David Warner (actor)
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| David Warner | |
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| Born | July 29, 1941 (age 65) Manchester, England, UK |
| Years active | 1962 - present day |
| Spouse(s) | Sheilah Kent (1979 - present) Harriet Lidgren (1969 - 1972) (divorced) |
| Emmy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special 1981 Masada |
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David Warner (born July 29, 1941) is an English actor who often plays sinister or evil characters.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Warner was born in Manchester, England. He was born out of wedlock, frequently taken to be raised by each of his parents, eventually settling with his Russian Jewish[1] father and step-mother.[2] Warner was trained at RADA.
[edit] Career
Warner made his professional debut in 1962, in a minor role in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson for the English Stage Company. Later that year he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his portrayals of Hamlet and Henry VI were acclaimed. In 1963, he made his film debut in Tom Jones, and in 1965 starred as King Henry VI of England in the BBC production of Shakespeare's The War of the Roses cycle. Another early television role came when he starred alongside Bob Dylan in the 1963 play The Madhouse on Castle Street. A major step in his career was the leading role in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966), which established his reputation for playing slightly off-the-wall characters. He also appeared opposite Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976) as the ill-fated photojournalist, Keith Jennings.
Since then, he has often played villains, in films such as The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), Time After Time (1979), Time Bandits (1981) (going all the way by playing a character named "Evil Genius") and Tron (1982), and television series such as Batman: The Animated Series playing "Ra's Al Ghul", the anti-mutant scientist Herbert Landon in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, as well as rogue agent Alpha in the animated Men in Black series and the Archmage in Disney's Gargoyles and finally The Lobe in Freakazoid. He was also cast against type as Henry Niles in Straw Dogs (1971) and as Bob Crachit in the 1984 telefilm of A Christmas Carol. In addition, he played Nazi war criminal Reinhard Heydrich in the movie SS - Portrait in Evil, and the television mini-series Holocaust.
He has appeared in movies such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Titanic (the third time he has appeared in a film about RMS Titanic), Scream 2, and more recently in independent television's adaptation of the Hornblower series (which starred Ioan Gruffudd, Warner's co-star on Titanic). He appeared in three episodes of the second series of Twin Peaks (1991). He also continues to play classical roles. In "Chain of Command", a 6th-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, he was a Cardassian interrogator. He based his portrayal on the evil "re-educator" from 1984. His less-spectacular roles included a double-role in the campy low-budget fantasy Quest of the Delta Knights (1993) which was eventually spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also played Admiral Tolwyn in the movie version of Wing Commander.
On the "nice guy" side, he played the charismatic Aldous Gajic in Grail, a first-season episode of Babylon 5 and Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He also portrayed the sympathetic character of Capt. Kiesel in Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron. In an episode of Lois & Clark he played Superman's deceased Kryptonian father Jor-El, who appeared to his son through holographic recordings. He also played the ambigious "nice guy" Dr. Richard Madden in 1994's Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, who had to kill to sustain his life, but was a generally nice person.
Warner has performed in many audio plays, starring in the Doctor Who "Unbound" play Sympathy for the Devil (2003) as an alternative version of the Doctor, and in a series of plays based on ITV's Sapphire & Steel as Steel, both for Big Finish Productions. He will reprise his incarnation of the Doctor in a sequel, The Dark Palace. He also guest starred in the BBC Radio 4 Sci-Fi comedy Nebulous (2005) as Professor Nebulous' arch-enemy Dr. Klench. In all these productions Warner has worked with writer and comedian Mark Gatiss of the League of Gentlemen, and plays a guest role in the League's 2005 feature film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.
He has also contributed voice acting to a number of computer games, most notably playing the villain Jon Irenicus in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Morpheus in Fallout. He was also approached to reprise his role as Tron's Sark in the video game Kingdom Hearts II, but was unavailable and replaced by veteran voice actor Corey Burton.
On the Cartoon Network animated television series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, David provided the voice of Nergal, a demonic creature from the Earth's core that is obsessed with making friends. He voiced the character until 2003, when he was replaced by Martin Jarvis. On 30 October 2005, he appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, Navin Chowdhry, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] External links
- David Warner at the Internet Movie Database
- David Warner article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Warner, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | English Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 29, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Manchester, England, UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
