David Schofield (actor)

David Schofield
Born	1951 (age 60–61) Manchester, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1972–present

David Schofield is an English actor who was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, Cheshire in 1951. He has appeared in numerous television programmes and feature films during his career.

Biography

Early life

Schofield was one of ten children in a working class family from Wythenshawe, Manchester. David attended SS John Fisher and Thomas More R.C. Primary School, along with his brother, Peter. His first acting experience was at Manchester Boys' School at the age of 12. In 1967 he was accepted as student assistant stage manager at a local repertory theatre. He started on the lowest step of the ladder and worked in every department as a prop-maker, sound-man, writer, stage sweeper, waiter and tea-maker, putting in 14-hour days, six days a week. After two seasons, at the age of 19, he became a student of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, which he left early to pursue his path as a working actor.

Screen career

He made a successful career in television, earning numerous credits in popular TV series such as Footballers' Wives and Holby City among many other TV productions. On the big screen David Schofield is best known as Senator Falco in Gladiator, as McQueen in From Hell, and as Mr. Mercer in Pirates of the Caribbean. For the BBC he played DCS John Salway in the award-winning Our Friends in the North. He played anti-Hitler conspirator Erwin von Witzleben in the film Valkyrie. In 2008, he starred as Kirill, in the web series of the same name. In 2009 Schofield guest starred as King Alined in the BBC fantasy drama series Merlin. Schofield stars in the British low-budget thriller F.. In 2011 he played the sinister Police Sergeant Foley in Hugo Blick's The Shadow Line, a seven-part series for BBC Two. However, to genre fans he is best-known as the paranoid darts player in the Slaughtered Lamb in An American Werewolf In London. He has also played Fergus in 'Burke and Hare' [5]

Theatre career

Schofield's distinguished stage career has seen the actor performing for the Royal Shakespeare Company and long associations with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Exchange, Manchester. He played Roy Cohn in the National's 1993 production of Angels in America. He also acted in musicals (Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens) and straight plays on the West End stage in London. During his 30-year acting career he maintains the same agent. His roles include

• John Merrick, The Elephant Man at the Hampstead Theatre (1977)
• Mark Antony, Julius Caesar at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (1983)
• Angelo, Measure for Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and then at the Barbican (1983)
• Duke of Buckingham Henry VIII at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (1983)
• Pompey, Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre,London (1987)
• Robb Lambert, Winding the Ball by Alex Finlayson at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1989)
• John Proctor, The Crucible by Arthur Miller at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1990)
• Macheath, The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1991)
• Lyle Britten, Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1992)
• Roy M. Cohn Angels in America by Tony Kushner at the National Theatre,London (1993)
• Archie Rice, The Entertainer by John Osborne at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2009)

Personal life

David Schofield's wife is Lally and their children are Fred and Blanche.

Schofield has recently become a patron of the Gesar Foundation.

External links

• David Schofield at the Internet Movie Database