Jack Davenport

For American Medal of Honor recipient, see Jack A. Davenport.

Jack Davenport
Born	1 March 1973 (1973-03-01) Merton, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1996–present
Spouse	Michelle Gomez (1 May 2000–present, 1 child)

Jack Davenport (born 1 March 1973) is an English actor, best known for his roles in the television series This Life, Coupling and as James Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He has also appeared in many other Hollywood films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley. More recently, Davenport was part of the ensemble cast of characters in the drama series FlashForward.

Personal life

Davenport, the son of actors Nigel Davenport and Maria Aitken, was born in Merton, England and lived in Ibiza for the first seven years of his life. His uncle is writer and disgraced former Conservative Member of Parliament Jonathan Aitken, his maternal grandfather was politician William Aitken and his maternal great-grandfather was the first Baron Rugby. His parents divorced when he was seven, at which point he was sent to the independent Dragon School, a co-educational boarding school in Oxford, as his parents did not want him to become involved in the divorce proceedings. He then went on to attend the independent school Cheltenham College, followed by the British American Drama Academy. He is married to the actress Michelle Gomez who gave birth to their son, Harry, in early 2010.

Career

Davenport had not planned to become an actor; however, his career began when he took a gap year after attending Cheltenham College. A director from Clwyd Theatr Cymru (The Welsh National Theatre) was impressed by his performance in a summer drama course and asked Davenport to work for him. At 18 years of age he ended up in Wales, performing bit parts in Hamlet, where he became friends with Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill).

The following year, he attended the University of East Anglia (UEA), concentrating in Film Studies and English Literature. He tried out acting once more at the UEA but was not, at this point, seriously interested in it. In fact, Davenport had considered becoming a member of a film crew, as opposed to acting in front of the camera. His mother advised him, after his graduation from UEA, to write to John Cleese requesting work on the set of his upcoming film, Fierce Creatures, so that Davenport could gain some real experience behind the camera. Cleese instead sent Davenport's letter to the casting department, and he was cast as a student zookeeper. Whilst a small part with very few lines it provided his first opportunity to work in front of the camera. After the production of Fierce Creatures was completed, Davenport found an agent who secured him an audition for the role of Miles Stewart in the BBC television drama series This Life.

Since then Davenport has played roles in many successful films and TV series, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, Coupling, and Ultraviolet, as well as the box office smash Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and its sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

During his career Davenport has also performed voice-overs, having narrated the audio versions of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps and recorded parts in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. He also provides the voice over for the British MasterCard advertisements (the American being done by Billy Crudup).

In 2006, he featured in the ITV1 drama The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant and in 2009 starred in the film The Boat That Rocked.

In 2007 Davenport was cast in Swingtown (2008), a period and relationship drama for CBS about the impact of sexual and social liberation in 1970s American suburban households, with story arcs involving open marriages and key parties. This was cancelled after its only season.

In 2008, Davenport was cast in the new ABC pilot FlashForward (2009–2010), which was based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel. In the series, Davenport played the character of Lloyd Simcoe, a physicist allegedly responsible for a worldwide blackout, which causes the whole world to see the future. That series was also cancelled after a single season.

In Feb 2011, Davenport was cast in the NBC musical drama pilot Smash. In May 2011, it was reported that NBC has picked up the show as a series for the Fall 2011 TV season. The series follows a group of people coming together to put on a Marilyn Monroe musical on Broadway. Davenport plays the musical's director.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	This Life	Miles
1997	Fierce Creatures	Student Zoo Keeper
1998	Tale of the Mummy	Detective Bartone
1999	The Cookie Thief (short)	A man
1999	The Talented Mr. Ripley	Peter Smith-Kingsley
2000	Offending Angels	Rort
2001	Not Afraid, Not Afraid	Michael
2001	Subterrain	Businessman
2001	Gypsy Woman	Leon
2001	The Bunker	LCpl. Ebert
2003	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	James Norrington
2004	The Libertine	Harris
2005	The Wedding Date	Edward Fletcher-Wooten
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	James Norrington	Teen Choice Award for Choice Rumble (Shared with: Orlando Bloom) Will Turner vs. Commodore.
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	James Norrington
2009	The Boat That Rocked	Twatt
2011	The Key Man	Bobby

Television appearances

Year	Title	Role
1997	The Moth	Robert Bradley
1996–1997	This Life	Miles Stewart
1998	Macbeth	Malcolm
1998	Ultraviolet	Detective Sergeant Michael Colefield
2000	The Wyvern Mystery	Harry Fairfield
2002	Dickens	Charley Dickens
2002	The Real Jane Austen	Henry Austen
2003	Eroica	Prince Lobkowitz
2003	The Welsh Great Escape	Narrator
2000–2004	Coupling	Steve Taylor / Steve
2004	Marple: The Body in the Library	Superintendent Harper
2005	Mary Bryant	Lt Ralph Clarke
2007	This Life + 10	Miles Stewart
2008	Swingtown	Bruce Miller
2009–2010	FlashForward	Lloyd Simcoe
2012–present	Smash	Derek

Radio

• Alistair Cooke's American Journey (2006) (reading the veteran journalist's wartime reports for BBC Radio 4)

External links

• Jack Davenport at the Internet Movie Database