Anton Lesser

Anton Lesser
Anton Lesser
	Anton Lesser in June 2011
Born	14 February 1952 (age 72)
Alma mater	University of Liverpool; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1979–present

Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is particularly well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, as Thomas More in Wolf Hall, as Harold Macmillan in The Crown, and as Chief Superintendent Bright in the Inspector Morse spin-off, Endeavour.^[1]

Early life

Anton Lesser attended Moseley Grammar School in Moseley, Birmingham, and the University of Liverpool before going to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1977, where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year.^{[citation needed]} He is of Jewish descent.^[2]

Career

As an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Lesser played a considerable number of Shakespeare's great roles, including Troilus (Troilus and Cressida), Edgar (King Lear), Petruchio, Romeo, Henry Bolingbroke, Brutus (Julius Caesar), Leontes (Winter's Tale) and Richard III.^{[citation needed]}

Lesser is a frequent radio contributor and played the title role in the BBC Radio adaptations of the first five Falco mysteries by Lindsey Davis. He has also recorded many audiobooks, including much of the work of Charles Dickens, and his recording of Great Expectations won him a Talkie Award. Other books range from John Milton's Paradise Lost and Homer to contemporary novels by Robert Harris (Fatherland) and Philip Pullman. For two months in 2013, Lesser was heard as a regular cast member playing Robin Carrow in Ambridge Extra, a BBC Radio 4 Extra spin-off from the BBC Radio 4 drama The Archers.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Lesser was announced a public supporter of Chapel Lane Theatre Company based in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK.^[3]

Lesser portrayed Thomas More in the BBC mini-series Wolf Hall, and received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1979	The Mill on the Floss	Philip Wakem	TV series (2 episodes)
1979	Oresteia	Orestes	TV series (3 episodes)
1981	The Cherry Orchard	Trofimov	TV film
1981	Troilus & Cressida	Troilus	TV film
1982	Crown Court		TV series (1 episode: "Fair Play: Part 1")
	King Lear	Edgar	TV film (BBC version with Hordern as Lear) Not to be confused with 1983 TV Film with Olivier as Lear
	The Missionary	Young Man
1983	Good and Bad at Games	Cox	TV film
1984	Sakharov	Valery Chalidze	TV film
1984	Freud	Wilhelm Fliess	TV series (5 episodes)
1985	Anna of the Five Towns	Willie Price	TV series (2 episodes)
1985	The Assam Garden	Mr Sutton
1987	London Embassy	Robert Bronhouse	TV series
1987	Great Performances	Robber	TV series (1 episode: "Monsignor Quixote")
1988	Twelfth Night, or What You Will	Feste	TV film
	Screen Two	Stanley Spencer	TV series (1 episode: "Stanley Spencer")
	A Vote for Hitler	A. L. Rowse	TV film
1989	Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story	Karl	TV film
1990	Traitors		TV film
1991	The Strauss Dynasty	Levi	TV series (1 episode: "Episode No.1.1")
1992	Downtown Lagos	Mungo Dawson	TV series
1994	Guinevere	Envoy	TV film
1994	Shakespeare: The Animated Tales	Leontes	TV series (1 episode: "The Winter's Tale")
1995	The Politician's Wife	Mark Hollister	TV series
	Bugs	Patrick Marcel	TV series (1 episode: "Pulse")
	Moses	Eliav	TV film
1996	Sharman	Galilee	TV series (1 episode: "Episode No.1.4")
1996	Testament: The Bible in Animation	Joseph	TV series (1 episode: "Joseph")
1997	Into the Blue	Dr John Ockleton	TV film
	Bodyguards	Dusan Mezic	TV series (1 episode: "A Choice of Evils")
	FairyTale: A True Story	Wounded Corporal
	The Moonstone	Ezra Jennings	TV film
1998	Invasion: Earth	Lt. Charles Terrell	TV series (4 episodes)
	Vanity Fair	Mr Pitt Crawley	TV series (5 episodes, of 6 total)
	The Echo	Billy Blake	TV film
1999	Trial by Fire	Brian Redwood	TV film
1999	Pure Wickedness	Dr Andrew Ward	TV film
2000	The Miracle Maker	Herod	TV film
	Esther Kahn	Sean
	Safe as Houses	Mr Dunn	TV series
	The Scarlet Pimpernel	Antoine Picard	TV series (1 episode: "Friends & Enemies")
	Lorna Doone	Counsellor Doone	TV film
2001	Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story	Vidas Merlinis, Research Scientist	TV film
	Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes	Milburn	TV series (1 episode: "The White Knight Stratagem")
	Uprising		TV film
	Charlotte Gray	Renech
	Swallow	Paul Valley	TV series (3 episodes)
2002	Dickens	Charles Dickens	TV series (3 episodes)
	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	Sir Gawain	TV film
	Waking the Dead	Professor Ray Levin	TV series (2 episodes)
	The Project	Stanley Hall	TV film
	Foyle's War	Austin Carmichael	TV series (1 episode: "Eagle Day")
2003	Danielle Cable: Eyewitness	Batten	TV film
	Y Mabinogi	Teyrnon	TV series
	Imagining Argentina	General Guzmán
	Eroica	Sukowaty	TV film
	Midsomer Murders	Eddie Darwin	TV series (1 episode: "Birds of Prey")
2004	London	Charles Dickens	TV film
	Silent Witness	Marcus Gwilym	TV series (2 episodes)
	Dirty Filthy Love	Charles	TV film
	Spooks	Nicholas Ashworth	TV series (1 episode: "Episode No.3.4")
2005	Ahead of the Class	Graham Ranger	TV film
	The Girl in the Café	George	TV film
	E-mc2	Voltaire	TV film
	River Queen	Baine
	Class of '76	Martin Gibson	TV film
	Nova	Voltaire	TV series (1 episode: "Einstein's Big Idea")
2006	Dalziel and Pascoe	Paul Goodman	TV series (2 episodes)
	Vital Signs	Dr Lindsay	TV series (3 episodes)
	New Tricks	Pete Mackintyre	TV series (1 episode: "Bank Robbery")
	The Outsiders	Maurice Heston	TV film
	A Touch of Frost	Dennis Prior	TV series (1 episode: "Endangered Species")
	Miss Potter	Harold Warne
2008	Messiah: The Rapture	Samuel Waite	TV series
	The Palace	Archbishop of Canterbury	TV series (2 episodes)
	Midsomer Murders	Reverend Wallace Stone	TV series (1 episode: "Talking to the Dead")
	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Inspector Kelsey	TV series (1 episode: "Cat Among the Pigeons")
	Einstein and Eddington	Fritz Haber	TV film
	Little Dorrit	Mr Merdle	TV series (7 episodes)
2009	Deep Sleep		short
2009	Casualty 1909	Dr Henry Head	TV series (4 episodes)
2010	Primeval: Webisodes	Gideon
	Holby City	Sol Caplin	TV series (1 episode: "Faith No More")
	Five Daughters	Dr Nat Cary	TV series (2 episodes)
	Garrow's Law	John Farmer	TV series (4 episodes)
	Flutter	Bruno	completed
2011	Primeval	Gideon	TV series (5 episodes)
	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Lord Carteret
	The Hour	Clarence Fendley	TV series (5 episodes)
	The Man Who Crossed Hitler	Rudolf Olden	TV film
2012	The Hollow Crown	Exeter	TV film (1 episode: Henry V)
2013	Spies of Warsaw	Dr Lapp	TV film (2 episodes)
	Ripper Street	Dr Karl Crabb	TV series (2 episodes)
	The Escape Artist	Richard Mayfield, QC	TV series (3 episodes)
	Atlantis	Kyros	TV series
2013–	Game of Thrones	Qyburn	TV Series (16 episodes)
2013-2018	Endeavour	Chief Superintendent Bright	TV series (13 episodes)
2014	Father Brown	Father Ignatius	Episode: "The Mysteries of the Rosary"
	The Musketeers	Emile De Mauvoisin	Episode: "The Homecoming"
	Closer to the Moon	Holban
2015	Wolf Hall	Thomas More	TV series Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor
2015–16	Dickensian	Fagin	TV series
2016	The Hollow Crown (series 2)	Duke of Exeter	BBC2 TV series (2 episodes: Henry VI part I and Henry VI part II)
	On Chesil Beach	Reverend Woollett
	A United Kingdom	Prime Minister Attlee
	The Exception	General Falkenberg
2017	Disobedience	Rav Kruschka
2017	The Crown	Harold Macmillan	TV series

