Pegg: I'm the Tom Cruise of nerds (From Oxford Mail)

Pegg: I'm the Tom Cruise of nerds

12:15pm Tuesday 1st May 2012 in Entertainment News © Press Association 2013

Simon Pegg has declared that he is sci-fi royalty after starring in three huge franchises - Star Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars.

The 42-year-old, who has also appeared in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Adventures Of Tintin, quipped that his popularity with fans makes him feel like the "Tom Cruise of nerds".

"I could retire now. I'm one of the few people that's been in Star Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars," he told ITV1's Daybreak.

"I did a voice for Clone Wars so I'm in this sort of strange sci-fi trifecta thing, where I've inhabited all three of those universes. So in nerd terms I'm like Tom Cruise. I'm the Tom Cruise of nerds."

Simon - whose upcoming big-screen outings include Crispian Mills' A Fantastic Fear Of Everything and JJ Abrams' Star Trek sequel - also revealed that despite starring in some of the biggest action films around, fans still shout out lines from the 2004 cult classic, Shaun Of The Dead.

"'You've got red on you' from Shaun Of The Dead tends to be the one I get the most," he admitted.

"Occasionally 'Run, Fatboy, Run' if I'm walking at a speed. But obviously 'Beam me up, Scotty' has now become part of that," he added.