Geraint Wyn Davies

For other people named Geraint Davies, see Geraint Davies (disambiguation).

Geraint Wyn Davies
Born	April 20, 1957 (1957-04-20) Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
Spouse	Alana Guinn (1985-2006, divorced); Claire Lautier (present)

Geraint Wyn Davies (pronunciation: GER-īnt, b. April 20, 1957, Swansea, United Kingdom) is a Welsh-Canadian-American actor.

He was born on 20 April 1957 in Wales, at Swansea. He was the son of a Congregationalist preacher. At the age of seven he moved with his family from Haverfordwest to Canada; where he attended Upper Canada College and then the University of Western Ontario, where he studied economics before dropping out to pursue an acting career.

His most famous role is that of vampire-turned-police-detective, Nick Knight, on Forever Knight. Before this he had also played a vampire in Dracula: The Series.

His recent television roles include 24 in early 2006, as James Nathanson and ReGenesis in 2008 as Carleton Riddlemeyer. He also played cyber-terrorist David Kaydick in RoboCop: Prime Directives, and also portrayed maverick U.S. Air Force pilot Mike Rivers in the final season of Airwolf. He played Nick Haskell on the Canadian series Black Harbour, and Henry Breedlove in the second season of Slings and Arrows. His more recent films include Some Things That Stay (2004), The Wild Dogs (2002) and Cube 2: Hypercube (2002)

He appeared several seasons with the Shaw and Stratford festivals. He recently appeared in New York City with Christopher Plummer in King Lear, and in Washington, D.C. in the title roles of both Cyrano de Bergerac and Richard III.

In 2008, he played Polonius in the Stratford Festival production of Hamlet and appeared as the King in Fuente Ovejuna for the same festival. In the 2009 season of the Stratford Festival, he starred in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Nick Bottom, as the title role in Julius Caesar, and as Duncan in Macbeth. The 2011 season featured Wyn Davies in a singing role as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.

Stage

Geraint was 12 when he was first bitten by the acting bug, appearing in a school production of Lord of the Flies.

His professional stage debut was made in 1976 in Quebec City, when at 19 he appeared in The Fantasticks, Red Emma, and A Midsummer's Night Dream.

After Quebec, Geraint moved on to London's Centre Stage Theatre Company.

In Britain he continued his stage career with the British Actors Theatre Company, where he played the lead in The Last Englishman.

He then spent two seasons with Wales's leading theatre company, Theatr Clwyd, touring Britain in Enemy of the People and Hamlet. It was his performance in Hamlet that led to his receiving the Regional Theatre Best Actor Award. He then spent a season with the Chichester Festival, performing in Henry VIII.

He has performed in Canada at both the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Geraint gained a reputation as a gifted actor for his performances in such plays as The Music Cure, Candida, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Vortex, Goodnight Disgrace, Henry V and The Three Musketeers. He even sang his way through the Rogers and Hart musical, The Boys from Syracuse.

Other stage performances include My Fat Friend, in Los Angeles, and Sleuth with Patrick Macnee, in Toronto.

In April 1996 Geraint appeared as Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of The Shrew, directed by Patrick Tucker of the Original Shakespeare Company. This three-performance run was presented as Shakespeare's own players may have done - with sparse rehearsal, eclectic costuming, and rotating roles.

In Spring 1998 Geraint appeared in the Moises Kaufmann production, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Gross Indecency earned the Garland Award for "Best Ensemble Cast from Backstage West" that year.

In August 1999 Geraint starred in a one-man show written by the late Leon Pownall, called An Evening with Dylan Thomas at the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada. The following summer he returned to the Atlantic Theatre Festival in the second of what would become Leon Pownall's Dylan Thomas trilogy, Dylan Thomas and Shakespeare: In the Envy Of Some Greatness. August 2001 saw the completion of Pownall's trilogy with Stranger in Paradise.

The summer of 2002 Geraint returned to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre's main stage in My Fair Lady, starring as Henry Higgins, a role he shared with his good friend Colm Feore. He also reprised his role of Dylan Thomas at the Festival's Studio Theatre.

Geraint returned to the Atlantic Theatre Festival in August 2003 to perform a one-act play Hughie by Eugene O'Neill. The evening was topped off by a presentation of The Sermon by David Mamet.

2004 saw Geraint appear at the Lincoln in New York as Edmund to Christopher Plummer's King Lear. Following Lear he starred in the title role of Cyrano at The Shakespeare Theatre, in Washington, D.C. Audiences loved the play and almost every performance ended with a standing ovation. Geraint won the prestigious "Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Play" for his portrayal of the tragic hero.

In 2005 Geraint was Dylan Thomas for seven weeks as he performed Do Not Go Gentle at the Arclight Theatre in New York City. While there he also did a reading of Tennessee Williams' letters at the New York Public Library and performed in a reading of Eugene O'Neill's Days Without End.

In September he joined in a reading of R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island in Washington, D.C., and in October took part in a staged reading of a new play by Austin Pendleton entitled H6R3, which blends Shakespeare's plays Henry VI and Richard III.

In 2006 Geraint returned to The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. to perform Don Armado in Michael Kahn's 60's version of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost. Following the American run the play moved to Stratford-Upon-Avon in Britain for a limited run. He was nominated but did not win The Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Play for Don Armado. While in D.C. he also participated in a reading of London Assurance by Dion Boucicault.

Early in 2007 Geraint headlined as Richard III by Shakespeare at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. He, along with friend Brent Carver, are opening in Toronto's CanStage production of The Elephant Man in mid-October.

2008 saw Geraint’s return to Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival to appear in Hamlet (as Polonius) and Fuente Ovejuna (as the King). He followed the Stratford season playing the Duke in Red Bull Theater’s production of Women Beware Women in New York City.

