John Shrapnel
78 movies · 49 TV shows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Apr 27, 1942
- Died
- Feb 14, 2020 (age 77)
- Place of birth
- Birmingham, England, UK
- Also known as
- John Morley Shrapnel
Biography
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Profiles IMDb
Known for
John Shrapnel: movies and TV shows
Acting (127)
- 2022
- 2017
- 2017 King Charles III
as Archbishop of Canterbury
- 2017 Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
as Narrator (Voice)
- 2016 The Return of the Flying Scotsman
as Narrator - (Voice)
- 2015 Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
as Camilo
- 2015 Hamlet
as Claudius/Ghost
- 2014 OXI, an Act of Resistance
as Creon
- 2014
- 2013 National Theatre Live: Macbeth
as Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
- 2013 Run.
as St. Peter
- 2011 The Awakening
as Reverend Hugh Purslow
- 2009 National Theatre Live: Phèdre
as Théramène
- 2009 An Organization of Dreams
as Father
- 2008
- 2008
- 2008 The Duchess
as General Grey
- 2008 Mirrors
as Lorenzo Sapelli
- 2008 Chemical Wedding
as Crowley
- 2007 Elizabeth: The Golden Age
as Lord Howard
- 2007 Once Upon a Time on the Westway
as Billy Palmer
- 2006
- 2006 Alien Autopsy
as Michael Kuhn
- 2005 Shadow of the Sword
as Archbishop
- 2004 Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
as Narrator
- 2004 Troy
as Nestor
- 2004
- 2004 Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
as Narrator
- 2004 Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
as Narrator
- 2004
- 2003 The Race for Everest
as Narrator
- 2003 Wild Women of Viramba
as Narrator
- 2002
- 2002 Whistle
as Paul
- 2002 K-19: The Widowmaker
as Admiral Bratyeev
- 2002 Claim
as Lex Vandenberg
- 2002 Alone
as Hannah
- 2002
- 2001 The Gentleman Thief
as Monty Sinclair
- 2001 Animals of the Ocean Desert
as Narrator
- 2001
- 2001 Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
as Narrator
- 2001 The Body
as Moshe Cohen
- 2001 The Misfit and the Matterhorn
as Narrator
- 2000 Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
as Narrator
- 2000 Gladiator
as Gaius
- 2000
- 1999 Mary, Mother of Jesus
as Simon
- 1999 Notting Hill
as PR Chief
- 1999 Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
as General Charette
- 1999 The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
as Iwaszkiewicz
- 1998 Solo Shuttle
as Cain
- 1998 Lion Queen
as Narrator (voice)
- 1998
- 1997
- 1997
- 1997
- 1997
- 1997
- 1996 101 Dalmatians
as Skinner
- 1996 Two Deaths
as Cinca
- 1996
- 1995
- 1995
- 1995
- 1995 England, My England
as Samuel Pepys
- 1994 Fatherland
as General Globus
- 1994
- 1993 Selling Hitler
as Gerd Schulte-Hillen
- 1992 Hamlet
as Claudius
- 1992
- 1992
- 1992 SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
as Narrator
- 1991
- 1991
- 1991
- 1990 The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
as BKA Police Chief
- 1990
- 1990
- 1989
- 1989
- 1989 How to Get Ahead in Advertising
as Psychiatrist
- 1988 Testimony
as Andre Zhdanov
- 1988
- 1987
- 1987 Partition
as General Flood
- 1987 Personal Services
as Lionel
- 1986 Theban Plays: Antigone
as Creon
- 1986 Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
as Creon
- 1986 Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
as Creon
- 1985 The Burston Rebellion
as Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
- 1985 Poppyland
as George Sims
- 1985
- 1984
- 1984
- 1983
- 1982 King Lear
as Earl of Kent
- 1982
- 1981 Troilus & Cressida
as Hector
- 1981
- 1981 Timon of Athens
as Alcibiades
- 1980
- 1980 The Victim
as Vincent Craig
- 1979
- 1979 Gossip from the Forest
as Matthias Erzberger
- 1978
- 1978 Edward & Mrs. Simpson
as Maj. Alexander Hardinge
- 1978 Flayed
as Robert
- 1978
- 1977 The Three Hostages
as Gaudian
- 1977 Professional Foul
as McKendrick
- 1977
- 1976 Hitting Town
as Leonard Brazil (voice)
- 1976
- 1975 Hennessy
as Tipaldi
- 1975
- 1975 King Lear
as Duke of Cornwall
- 1974
- 1972 Pope Joan
as Father James
- 1971 Nicholas and Alexandra
as Petya
- 1971
- 1971
- 1969 It's Called the Sugar Plum
as Wally Zuckerman
- 1969 The Ha-Ha
as Jamie
- 1967
- 1967
- 1965
Talk shows and appearances (2)
- 2007
- 2000