Some Of My Favourite British Character Actors
by presterjohn1 | created - 24 Jan 2012 | updated - 24 Jan 2012 | PublicNot in any particular order. Some of these actors have been leads too of course, so not to diminish them in that way. Just some very good British actors who tend to make whatever they work in that much better.
1. David Warner
Actor | Titanic
Distinguished character actor David Hattersley Warner was born on July 29, 1941 in Manchester, England, to Ada Doreen (Hattersley) and Herbert Simon Warner. He was born out of wedlock and raised by each of his parents, eventually settling with his itinerant father and stepmother. He only saw his ...
2. Julian Glover
Actor | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Julian Wyatt Glover was born on March 27, 1935 in Hampstead, London, England, to Honor Ellen Morgan (Wyatt), a BBC journalist, and Claude Gordon Glover, a BBC radio producer. He is of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry. Primarily a classical stage actor, Glover trained at the National Youth ...
3. Brian Cox
Actor | Succession
Brian Cox is an Emmy Award-winning Scottish actor. He was born on June 1, 1946 in Dundee, Scotland, to Mary Ann Guillerline Cox, maiden surname McCann, a spinner, and Charles McArdle Campbell Cox, a shopkeeper and butcher. His father was of Irish ancestry and his mother was of Irish and Scottish ...
4. Brendan Gleeson
Actor | Calvary
Brendan Gleeson was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Pat and Frank Gleeson. From a very young age, he loved to learn, especially reading classical text in and outside the classroom. He took great attention to Irish play writers such as Samuel Beckett, which eventually led to him performing in his high ...
5. Ray Winstone
Actor | The Departed
Ray Winstone was born on February 19, 1957, in Hackney Hospital in London, England, to Margaret (Richardson) and Raymond J. Winstone. He moved to Enfield, at age seven, where his parents had a fruit and vegetable business. He started boxing at the age of twelve at the famous Repton Amateur Boxing ...
6. Nigel Stock
Actor | The Great Escape
A veteran of stage, screen, radio and TV, character actor Nigel Stock was born in Malta in 1919, the son of Captain W.H. Stock, RE, and his wife Margaret Marion Munro. In British India from childhood, he and his sister Angela returned to the UK in his early teens for schooling. Nigel was educated ...
7. Clive Wood
Actor | Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Clive Wood was born in Croydon, Surrey in 1954 and studied drama at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He first came to notice in the late 1970s at the Bristol Old Vic, playing such diverse roles as a singing gangster in "Guys and Dolls" and the titular hero of "Henry V". In 1982, he ...
8. James Cosmo
Actor | Braveheart
James Cosmo was born on May 24, 1948 in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Braveheart (1995), Highlander (1986) and Troy (2004). He has been married to Annie Harris since May 24, 2000.
9. Pete Postlethwaite
Actor | The Usual Suspects
An oddly fascinating bloke with prominent bony cheeks and rawboned figure, Peter William (Pete) Postlethwaite was born on February 16, 1946 and was a distinguished character actor on stage, TV and film. Growing up the youngest of four siblings in a Catholic family in Warrington, Lancashire (near ...
10. John Castle
Actor | The Lion in Winter
Sardonic-looking English character actor, often seen in sullen or nefarious roles. John Michael Frederick Castle was born one of four siblings in Croydon, Surrey, and educated at Brighton College and Trinity College, Dublin. He did not, at first, pursue acting as his chosen profession. Instead, he ...
11. Richard Pasco
Actor | Mrs Brown
Richard Pasco was born on July 18, 1926 in Barnes, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mrs. Brown (1997), The Watcher in the Woods (1980) and The Man Who Finally Died (1959). He was married to Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Greta Watson. He died on November 12, 2014 in Warwickshire, England, UK.
12. Richard Johnson
Actor | The Haunting
Born in Upminster, Essex, England in 1927, Richard Johnson attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and then performed in John Gielgud's repertory company until joining the navy in 1945 until 1948. After the war, he appeared successfully in the West End and made his film debut in the ...
13. Owen Teale
Actor | Robin Hood
While in his teens, Owen Teale occasionally worked at Porthcawl Little Theatre. In September 1980 he was accepted by the Guildford School of Acting and by Christmas of 1983 had obtained his Equity card. His first proper work was as a dancer in the musical "Cabaret" in Plymouth, Devon. Subsequently ...
14. John Woodvine
Actor | An American Werewolf in London
Born in the Simonside area of South Shields, he left the North East when he was five, but went back for holidays with his grandparents. As he grew older he had it in his mind to be an actor, but had no idea how to go about it, so did various jobs before being called up for National Service in the ...
15. Jeremy Bulloch
Actor | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Jeremy Bulloch was born on February 16, 1945 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, the son of Aziz Diane (Meade) and McGregor Bulloch, an aeronautical engineer. He was the middle of three siblings, along with three older half-brothers from his mother's earlier marriage. Even at the age of ...
16. Nigel Davenport
Actor | A Man for All Seasons
Nigel Davenport was born on May 23, 1928 in Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). He was married to Maria Aitken and Helena Margaret White. He died on October 25, 2013 ...
17. Leo McKern
Actor | Ladyhawke
Although he sounded very British, Leo McKern was an Australian. By the time he was 15 years old, he had endured an accident that left him without his left eye. A glass eye replaced it - one might conjecture for the better, as far as making McKern a one-day actor of singular focus (no pun intended; ...
18. Roger Ashton-Griffiths
Actor | Game of Thrones
Dual Canadian/British nationalities. Read Music at Lancaster University (1975-78) before joining English National Opera as singer (1979-81). Theatre credits subsequently include Gloucester (King Lear) at Colchester, Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd) at Liverpool and Watford, Algol (Space Queen Maladjusta...
19. George Baker
Actor | On Her Majesty's Secret Service
George was stage struck at the age of 14 and ran away from school to get a 25 shilling (25p) a week job at a seaside theatre, He spent 6 years going through the mill of small town repertory theatre then the cinema discovered him. After making 12 films he left the studios for 7 years during which ...
20. Ian Ogilvy
Actor | Death Becomes Her
Ian Ogilvy was born on September 30, 1943 in Woking, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Death Becomes Her (1992), I, Claudius (1976) and My Life in Ruins (2009). He has been married to Kathryn Holcomb since 1992. He was previously married to Diane Sarah Patricia Hart.
21. Brian Blessed
Actor | Flash Gordon
Boisterous British actor Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a ...
22. John Abineri
Actor | The Last of the Mohicans
While doing his national service he ran three theatres helping to rehabilitate servicemen then joined The Old Vic Theatre School for acting training and after completion accepted an invitation from Tyrone Guthrie to join the theatre's company headed by Donald Wolfit. Spending a season there he ...
23. Bernard Hill
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Bernard Hill is an English actor. He is well recognized for playing King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in Titanic, and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film True Crime. Hill was also known for playing roles in television ...
24. John Rhys-Davies
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies was born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, to Mary Margaretta Phyllis (nee Jones), a nurse, and Rhys Davies, a mechanical engineer and Colonial Officer. He graduated from the University of East Anglia and is probably best known to film audiences for his roles in the...
25. Michael Hordern
Actor | Where Eagles Dare
Some of Hordern's finest work was not in films or television but on radio: His performance as Gandalf in the BBC's radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was arguably the definitive portrayal of that character (contrast Hordern's Gandalf with that of Ian McKellen in the 3-part film adaptation of...
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