Early life

Charles Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor (née Perks), a cook, and Walter Dance, an engineer. Growing up in Plymouth, he attended Widey Technical School for Boys (it closed when known as Widey High School in 1988) in Crownhill.

Career

The Royal Shakespeare Company (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 and film

Dance made his screen debut in 1974, in a BBC mystery series Father Brown as Commandant Neil O'Brien in "The Secret Garden", 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 Edward the Seventh (as dissolute Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Edward VII's oldest son, and heir to the throne), Murder Rooms, Randall and Hopkirk, 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. He also played Guy Spencer, the pro-Hitler propagandist, in the second installment of Foyle's War, and had an ongoing role as Dr. Maltravers in the ITV drama Trinity.

Dance made a guest appearance on the BBC drama series Merlin as the Witchfinder Aredian, and as a vainglorious version of himself in the third series of Jam & Jerusalem. He played Havelock Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. He played 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. Dance also played Conrad Knox on the British television series Strike Back: Vengeance as the primary villain in the series. 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. Though he turned down the opportunity to screen test for the James Bond role, 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).

On 30 June 2013, Dance appeared amongst other celebrities in an episode of the BBC's Top Gear as a "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" for the debut of the Vauxhall Astra.

Screenwriting and directing

Dance's debut film as a writer and director was Ladies in Lavender (2004), which starred Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. In 2009, he directed his own adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis's The Inn at the Edge of the World.

Personal life

Dance married Joanna Haythorn in 1970. They have two children. After his marriage ended in 2004, he had a brief relationship with actress Sophia Myles who was 34 years his junior.

He became engaged to sculptor Eleanor Boorman in September 2010. They have a daughter, Rose, born in March 2012, though the two subsequently separated.

Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006. He lives in Kentish Town in north London.

Filmography

Film

• For Your Eyes Only (1981) - Claus
• Plenty (1985)
• The Golden Child (1986)
• Out on a Limb (1987)
• White Mischief (1987)
• Good Morning, Babylon (1987)
• Hidden City (1987)
• Pascali's Island (1988)
• Alien 3 (1992)
• Kalkstein (it) (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)
• The Blood Oranges (1997)
• 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)
• Ali G Indahouse (2002)
• Swimming Pool (2003)
• Dolls (2006)
• Scoop (2006)
• Starter for 10 (2006)
• The Contractor (2007)
• Ironclad (2011)
• Your Highness (2011)
• Midnight's Children (2012)
• Underworld: Awakening (2012)
• Patrick (2013)
• Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) (voice)
• Bones of the Buddha (2013), narrator
• Viy (2013)
• Dracula Untold (2014)
• The Imitation Game (2014)
• Victor Frankenstein (2015)
• Michiel de Ruyter (2015)
• Woman in Gold (2015)
• Child 44 (2015)
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
• Me Before You (2016)
• Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)

Television

• Father Brown (one episode, "The Secret Garden") as Commandant Neil O'Brien (1974)
• Edward the Seventh (episodes 8-9) as Prince Eddy (1975)
• The Jewel in the Crown as Guy Perron (1984)
• First Born as Edward Forester (1988)
• The Phantom of the Opera as Erik/The Phantom of the Opera (1990)
• Rebecca as Maxim de Winter (1997)
• The Real Spartacus Narrator (2000)
• A History of Britain Ep.15 - "The Two Winstons" as Winston Churchill (voice acting, document reading, 2000)
• Foyle's War (one episode, "The White Feather") as Guy Spencer (2002)
• Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love (2004)
• Fingersmith as Mr Lilly (2005)
• Bleak House as Mr. Tulkinghorn (2005)
• Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs as Septimus Bligh (2006)
• Jam & Jerusalem as himself (2009)
• Merlin (one episode, "The Witchfinder") as Aredian (2009)
• Trinity as Dr. Edmund Maltraver (2009)
• Going Postal as Havelock Vetinari (2010)
• This September (two episodes) as Edmund Aird (2010)
• Game of Thrones (recurring Season 1, regular seasons 2-4, guest season 5) as Tywin Lannister (2011-2015)
• Neverland as Dr. Richard Fludd (2011)
• Secret State (2012)
• Strike Back: Vengeance as Conrad Knox (2012)
• Top Gear appeared in Series 20, Episode 1 (2013)
• Was It Something I Said? appeared in one episode as a guest narrator (2013)
• Rosamunde Pilchers's Shades of Love as Edmund Aird (2013)
• The Great Fire as Lord Denton (2014)
• Childhood's End as Karellen (2015)
• Deadline Gallipoli as General Ian Hamilton (2015)
• And Then There Were None as Justice Lawrence Wargrave (2015)

Stage

• Toad of Toad Hall as Badger (1971)
• The Beggar's Opera as Wat Dreary (Chichester Festival Theatre, 1972)
• The Taming of the Shrew as Philip (Chichester, 1972)
• Three Sisters as Soliony (Greenwich Theatre, 1973)
• Hans Kohlhaus as Meissen (Greenwich, 1973)
• Born Yesterday as Hotel Manager (Greenwich, 1973)
• Saint Joan as Baudricourt (Oxford Festival, 1974)
• The Sleeping Beauty as Prince (1974)
• Travesties as Henry Carr (Leeds Playhouse, 1977)
• Hamlet as Fortinbras / Reynaldo / Player (RSC The Other Place 1975; The Roundhouse, 1976)
• Perkin Warbeck as Hialas / Astley / Spanish Ambassador (RSC The Other Place, 1975)
• Richard III as Catesby / Murderer (RSC The Other Place, 1975)
• Henry V as Henry V (RSC Glasgow and New York, 1975)
• Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two as Prince John of Lancaster (RSC Stratford, 1975; Aldwych Theatre, 1976)
• As You Like It as Oliver (RSC Stratford, 1977; Aldwych, 1978)
• Henry V as Scroop / Williams (RSC Stratford, 1977)
• Henry VI, Part 2 as Buckingham (RSC Stratford, 1977; Aldwych, 1978)
• The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs as Whistling Guard / Freeman (RSC Donmar Warehouse, 1978; The Other Place, 1979)
• Coriolanus as Volscian Lieutenant (RSC Stratford, 1977)
• Coriolanus as Tullus Aufidius (Aldwych, 1978 and 1979)
• The Women Pirates as Blackie / Vosquin (RSC Aldwych, 1978)
• The Changeling as Tomazo (RSC Aldwych, 1978)
• Irma la Douce as Nestor (Shaftesbury Theatre, 1979)
• The Heiress as Morris Townsend (1980)
• Turning Over as Frank (Bush Theatre, 1983)
• Coriolanus as Coriolanus (RSC Stratford and Newcastle upon Tyne, 1989; Barbican Theatre, 1990)
• Three Sisters as Vershinin (Birmingham Rep, 1998)
• Good as John Halder (Donmar Warehouse, 1999)
• Long Day's Journey into Night as James Tyrone (Lyric Theatre, 2000)
• The Play What I Wrote as a guest star (Wyndham's Theatre, 2001-2002)
• Celebration as Richard (Gate Theatre, Dublin; Albery Theatre, 2005)
• The Exonerated (Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London, 2006)
• Eh Joe as Joe (Parade Theatre, Sydney, 2006)
• Shadowlands as C. S. Lewis (Wyndham's Theatre, 2007 and Novello Theatre 2007-2008)

Video games

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as Emperor Emhyr var Emreis (2015)

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

[ Source: Wikipedia ]