Geraint returned to Stratford for their 2009 season playing Duncan in Macbeth, Caesar in Julius Caesar and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

For the 2010 Stratford Shakespeare Festival season, Geraint portrayed King Arthur in Camelot and Falstaff in Merry Wives of Windsor.

Wyn Davies has voiced two audio books, Great American Suspense: Five Unabridged Classics and Great Classic Hauntings: Six Unabridged Stories.

Film

Geraint made his film debut in Deadly Harvest in 1977 and has since appeared in many other films, among them Paid Vacation (1979), Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989), Other Women's Children (1993), Ghost Mom (1993), Trilogy of Terror II (1996), Conspiracy of Fear (1996), RoboCop: Prime Directives (2000) and One of the Hollywood Ten (2000), American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002) and Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) as well as appearing in The Wild Dogs (Best Canadian Feature - Atlantic Film Festival 2002). In 2002, Geraint also appeared in Trudeau, a two-part movie for Canadian television and 2004 brought Some Things That Stay. In 2007, Geraint appeared in a cameo in Nancy Drew and filmed a made-for-TV movie titled Post Mortem for Lifetime.

Filmography

• Pavane (2008) - Phil
• I Know What I Saw (2007) - Detective Morgan
• Some Things That Stay (2004) - Mr. Murphy
• The Wild Dogs (2002) - Colin
• Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) - Simon Grady
• American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002) - Daniels
• Trudeau (2002) - Premier William G. Davis
• One of the Hollywood Ten (2000) - Michael Wilson
• Trilogy of Terror II (1996) - Ben
• The Conspiracy of Fear (1996) - Timothy Straker
• Dancing in the Dark (1995) - Dr. Lambert
• Ghost Mom (1993) - Martin Mallory
• Other Women's Children (1993) - Matt Stewart
• Hush Little Baby (1993) - Dr.Martin Nolan
• Terror Stalks the Class Reunion (1992) - Anton/Tony
• Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) - Allan Devlin
• The Taming of the Shrew (1988) - Hortensio
• Daughters of the Country (1987) - Angus
• Learning to Fly (1986) - Young pilot
• The Boys from Syracuse (1986) - Antipholus of Syracuse
• A Paid Vacation (1979) - Rick Jarrell
• D.O.A. (1978) - Jon
• Deadly Harvest (1977) - Michael Franklin

Television

Geraint has been very busy on television. He was a regular in the cast of To Serve and Protect, The Judge and in the final season of Airwolf (with Barry Van Dyke and Michele Scarabelli). He played vampire roles twice - as Klaus in Dracula; The Series and as Nick Knight in Forever Knight (probably his most recognized role).

Since Forever Knight Geraint has appeared in several series. He travelled to Nova Scotia to star in the critically acclaimed series, Black Harbour, and journeyed from space as the evil alien "Zin" in the sci-fi series, Tracker. He appeared as "Nathanson" in the fifth season of 24, and most recently appears in the Canadian sci-fi shows Regenesis (seasons 3 & 4) and The Murdoch Mysteries (two episodes as Arthur Conan Doyle).

He has guest starred in episodes of The Littlest Hobo, Katts and Dog, Highlander: The Series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, The Outer Limits, RoboCop: The Series, The Hidden Room, Matrix, Diamonds, Sweating Bullets, 1-800-Missing, and many more.

TV

• Murdoch Mysteries (2008) as Arthur Conan Doyle (2 episodes)
• ReGenesis (2007–2008) as Carleton Riddlemeyer (18 episodes)
• 24 (2006) as James Nathanson (6 episodes)
• Slings and Arrows (2005) as Henry Breedlove (5 episodes)
• Tracker (2001–2002) as Zin (12 episodes)
• The Outer Limits (1996–2001) as David / Sheriff Grady Markham (2 episodes)
• Black Harbour (1996–1999) as Nick Haskell (34 episodes)
• Forever Knight (1992–1996) as Det. Nicholas 'Nick' Knight / Nicholas de Brabant (70 episodes)
• Dracula: The Series (1990–1991) as Klaus Helsing (5 episodes)
• Airwolf (1987) as Major Mike Rivers (24 episodes)
• The Judge (1986) as Allan Pearson (6 episodes)
• The Littlest Hobo (1982–1983) as Adam Coulter / David Barrington (3 episodes)
• Hangin' In (1982) as Drake / Jonathan (2 episodes)

Directing

Geraint has directed many episodes of Forever Knight, Black Harbour, Pit Pony, Power Play and North of 60.

In June 2000 he took on the challenge of directing Oliver Mayer's Joy of the Desolate in Highland Park, IL. A "back-burner" project for Geraint is Horatio Salt, a collection of four short films that he is producing and directing.

Music

Geraint's musical talent was first brought to prominence on Forever Knight, where he played the piano in the loft and co-wrote a song for the "Baby Baby" episode. As a result he was featured in one of the selections on the first Forever Knight CD.

He has appeared in several musicals in his career, most notably as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady in Stratford, Ontario.

He is a self-taught musician who produced a CD of his own works Bar Talk, which is sold through his fan club with the proceeds going to a variety of charities such as Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Children's Hospital Foundation in Washington D.C., the Atlantic Theatre Festival of Wolfville and The Stratford Festival's Shakespeare School (Stratford, Ontario).

Personal life

Geraint Wyn Davies was married to Canadian artist Alana Guinn from 1985 to 2006; with whom he has two children, daughter Pyper and son Galen.

For several years he has been involved with actress Claire Lautier, and they are currently living together, according to her bio on the International Movie Database.

Citizenship

On 13 June 2006 Davies became an American citizen, having been sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Davies said of the experience: "It was wonderful."

External links

• Geraint Wyn Davies at the Internet Movie Database
• Geraint Wyn Davies at the Internet Broadway Database