Nicholas Farrell

This page is about the actor Nicholas Farrell. For the biographer of Mussolini, see “Nicholas Burgess Farrell”.

Nicholas Farrell
Born	1955 Essex
Occupation	Actor

Nicholas Farrell (born Nicholas Frost; 1955) is an English stage, film and television actor.

Education

Farrell was educated at Fryerns Grammar and Technical School (which merged with another school to become Fryerns Comprehensive School in 1968), in the town of Basildon in the Southern English county of Essex, near London, followed by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the cathedral city of Bristol in South West England.

Life and career

Farrell's early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park. In 1984, he appeared in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and The Jewel in the Crown.

Since then, his film and television work has included several screen adaptations of Shakespeare's works, including Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet, in which he played Horatio, a role he had played previously with Branagh for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also appeared in film adaptations of Twelfth Night (1996), Othello (1995) and In the Bleak Midwinter (1995). He provided the voice of Hamlet for the animated television adaptation Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992). He played the role of Albert Dussell in the 2009 adaption of The Diary of Anne Frank, a BBC production. In 2011, he played Margaret Thatcher's close friend and advisor Airey Neave in The Iron Lady.

Other television appearances have included two Agatha Christie's Poirot movies, Sharpe's Regiment, To Play the King, Torchwood and Collision. He has also appeared in episodes of Lovejoy, Foyle's War, Absolute Power, Spooks, Midsomer Murders, Drop the Dead Donkey and Casualty.

Farrell's theatre work includes performances of The Cherry Orchard, Camille, and The Crucible as well as Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet. In the 2011 Chichester Festival he played schoolmasters Dewley and Crocker-Harris in the double bill of South Downs and The Browning Version.

He is married to Scottish actress Stella Gonet.

Selected film and television appearances

Film credits include:

• The Iron Lady (2011) as Airey Neave
• Amazing Grace (2006) as Henry Thornton
• Driving Lessons (2006) as Robert Marshall
• The Third Wave (film) (2003) as Frank Devlin
• Bloody Sunday (2002) as Brigadier Maclellan
• Charlotte Gray (2001) as Mr. Jackson
• Pearl Harbor (2001) as RAF Squadron Leader
• Legionnaire (1998) as Mackintosh
• Hamlet (1996) as Horatio
• The Treasure Seekers (1996)
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1996) as Antonio
• Othello (1995) as Montano
• In the Bleak Midwinter (US title A Midwinter's Tale) (1995) as Tom Newman (Laertes, Fortinbras, and messengers)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) as Sir Hugh Belcher
• Chariots of Fire (1981) as Aubrey Montague

Television credits include:

• New Tricks (2011) as James Winslow
• Collision (2009) as Guy Pearson
• Torchwood (2009) as Prime Minister Brian Green
• Casualty 1909 (2009) as Chairman Sydney Holland
• The Diary of Anne Frank (2009) as Mr. Dussell
• Casualty 1907 (2008) as Sydney Holland
• Persuasion (2007) as Mr. Musgrove
• Casualty 1906 (2006) as Sydney Holland
• Agatha Christie's Poirot- The Mystery of the Blue Train (2005) as Major Knighton
• Jericho, To Murder and Create (2005) as Charles Hewitt
• Trial & RetributionVIII: Blue Eiderdown (2004) as Jonathan Southwood MP
• Foyle's War, The Funk Hole (2003) as Chief Inspector James Collier
• Absolute Power, Mr Fox (2003) as Simon Wellington
• Spooks, The Rose Bed Memoirs (2002) as Richard Maynard
• The Jury (2002) as Jeremy Crawford (Juror #5)
• Sparkhouse (2002) as Paul Lawton
• Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll" (1999) as Howard Brookes
• Midsomer Murders, Strangler's Wood (1999) as John Merrill
• The Choir (1995) as Leo Beckford
• Drop the Dead Donkey, Dave and Diana (1996) as Martin Jones
• Sharpe's Regiment (1996) as Lord Fenner
• Bramwell (1995) as Major Stuart Hyde
• MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday (1994) as Paul Moran
• To Play the King (1993) as David Mycroft
• The Riff Raff Element (1993)
• Lipstick on Your Collar (1993) as Maj. Church
• Agatha Christie's Poirot- The ABC Murders (1992) as Donald Fraser
• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales: Hamlet (1992) as Hamlet (voice)
• Casualty, Facing Up (1991) as Phil Byron
• Lovejoy, The Italian Venus (1991) as Douglas Holden
• The Jewel in the Crown (1984) as Teddy Bingham
• Mansfield Park(1983) as Edmund Bertram
• The Manhood of Edward Robinson (1981) as Edward Robinson
• Matador (1978) as Jim Donaldson

External links

• Nicholas Farrell at IMDb
• British Theatre Guide entry