series had just aired and we were all flush with excitement and dying to show our faces and- hopefully- somebody would recognize us.  So, we went to the bar and we were preening,” he grins impishly, tossing his head back, running his hand through his hair to artistically dishevel it, striking a pose-not at all reluctant to mock his own public image.  “And there was a woman-actually a midget, a tiny little thing-she came up and said, ‘You’re Michael Praed, aren’t you?’  And I said, ‘Yes!’ ‘I’ve seen you on television.’ ‘Yes, yes, I’m on television.’  And she said, ‘Can I have a kiss?’  And I said, ‘Well, I’m no---‘  The next second these tiny little arms came around my neck!  And all I remember is this—mouth! 

“It was terrifying because I got to this situation where I had to come up for air and still be polite. ‘May I have my tongue back please?’  This woman was literally, literally hanging around my neck.  And Mark and Clive were laughing!”  

Michael and Mark Ryan were friends during filming.  But sometimes friendship has its darkside.<veg> When they were having to fly in a small plane between locations, Mark Ryan scared Michael (who was terrified of flying) by screaming 'we're gonna die...something's wrong!' as the plane took off. Apparently Michael's face turned dead white and his nails were making holes in the armrest. (Later when Michael was living in California he was offered a job in Chicago that he didn't take because of his fear of flying.  That was apparently the last straw and Michael decided to meet his fear head on.  He began to take flying lessons and has flown solo.)   Mark also hung a teddy bear of Michael's when they  had a minor argument one day!

"Everything comes from the script.  That's the starting place.  I read as much as I could about the legends.  I read about the history because when I read the script, I realized how much mysticism and magic were going to be involved.  That thought had never even crossed my mind.  I just thought it was going to be like Errol Flynn."

"Kip explained to me that forests were very dangerous places.  One of the reasons they were so feared is that people would walk into them and get completely lost and not come out.  So, they were viewed as a place with dark spirits and dark forces!  Where the truth of it was it was a place you got lost in."

Michael had an incident during filming in which he very nearly drowned.  He describes it as the "mud scene".  It was shot by the side of a river that was infested with mosquitoes and things that live in the mud.  It took all day to film that sequence.  We couldn't get cleaned up, we just had to dive back in.  When you're up to your knees in mud, you can't move.  It was terribly silly.  I was two feet away from Gisburne (Robert Addie) and I couldn't hit him.  Then, the labs made a mistake, and destroyed all the mud stuff, so we had to redo it!  Then afterwards, I had to swim like hell.  I tried and I couldn't, because the costume was weighted down with mud.  My strength failed and I could only call for help very weakly.  I was going under when a stuntman came and rescued me.  There's a lesson there:  Always be sure there are stunt and safety people around."

"I didn't do anything to my costume to make it fit my character, to enhance my character.  But I did many things to my costume to make it fit my body a little better.  My costume for Robin Hood  was essentially a green shirt-like thing which came down to my knees.  There trouseres were fashioned very badly and I had these boots (he shudders).  When I had the thing on, I looked like a tent.  I'm not the biggest guy in the world.  I'm not built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I had to cut it so it came up higher, and take in the back so it fit my body a little better.  Lynette Cummings, the costume designer, had a fit because essentially I was taking a pair of scissors to her creation!  She didn't really understnad at the time that her costume looked very good on paper, but on me it looked like nothing.  That's an interesting problem when it happens, because you are presented with something and you want to change it in some way.  The problem was that Lynette couldn't divorce the fact that I liked her costume,but I needed to change it.  She thought I was attacking her costume--we had a bit of a difficult time.  As actors, it is very important to feel good.  If you feel uncomfortable, you just are uncomfortable.  If you're wearing something you don't think is flattering to you, you don't feel as good.  So it was vanity, really." (He grins)  "She was forever designing things for me that I felt didn't really look good.  They were horrible."

"The Three Musketeers"

Whether is is still true or not I don't know but, at the time of this production, a bad review from the New York Times was a death knell for a show.  And that was just what this play received from the poison pen of Frank Rich.  The play closed in a matter of three or four days.  Michael says of the play:

"Cataclysmic disaster generally has a way of, shall we say, enriching your life in one way or another.  Yes that was an extraordinary thing.  But, you see, on Broadway, unlike England, there is no place for mediocrity.  You are either a smash hit or you are a disaster.  I realized that when I took the job.  It was a big gamble but I thought it was a gamble well worth taking.  Because I was the only Englishman in a cast of an American cast.  And, of course, there is the allure of Broadway.  And I have had criticism in the past simply because the show had been a failure.  I find it intriguing that had the show been a monstrous hit then my decision to go would have been the correct one.  I’ve never regretted it for a minute.  Although I must say there are a few salutary lessons one learns of reading things in newspapers about one that are really very painful and sometimes quite nasty.  In retrospect I realize it wasn’t the best show in the world.  It was a family show, whatever that means.  It wasn’t dreadful, I don’t think.   I really don’t think it was dreadful.  And it certainly wasn’t brilliant.”

Michael also learned a lot about the fickleness of fame.

Michael:  “Oh that was the most extraordinary thing.  Yes, we had a wonderful party, as happens after first nights.  You know you have stars coming, television cameras, and reporters.  We had a party at the. . . I think it is called The Tavern On The Green, in Central Park.  Lovely, lovely restaurant.  And I arrived at tuxedos.  And, for those who don’t know, there is a thing that exits on Broadway that you have to have the review from the New York Times and without it your show will close.  We we were waiting for the New York Times and I remember going into the lavatory.  And I saw the writer in the lavatory and he was holding a copy of this paper.  And I said, ‘What on earth is the matter, Mark?’  And he said, ‘Read this.’  And I think I read a sentence.  And I said, ‘What does this mean?’  He said, ‘It means we close.’  And I spent a couple of minutes there and I came out and the Nebuchadnezzars of Champagne had all been cleared away, the salmon had gone, the guests had all filed out.  That is no word of a lie.  And so we had the cast there just sort of thinking, oh dear.