Theatre performances

Romeo and Juliet 'Romeo', 1980, RSC
Hamlet 'Hamlet', 1982, Donmar Warehouse, London
Troilus and Cressida 'Troilus', 1985, RSC
The Plantagenets (Henry VI part 1-3 and Richard III) 'Richard III', 1988, RSC
Two Shakespearean Actors 'Edwin Forrest', 1990, RSC
Richard II 'Henry Bullingbrook',^[4] 1990, RSC
The Taming of the Shrew 'Petruchio', 1992, RSC
The Merry Wives of Windsor 'Frank Ford', 1992, RSC
'Art', 'Serge', 1997, Wyndham's Theatre, London
Private Lives 'Elyot', 1999,Lyttelton Theatre, London
Cymbeline 'Iachimo', 2003, RSC
Julius Caesar 'Marcus Brutus', 2005, Barbican, London
The Winter's Tale 'Leontes', 2006,RSC
The Vertical Hour 'Oliver Lucas', 2008, Royal Court Theatre, London
A Doll's House 'Dr Rank', 2009, Donmar Warehouse, London

References

^ "Anton Lesser talks Qyburn, Jaime Lannister's Gold Hand, & The Mountain". flicksandthecity.com. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
^ http://www.americanisraelite.com/jews_in_the_newz/article_03909efc-9d4f-11e7-bccc-53076296bef6.html
^ Harvey-Ball, Thom. "New Supporter - Anton Lesser!". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ as spelled in The life and death of Richard II programme by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 1990

External links

Anton Lesser at IMDb
Anton Lesser at the RSC^{[permanent dead link]}

[1] "Anton Lesser talks Qyburn, Jaime Lannister's Gold Hand, & The Mountain". flicksandthecity.com. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2016.

[2] ttp://www.americanisraelite.com/jews_in_the_newz/article_03909efc-9d4f-11e7-bccc-53076296bef6.html

[3] Harvey-Ball, Thom. "New Supporter - Anton Lesser!". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[4] s spelled in The life and death of Richard II programme by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 1990

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