Ralph Brown

Ralph William John Brown (born 18 June 1957) is an English actor and writer, known for playing Danny the drug dealer in Withnail and I, the security guard Aaron (a.k.a. "85") in Alien 3, DJ Bob Silver in The Boat That Rocked, super-roadie Del Preston in Wayne's World 2 and the pilot Ric Olié in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He won The Samuel Beckett Award for his first play Sanctuary written for Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1987, and the Raindance and Sapporo Film Festival awards for his first screenplay for the British film New Year's Day in 2001.

Brown was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Heather R and John F W Brown. He attended the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Films

His film roles include Dil's on-off boyfriend Dave in the Academy Award-winning film The Crying Game, Danny the drug dealer in Withnail & I, Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in Buster, roadie Del Preston in Wayne's World 2, teacher and rugby league player Phil in Up 'n' Under, prison guard captain Mr Burton in Mean Machine, Sgt Major Harris in the Paul Schrader film Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and CIA renegade Mr Collins alongside Wesley Snipes in The Contractor. In 1995, Brown appeared in Steven Spielberg's slavery epic Amistad. In 2007, he filmed Caught in the Act, an independent British film. Brown starred as DJ Bob Silver in The Boat That Rocked (2009), written and directed by Richard Curtis; Huge directed by Ben Miller (2009), The Kid (2010), directed by Nick Moran; Mission: London (which premiered in Sofia on 13 April 2010), a Bulgarian comedy directed by Dimitar Mitoviski which premiered in Sofia on 13 April 2010, and Sus (2010), written by Barrie Keeffe and directed by Robert Heath. He worked on the film Killing Bono (2010) and shot the feature film Dark Tide (2010) in Cape Town, opposite Halle Berry. He filmed I, Anna (2011) with Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling, then went on to work on Tower Block (2012) in London, Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) directed by Bryan Singer, and Stoker (2013) in Nashville, directed by Park Chan-wook.

Television

Among TV appearances, Brown appeared in Dennis Potter's Karaoke in 1995, portrayed Prince John in the BBC's adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe in 1997, appeared as John Geddes in the ITV post-apocalyptic drama serial The Last Train, appeared as the moustachioed policeman Wintersgillin the Channel 4/Showtime series Cape Wrath, and did a memorable turn as shaven-headed gang-boss "Miami Vice" in the 2000 series Lock, Stock...The Series.

In 2005, he appeared in Coronation Street as Barney, roadie to Status Quo, and with Julia Davis in the cult TV sitcom Nighty Night as perverted new-age sex therapist Jacques. In 2007, he appeared in the final two episodes of Life on Mars as Frank Morgan, an interim DCI in 1973 sequences, and Sam's (John Simm's) surgeon in 2006 sequences.

Brown played Sarah Solemani's Dad in Him & Her, which began airing in 2010. From 2010 through 2014 Brown appeared on the BBC Three comedy Him & Her. In 2012, he worked on Inspector George Gently with Martin Shaw, The Poison Tree for ITV, and The Mimic for C4. In 2013, he worked on the aborted Marvin Gaye film Sexual Healing directed by Julian Temple, and the ABC series The Assets in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2014, he shot Babylon for C4 and Elementary for CBS, followed by TURN: Washington's Spies for AMC, playing General Sir Henry Clinton leader of the redcoats, and then Johann Fennhoff a.k.a. Dr Faustus, in Agent Carter for Marvel. As of 2013, he is working on Blacklist.

In June 2016, Brown played the role of Bob Clay in the BBC film Reg.

Theatre

He wrote the play The Long Good Friday, which premiered 24 April 2010 and ran in the West End for several weeks.

The No-Neck Monsters Theatre Company brought the playwright and actor to Washington, D.C. from London to adapt his 1987 Samuel Beckett award-winning new play Sanctuary. Re-written as a rap musical for the "No Necks", the show became a successful and controversial production capturing homelessness, runaways and crack hitting the streets of D.C. Scott Davenport Richards wrote the music for the rap musical and it was directed by Gwendolyn Wynne. The first rap musical in the region The Washington Post, NPR, American Theatre Magazine and McNeil/Lehrer Newshour amongst others reported on the production. The production was nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards: Outstanding Resident Musical, Outstanding Lead Actress (Deidre L. Johnson) in a Resident Musical, and Outstanding Sound Design. Performers featured were Teagle F. Bougere, Erik Todd Dellums, Paul G. Griffin, Deidra L. Johnson, Helen Patton and Barbara Robinson

Brown has been married to actress Jenny Jules since 1992.

He is a member of a Brighton-based Beach Boys tribute band, the Brighton Beach Boys.