Personal life

Northam was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, the youngest of four siblings. His mother, Rachel (née Howard), was a potter and professor of economics, and his father, John Northam, was a professor of literature and theatre, as well as being an Ibsen specialist and lecturer (first at Clare College, Cambridge and later at Bristol). Northam was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bedford College, University of London (BA English 1984) now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He married Canadian film/television make-up artist Liz Moro in April 2005, though they later divorced.

Career

Screen and stage

Northam performed at the Royal National Theatre - he replaced Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of Hamlet (1989), and won the Olivier Award in 1990 for "most promising newcomer" for his performance in The Voysey Inheritance.

He has appeared frequently in British films such as Carrington (1995), Emma (1996), The Winslow Boy (1999), An Ideal Husband (1999), Enigma (2001) and as Welsh actor and singer Ivor Novello in Gosford Park (2001). He made his American film debut in The Net (1995).

In 2002 he starred in the film Cypher alongside Lucy Liu. That same year, he portrayed singer Dean Martin in the CBS film Martin and Lewis and golfer Walter Hagen in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius in 2004. In 2007 and 2008, he portrayed Thomas More on the Showtime series, The Tudors. He played John Brodie Innes in the 2009 film Creation, based on the life of Charles Darwin. He will play British Prime Minister Anthony Eden on the upcoming Netflix drama series, The Crown.

Other work

His audiobook work includes The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis for Harper Audio and A Death Divided by Clare Francis for Macmillan. For SilkSoundBooks, he recorded The Real Thing and Other Short Stories and The Aspern Papers, both written by Henry James. In 2007 he recorded Gerard Manley Hopkins poems for "The Great Poets" edition for Naxos Audiobooks. He recorded the audio book Dark Matter, a ghost story by Michelle Paver, in September 2010. It was released on 21 October 2010, by Orion.

In the Gosford Park soundtrack, Northam sings the Ivor Novello songs "And Her Mother Came Too", "What a Duke Should Be", "Why Isn't It You", "I Can Give You the Starlight" and "The Land of Might Have Been" accompanied by his brother Christopher on piano.

Credits

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1988	Journey's End	Captain Stanhope	TV film
	American Playhouse	Mr. Benson	TV series (1 episode:Suspicion)
	Piece of Cake	'Fitz' Fitzgerald	TV mini-series (5 episodes)
	Wish Me Luck	Colin Beale	TV series (14 episodes: 1988-1989)
1992	House of Glass	Gerald Stafford	TV film
	A Fatal Inversion	Rufus Fletcher	TV series (3 episodes)
	Wuthering Heights	Hindley Earnshaw
1993	Soft Top Hard Shoulder	John
	Agatha Christie: Poirot	Hugo Trent	TV series (1 episode: "Dead Man's Mirror")
1995	A Village Affair	Anthony Jordan	TV film
	Carrington	Beacus Penrose
	The Net	Jack Devlin
	Voices	Philip Heseltine/Peter Warlock
1996	Emma	Mr. Knightley
1997	Mimic	Dr. Peter Mann
	Amistad	Judge Coglin
1998	The Tribe	Jamie
	The Misadventures of Margaret	Edward Nathan
1999	Happy, Texas	Harry Sawyer, aka Steven "Steve"	ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year (also for An Ideal Husband and The Winslow Boy)
	Gloria	Kevin
	An Ideal Husband	Sir Robert Chiltern	Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor (also for The Winslow Boy)
	The Winslow Boy	Sir Robert Morton	Edinburgh International Film Festival Award for Best British Performance
2000	The Golden Bowl	Prince Amerigo
2001	Enigma	Mr. Wigram
	Gosford Park	Ivor Novello	Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble Cast Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Acting Ensemble
2002	Possession	Randolph Henry Ash
	Cypher	Morgan Sullivan/Jack Thursby/Sebastian Rooks	International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor Catalonian International Film Award for Best Actor
	Martin and Lewis	Dean Martin	TV film
2003	The Singing Detective	Mark Binney
	The Statement	Colonel Roux
2004	Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius	Walter Hagen
2005	Guy X	Col. Woolwrap
	A Cock and Bull Story	Mark
2007	The Invasion	Tucker Kauffman
	The Tudors	Sir Thomas More	TV series (15 episodes: 2007-2008)
2008	Fiona's Story	Simon	TV film
	Dean Spanley	Fisk Junior
2009	The Payback
	Creation	Reverend Innes
	Glorious 39	Joseph Balcombe
2010	Miami Medical	Dr. Matthew Proctor	TV series (13 episodes)
2012	White Heat	Edward	TV series (6 episodes)
TBA	The Man Who Knew Infinity	Bertrand Russell
	2015	Our Kind Of Traitor
2016	The Crown	Anthony Eden	TV series (6 episodes)

Theatrography

• Edward Voysey, The Voysey Inheritance, National Theatre Company, Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1989
• Also appeared in productions of School for Scandal and The Shaughraun, National Theatre Company.
• Osric, then later title role, Hamlet, National Theatre Company, Olivier Theatre, London, 1989
• The Three Sisters, 1991
• The Way of the World, 1992
• Philip, The Gift of the Gorgon, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pit (theatre), London, 1992
• Elomire, La Bête, Really Useful Theatre Company, 1993
• Berowne, Love's Labour's Lost, Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatre, London, 1994
• Mr. Horner, The Country Wife, Royal Shakespeare Company, Pit Theatre, 1994
• Obstetrician, Certain Young Men, Almeida Theatre, London, 1999
• Old Times, Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London, 2004
• Richard Greatham, Hay Fever, Noël Coward Theatre, London, 2012

[ Source: Wikipedia ]