Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce
File:Brazil 01.jpg Pryce as Sam Lowry in Brazil

Jonathan Pryce (born June 1, 1947) is a Welsh film, television, and stage actor who has starred in such films as Tomorrow Never Dies and the Pirates of the Carribbean trilogy.

Biography

Early life

Pryce was born in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales to Margaret Ellen Williams, a retail cashier, and Isaac Pryce, a coal miner who also ran a small general grocery shop. He was educated at Holywell Grammar School, Flints School of Art and Edge Hill College. Pryce worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Everyman Theatre Liverpool during the 1970s. He appeared at the concert to launch the National Assembly for Wales, reciting poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym.

Career

In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre was acclaimed by some critics as the definitive Hamlet of his generation. He received an Olivier Award for the role which included a guttural rendition of the words of the ghost of Hamlet's father uttered as if in his demonic possession. That year he also appeared as Ken in Breaking Glass, and had a small but pivotal role in the 12th episode of the Hitchhiker's Gde to the Galaxy radio series, one that he reprised for the Quintessential Phase which was broadcast in 2005.

Having appeared on TV in the title role in Martin Luther, Heretic and in the Ian McEwan-scripted film The Ploughman's Lunch (both 1983), Pryce played the subdued protagonist Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film, Brazil. Brazil won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association 1985 awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, as well as Academy Awards in 1986 for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Pryce has a good relationship with the film's director, Terry Gilliam, later being cast by him in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), the unfinished The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Brothers Grimm (2005).

File:TNDVillainElliotCarver.jpg

Pryce as Elliot Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies

Although Pryce had played the role in the original West End production, there was some controversy when he was selected to play The Engineer in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, a role that certain activists said should have gone to an Asian, as the character is part Asian. He, eventually, did perform the role and won a Tony Award. Pryce also gave a noteworthy performance as the successful but self-doubting writer Trigorin in a London production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in late 1985.

In 1989, Pryce appeared on one of the earliest episodes of Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, alongside Paul Merton and John Sessions. He was spokesman in a 1993/1994 series of American television commercials for Infiniti. These commercials were popularly parodied on Saturday Night Live in December 1993, with Mike Myers doing an impersonation of Pryce spokesmodeling for sleek luxury toilets instead of automobiles. They have also been parodied in other advertisements, such as some of those for the Jordan's Furniture chain in the 1990s.

Pryce has shown himself a diverse actor, playing downtrodden and timid characters in Brazil, Timon of Athens (1981, TV), and Glengarry Glen Ross while also filling strong and authoritative roles in Evita as Juan Peron, the evil media baron Elliot Carver in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and Seamus O'Rourke, a coldblooded assassin in John Frankenheimer's Ronin. In 1997, he won the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his performance as Lytton Strachey in the film Carrington. He portrayed a somewhat comic version of the Master in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death.

From January to July of 2006, Pryce replaced John Lithgow as Lawrence Jameson in the musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He has appeared as Governor Weatherby Swann in all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean feature films.

In 2007 he played Sherlock Holmes in the BBC production Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars.

Personal life

In 1974, he married actress Kate Fahy and they have three children.

Theatre credits

• Comedians (1975) as Gethin Price
• Hamlet (1980) as Hamlet
• Miss Saigon (1989) as The Engineer
• Oliver! (1994 revival) as Fagin
• My Fair Lady (2001 revival) as Professor Higgins
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2006) as Lawrence Jameson

Filmography

• Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983) as Mr. Dark
• Brazil (1985) as Sam Lowry
• The Doctor and the Devils (1985) as Robert Fallon
• Haunted Honeymoon (1986) as Charles Abbot
• Man on Fire (1987) as Michael
• Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) as Jack
• Consuming Passions (1988) as Mr Farris
• The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (1988) as Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson
• Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) as James Lingk
• Barbarians at the Gate (1993) as Henry Kravis
• Carrington (1995) as Lytton Strachey
• A Business Affair (1995) as Alec Bolton
• Evita (1996) as General Juan Perón
• Regeneration (1997) as Dr William Rivers
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) as Elliot Carver
• Ronin (1998) as Seamus O'Rourke
• Stigmata (1999) as Cardinal Houseman
• The Affair of the Necklace (2001) Cardinal Louis de Rohan
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as Gov. Weatherby Swann
• The Brothers Grimm (2005) as Delatombe
• The New World (2005) as King James I
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) as Gov. Weatherby Swann
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) as Gov. Weatherby Swann

External links

• Jonathan Pryce at IMDb
• Jonathan Pryce at SNL Archives
• Template:Nndb name
• Jonathan Pryce at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jonathan Pryce - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org, March 2006
• Actors On Performing Working in the Theatre seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 2006
• Performance Working in the Theatre seminar video at American Theatre Wing, September 1991