Quick Facts
Biography
Nicholas Farrell (born Nicholas C. Frost in 1955) is an English stage, film, and television actor.
Education
Farrell was educated at Fryerns Grammar and Technical School in Basildon, Essex, followed by the University of Nottingham and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, alongside fellow pupil Daniel Day-Lewis.
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. In 2014, he portrayed Eyre Crowe in the British documentary drama miniseries 37 Days, about the weeks leading up to World War I.
Other television appearances have included two Agatha Christie's Poirot films, Sharpe's Regiment, To Play the King, Roman Mysteries, Torchwood and Collision. He has also appeared in episodes of Lovejoy, Foyle's War, Absolute Power, Spooks,Midsomer Murders, Drop the Dead Donkey, Call the Midwife andCasualty.
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 Caesarand Hamlet. In the 2011 Chichester Festival he played schoolmasters Dewley and Crocker-Harris in the double bill of South Downs and The Browning Version.
Farrell also appeared in the Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco alongside Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth, and the short film The Pit and the Pendulum: A Study in Torture, based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story.
He is married to Scottish actress Stella Gonet.
Selected film and television appearances
Film
- Chariots of Fire (1981) as Aubrey Montague
- Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) as Sir Hugh Belcher
- Playing Away (1987) as Derek
- In the Bleak Midwinter (US title A Midwinter's Tale) (1995) as Tom Newman (Laertes, Fortinbras, and messengers)
- Othello (1995) as Montano
- Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1996) as Antonio
- Hamlet (1996) as Horatio
- The Treasure Seekers (1996) as Bastable
- Gator King (1997) as Henchman
- Legionnaire (1998) as Mackintosh
- Plunkett & Macleane (1999) as M.P.s Secretary
- Beautiful People (1999) as Dr. Mouldy
- Pearl Harbor (2001) as RAF Squadron Leader
- The Discovery of Heaven (2001) as Mr. Quist (uncredited)
- Arthur's Dyke (2001) as Geoffrey
- Charlotte Gray (2001) as Mr. Jackson
- Bloody Sunday (2002) as Brigadier Patrick Maclellan
- The Third Wave (2003) as Frank Devlin
- Red Mercury (2005) as Minister
- Driving Lessons (2006) as Robert Marshall
- Amazing Grace (2006) as Henry Thornton
- Late Bloomers (2011) as Francis
- The Iron Lady (2011) as Airey Neave
- Summer in February (2011) as Mr. Carter Wood
- Grace of Monaco (2014) as Jean-Charles Rey
- Testament of Youth (2014) as Headmaster
- Robot Overlords (2014) as Sentry Robot / Air Drone (voice)
- Mortdecai (2015) as Auctioneer
- Legend (2015) as Dr Humphries
- Remainder (2015) as Daubenay
- Tear Me Apart (2015) as Old Man (voice)
- Altamira (2016) as Vilanova
- Mindhorn (2016) as Mayor
- Jack the Ripper (2016) as Samuel Harris
- Another Mother's Son (2017) as De La Haye
- The Coldest Game (2019) as Griswald Moran
Television
- Matador (1981) as Jim Donaldson
- The Manhood of Edward Robinson (1981) as Edward Robinson
- Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981) as Georg
- Mansfield Park (1983) as Edmund Bertram
- The Jewel in the Crown (1984) as Teddy Bingham
- Casualty, Facing Up (1991) as Phil Byron
- Lovejoy, The Italian Venus (1991) as Douglas Holden
- Agatha Christie's Poirot - The ABC Murders (1992) as Donald Fraser
- Shakespeare: The Animated Tales: Hamlet (1992) as Hamlet (voice)
- The Riff Raff Element (1993)
- Lipstick on Your Collar (1993) as Maj. Church
- To Play the King - 2nd part of the House of Cards (UK) trilogy (1993) as David Mycroft
- MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday (1994) as Paul Moran
- Bramwell (1995) as Major Stuart Hyde
- The Choir (1995) as Leo Beckford
- Sharpe's Regiment (1996) as Lord Fenner
- Drop the Dead Donkey, Dave and Diana (1996) as Martin Jones
- Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll (1999) as Howard Brookes
- Midsomer Murders, Strangler's Wood (1999) as John Merrill
- The Jury (2002) as Jeremy Crawford (Juror #5)
- Sparkhouse (2002) as Paul Lawton
- Spooks, The Rose Bed Memoirs (2002) as Richard Maynard
- Absolute Power, Mr Fox (2003) as Simon Wellington
- Foyle's War, "The Funk Hole" (2003) as Chief Inspector James Collier
- Trial & RetributionVIII: Blue Eiderdown (2004) as Jonathan Southwood MP
- Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Mystery of the Blue Train (2005) as Major Knighton
- Jericho, To Murder and Create (2005) as Charles Hewitt
- Casualty 1906 (2006) as Sydney Holland
- Persuasion (2007) as Mr. Musgrove
- The Inspector Lynley Mysteries Limbo (2007) as Sam Oborne
- Casualty 1907 (2008) as Sydney Holland
- Casualty 1909 (2009) as Chairman Sydney Holland
- The Diary of Anne Frank (2009) as Mr. Dussell
- Torchwood (2009) as Prime Minister Brian Green
- Collision (2009) as Guy Pearson
- Lewis (2010) as Professor Milner
- New Tricks (2011) as James Winslow
- Death in Paradise (2011) as Nicholas Dunham
- Secret State (2012) as General Munnery
- Spying on Hitler's Army: The Secret Recordings (2013) as Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma
- 37 Days (2014) as Eyre Crowe
- Father Brown (2015) as Sir Raleigh Beresford, episode 3.2 The Curse of Amenhotep
- Thirteen (2016) as Henry Stone
- Siblings (2016) as Charles