Charles Dance

This article is about Charles Dance, contemporary English actor. For other uses, see Charles Dance (disambiguation).

Charles Dance
Born	Walter Charles Dance (1946-10-10) 10 October 1946 Redditch, Worcestershire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1974–present

Walter Charles Dance, OBE (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. Some of his most high profile roles are Perron in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Dr Clemens, the doctor who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante, in Alien 3 (1992), the villain in The Golden Child (1986) and Last Action Hero (1993), and Lord Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006.

Early life

Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor (née Perks), a cook, and Walter Dance, an engineer. He attended Widey Technical School for Boys (it closed when known as Widey High School in 1988) in Manadon. He was set for a career in graphic design after graduating from the Plymouth College of Art before turning to acting.

Career

RSC

Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid- to late-1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Later he returned to the RSC to take the title role in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon and Newcastle in 1989, and at the Barbican Theatre in 1990. He received rave reviews and a Critics' Circle Best Actor award for his performance as the Oxford don C. S. Lewis in William Nicholson's Shadowlands, in the 2007 stage revival.

Television

Dance made his screen debut in 1974, but his big break came ten years later when he played the major role of Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown (Granada Television, Christopher Morahan 1984), an adaptation of Paul Scott's novels that also made stars of Geraldine James and Art Malik. He has also starred in many other British television dramas such as Murder Rooms, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Rebecca, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith and Bleak House (for which he received an Emmy nomination). He was name-checked in the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, as being slated to play the title character in The Life of Jesus Christ 2, which was filming in Morocco at the same time as the main characters of the series were there for a photo shoot. Dance recently appeared as a guest star in the BBC television series Merlin as an infamous witch hunter. He also played Guy Spencer, the pro-Hitler propagandist, in the second instalment of Foyle's War, and had an ongoing role as Dr. Maltravers in the ITV drama Trinity.

Dance played Havelock Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal.

Dance plays the role of Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, based on the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin. Dance was wooed for the role by the producers whilst filming Your Highness in Belfast.

Films

He has appeared in numerous films, including:

• Plenty (1985) with Meryl Streep
• The Golden Child (1986) with Eddie Murphy
• Out on a Limb (1987) with Shirley MacLaine
• White Mischief with Greta Scacchi (1987)
• Good Morning, Babylon (1987)
• Hidden City (1987)
• Pascali's Island (1988)
• Alien 3 (1992)
• Kalkstein (Italy, 1992)
• Last Action Hero (1993)
• China Moon (1994)
• Kabloonak (1994, Paris Film Festival Award for Best Actor 1996)
• Century (1994)
• Shortcut to Paradise (Spain, 1994)
• Space Truckers (1996)
• Michael Collins (1996)
• What Rats Won't Do (1998)
• Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1998)
• Hilary and Jackie (1998)
• Gosford Park (2001)
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001)
• Dark Blue World (2001)
• Black and White (2002)
• Swimming Pool with Charlotte Rampling (2002)
• Ali G In Da House (2002)
• Dolls (2006)
• Woody Allen's Scoop (2006)
• The Contractor (2007)
• Underworld: Awakening (2011)

He appeared in Paris Connections (2010) as the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski. Dance made one of his earliest big screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus, and in 1989 he played Bond creator Ian Fleming in Anglia Television's dramatised biography, Goldeneye (the name of Fleming's estate in Jamaica and a title later used for a James Bond film).

Screenwriting and directing

His debut film as a screenwriter and director was Ladies in Lavender (2004), which starred Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.

In 2008, filmed a role in Trinity for ITV2.

In 2009, he directed his own adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis's The Inn at the Edge of the World and made a guest appearance in BBC drama series Merlin as the Witchfinder Aredian and himself in the third series of Jam & Jerusalem.

Personal life

He married Joanna Haythorn in 1970 and they had two children. After his marriage ended in 2004, he had a brief relationship with actress Sophia Myles. He became engaged to sculptor Eleanor Boorman in September 2010. They are expecting their first child together, announced 23 November 2011.

Stage roles

• Toad of Toad Hall (Badger), Nottingham in repertory 1971
• The Beggar's Opera (Wat Dreary), Chichester Festival Theatre 1972
• The Taming of the Shrew (Philip), Chichester 1972
• Three Sisters (Soliony), Greenwich Theatre 1973
• Hans Kohlhaus (Meissen), Greenwich 1973
• Born Yesterday (Hotel Manager), Greenwich 1973
• Saint Joan (Baudricourt ), Oxford Festival 1974
• The Sleeping Beauty (Prince), repertory (?) 1974
• Travesties (Henry Carr), Leeds Playhouse 1977
• Hamlet (Fortinbras/Reynaldo/Player), RSC The Other Place 1975; The Roundhouse 1976
• Perkin Warbeck (Hialas/Astley/Spanish Ambassador), RSC The Other Place 1975
• Richard III (Catesby/Murderer), RSC The Other Place 1975
• Henry V (title role), RSC tour Glasgow and New York, 1975
• Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two (Prince John of Lancaster) RSC Stratford 1975; Aldwych Theatre 1976
• As You Like It (Oliver), RSC Stratford 1977, Aldwych 1978
• Henry V (Scroop/Williams), RSC Stratford 1977
• Henry VI, Part 2 (Buckingham), RSC Stratford 1977; Aldwych 1978
• The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (Whistling Guard/Freeman) RSC Donmar Warehouse 1978; The Other Place 1979
• Coriolanus (Volscian Lieutenant), RSC Stratford 1977; (Tullus Aufidius) Aldwych 1978 and 1979, and on tour in Paris (where he played the title role for two performances) and other European cities.
• The Women Pirates (Blackie/Vosquin), RSC Aldwych 1978
• The Changeling (Tomazo), RSC Aldwych 1978
• Irma la Douce (Nestor), Shaftesbury Theatre 1979
• The Heiress (Morris Townsend), UK tour 1980
• Turning Over (Frank), Bush Theatre 1983
• The Phantom of the Opera (Erik) 1990
• Coriolanus (title role), RSC Stratford and Newcastle 1989; Barbican Theatre 1990
• Three Sisters (Vershinin) Birmingham Rep 1998
• Good (John Halder), Donmar Warehouse 1999
• Long Day's Journey into Night (James Tyrone), Lyric Theatre 2000
• The Play What I Wrote (guest-starred), Wyndham's Theatre 2001-02
• Celebration (Richard), staged reading of Pinter's play, Gate Theatre, Dublin; Albery Theatre 2005.
• The Exonerated, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London 2006
• Eh Joe (Joe), Parade Theatre, Sydney, as part of Michael Golgan's Gate Theatre Dublin company at the Sydney Theatre Festival 2006
• Shadowlands (C. S. Lewis), UK tour, Wyndham's Theatre 2007 and Novello Theatre 2007-2008

Further reading

• Who's Who in the Theatre, 16th/17th editions, edited by Ian Herbert, Pitman/Gale 1977/1981
• Theatre Record and Theatre Record Indexes
• Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies Fourth edition by John Walker, HarperCollins 2006 ISBN 978-0-00-716957-3
• Charles Dance's own CVs in various theatre programmes

External links

• Charles Dance at IMDb