Life and career

Matheson was born in Stornoway, Scotland. Delivered in a caravan, he was born the first of two boys for Sheena, a therapist, and Iain (Ado), a folk musician and painter. His late younger brother, William Matheson, was also an actor. He made his feature film debut as Johnny Silver in Jez Butterworth's directorial debut, Mojo. Prior to Mojo, Matheson had appeared in various television series. He followed his role in Mojo with Stella Does Tricks, playing a male prostitute hooked on drugs. Matheson then played Marius in Bille August's film version of Les Misérables. Matheson played guitar for the role of Luke Shand, a youthful rocker helping to invigorate an old band in the film, Still Crazy.

Matheson continued with a starring role in the British hit Tube Tales, which led to his first commercialized film, Bodywork, starring with Beth Winslet, Charlotte Coleman, and Clive Russell. Matheson later starred in Canone Inverso, as Jeno Varga, a young man who falls in love with a pianist. He learnt the violin for this role. Following Canone, he took on the role of Mordred in the American TV film The Mists of Avalon. Matheson proceeded in his career with a role as Thomas in the Danish-Norwegian film I Am Dina, based upon Dinas Bok. Matheson then landed the role of Yurii Zhivago, in Giacomo Campiotti's 2002 adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel, Doctor Zhivago.

Matheson continued his career starring in independent films, such as 2002's Deathwatch and the docu-film Comfortably Numb. In 2006, Matheson co-starred with actress Demi Moore in the film Half Light. He portrayed the Earl of Essex in a BBC production about Queen Elizabeth I of England called The Virgin Queen, broadcast in the US in 2005 and the UK in 2006.

Matheson starred as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the second season of the Showtime series The Tudors.

Matheson played the part of Alec Stoke-d'Urberville in the four-part BBC adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (2008) and the Home Secretary Lord Coward in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009). Matheson then played Ixas in the 2010 Clash of the Titans remake. He co-starred in The Christmas Candle and had a supporting role as Aeschylus in 300: Rise of an Empire. In 2015 he was cast in the lead role of John Blackwood (Johnny Jackson) in the ITV series Jericho (2016 TV series), which aired in January 2016 in the UK.

Filmography

Film

• Poldark 1996, as Ben Carter
• The Future Lasts A Long Time 1997, as Jimmy Dolen
• Mojo 1997, as Silver Johnny
• Stella Does Tricks 1997 as Eddie
• Family Money 1997, as Jake
• Les Misérables 1998, as Marius Pontmercy
• Still Crazy 1998, as Luke Shand
• Tube Tales 1999, as Michael
• Bodywork 1999, as Virgil Guppy
• Canone Inverso 2000, as Jeno Varga
• I Am Dina 2001, as Tomas
• The Mists of Avalon (2001), as Mordred
• Deathwatch 2002, as Private Jack Hawkstone
• Comfortably Numb 2004, as Jake
• Imperium: Nero 2004, as Nero
• Half Light (2006), as Angus McCullough
• Bathory (2008), as Caravaggio
• Sherlock Holmes (2009) as Lord Coward
• Clash of the Titans (2010) as Ixas
• The Christmas Candle (2013) as David Richmond
• 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) as Aeschylus

Television

• The Bill 1995.
• Wycliffe (Episode 38) 1996
• Bramwell (Episode 14) 1996, as Frederick Hackett
• Doctor Zhivago 2002, as Yuri Zhivago
• The Virgin Queen 2005, as Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
• The Tudors 2008, as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles 2008, as Alec D'Urberville
• Jericho 2016, as Johnny Jackson (John Blackwood)

Theatre

• Mojo 1995
• Cuba Real: Trio 2004

[ Source: Wikipedia ]