Brent Spiner (who played Aramis) talked at a Con about an opening night incident in which Michael was injured: "We went on opening night, and all the sword fights had not been finished being choreographed, even. And so, we were using real blades with no tips on them and there came a point in every fight where the choreography had finished and you just started flailing around. Actually, our leading man, who played D'Artagnan, was Michael Praed, who played the Prince of Moldavia on 'Dynasty.' And twenty minutes into the show, this guy cut him across the eyelid and this is the opening night, and the guy goes into shock twenty minutes into the show. But we had this crazy guy who choreographed the sword fights who also played the lead villain in the show. And something would snap in his head. As soon as he got up in front of an audience, he wanted to win. And we were all saying, 'Stop it, stop it!' and screaming and he wouldn't fall. He'd just keep fighting."

Dynasty

 Once when in Dynasty Michael had a chat show to do. When he got there the guards at the door challenged him. He said, '"I'm a guest on the show' and they said, 'Right, buddy.' 'I am,' he insisted. 'I'm Michael Praed'. 'Prove it', they said. 'Sure' he replied, and pulled out ID...only to find it all said his real name, Michael Prince.

Nightflyers

Son Of Darkness

SOD

Michael had to do a nude love scene in “Son Of Darkness”.  The director told him, “We’ll put you on the bed and the rest is up to you.”  Michael watched Body Heat, and noticed that the love scenes were strongly choreographed, which, he believes, “makes it about the choreography rather than lovemaking.”  So he worked with his co-star and choreographed the scene.  “It was rather like a five-year old, ‘Now you put your hand here and I put my hand there.’ “   They worked for three weeks preparing for the scene, and on the night of filming, the director sent them a large bottle of wine.  “Now,” he says earnestly, “I don’t believe in drinking while I’m working, but we polished off that bottle and another one.”  He pauses, “It took the edge off.”

Writer's Block

Carousel

Aspects Of Love

Riders

For “Riders” Michael was faced with the challenge of riding and jumping.  “I had done a bit of riding on Robin and you’ll notice when I ride, I’ve got a hand placed here.”  He motions to where a saddle horn would be on a western saddle.  “Not for any Freudian reason—I’m holding on to the saddle ‘cause I really don’t know what I’m doing on the horse.  It didn’t really matter, though; Robin might not have been a very good rider,” he laughs.  “Riders” was a completely different kettle of fish.  They had the English army train us to jump horses.  The problem was after you shoot a 15-hour day, the last thing you want to do is go to a stable and jump.  The whole series took three to four months to shoot, and we did the bulk of the jumping scenes in France at the end.  And we were all really tired, coupled with the fact that I never quite got the knack of jumping.  Riding was very tough, it’s not something I was naturally good at.  I defy anyone to become instantly familiar with these beasts; they’re big, they’re unpredictable.  They’re taught in a certain way, and they like you to drive them in a certain way because that’s what they’re used to.  They test you, get tired and fed up, and don’t want to play.  Now, the riding part I can do, but the jumping part fills me with trepidation.  In shooting you had the pressure of time, and my horses on this damn thing were jinxed.  My main jumping horse injured himself on the boat over to France—not bad, but he was out of action.  My stunt double got appendicitis.  One of my other horses did something to his shin and he was out of action.  So it left me, an inexperienced rider, having to jump horses I had never seen.”

Michael had insisted that an ambulance and medical staff be present during the jumping sequences. 

“I had a lot of falls but the French one was the most spectacular and the most potentially catastrophic. There was a sequence we were filming right at the shoot’s end.  It was a very important sequence, and the horse had jumped all day, and he was really tired.  By the time I had to get on him, he had had enough and was fed up. I got on him and couldn’t get him to jump.  So, the stuntman took around and he was fine, and I took him around and it was great.  Well, there was a hair in the gate [a technical problem with the camera], so I had to go again.  And the horse had a problem when it jumped.  On the last jump, I set him up OK, but when we jumped, he really jumped to the right.  He realized that, so he did a major left hand jab and I went over the side and I smacked my head against a post and the post won.  Yes, I was concussed and unfortunately caught my foot in the stirrup, and I was dragged for a bit and got cut up.” Michael’s preplanning wasn’t totally successful.  “The ambulance was there, but the French paramedics weren’t.”  He laid in a trailer for 45 minutes.  He says grimly, “I think they got into trouble because of that.  They had to take me to the hospital for a couple of days to make sure I hadn’t done anything really stupid.  Then I had to get out of the hospital and jump horses again.”

When Michael was in Riders, he had a serious fall resulting in a head injury, as you doubtless know. His stand in was a woman with painted on eyebrows and sideburns.

The Caretaker

While in the "Caretaker" he had to smash a statue of a Buddha. One night the Buddha bounced and left the stage nearly knocking out the president of his fanclub!

September Tide

Staggered

Crown Prosecutor

Design For Living

Copacabana

While, in the local newspaper it was reported how much Michael loved Blackpool and thought it was a great place to start the tour of "Copacabana", he actually didn't have much luck there. His very spikey hair in "Copcabana" was an accident; a hairdresser in the town of Blackpool became over enthusiastic. The town was bad news--because then two joyriders there took his new car for a spin and it went over the pier.

Dangerous To Know

The Secret Adventures Of Jules Verne