Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University

Birmingham City University

Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...

. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman

Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...

's 1993 film Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein (film)

Wittgenstein is a 1993 film by the English director Derek Jarman. It is loosely based on the life story as well as the philosophical thinking of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The adult Wittgenstein is played by the Welsh actor Karl Johnson....

. He is also well known for the part of Cato the Younger

Cato the Younger

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , commonly known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy...

 in the television drama series Rome

Rome (TV series)

Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...

and for playing the character Twister in the BBC costume drama series Lark Rise to Candleford

Lark Rise to Candleford (TV series)

Lark Rise to Candleford is a British television costume drama series, adapted by the BBC from Flora Thompson's trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels about the English countryside, published between 1939 and 1943. The first episode aired on 13 January 2008 on BBC One and BBC HD in the UK. In the...

.

Selected filmography

• Four Last Songs
  Four Last Songs (film)
  Four Last Songs is a 2007 British comedy drama film starring Stanley Tucci, Rhys Ifans and Hugh Bonneville, and written and directed by Francesca Joseph....
  
  , Erico
• Hot Fuzz
  Hot Fuzz
  Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action dark comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The three had previously worked together on the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead as well as the television series Spaced...
  
  , PC Bob Walker
• The Illusionist
• Heidi
• Pure
• Tomorrow La Scala
• Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
  Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
  Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is a 1998 film made for television by the British Broadcasting Corporation . It was written and directed by John Maybury and stars Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig, and Tilda Swinton....
  
  
• Wittgenstein
  Wittgenstein (film)
  Wittgenstein is a 1993 film by the English director Derek Jarman. It is loosely based on the life story as well as the philosophical thinking of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. The adult Wittgenstein is played by the Welsh actor Karl Johnson....
  
  
• Close My Eyes
  Close My Eyes (film)
  Close My Eyes is a 1991 film written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Alan Rickman, Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves as well as Lesley Sharp and Karl Johnson...
  
  
• Prick Up Your Ears
  Prick Up Your Ears
  Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the book by John Lahr...
  
  
• Jubilee
• Avenging Force
  Avenging Force
  Avenging Force is a 1986 film directed by Sam Firstenberg. The screenplay was written by James Booth, who co-starred in the film. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Invasion U.S.A., which starred Chuck Norris in the role of Matt Hunter.-Plot:...
  
  
• The Tempest
• The Tent (film)
• The Magic Shop (film)
• Oh Shucks! Here Comes UNTAG
  Oh Shucks! Here Comes UNTAG
  Oh Shucks! Here Comes U.N.T.A.G! is a South African comedy film and Leon Schuster's big screen debut about a rugged farmer named Kwagga 'The Lion-Killer' Robertse having to deal with a corrupt major in the UN peace corps.- Plot :Kwagga Robertse owns a farm shop in the fictional Southern African...
  
  

Selected stage career

• The Seafarer
  The Seafarer (play)
  The Seafarer is a 2006 play by Irish playwright Conor McPherson. It is set on Christmas Eve in Baldoyle, a coastal suburb north of Dublin city. The play centers on James "Sharkey" Harkin, an alcoholic who has recently returned to live with his blind, aging brother, Richard Harkin...
  
  , as James 'Sharky' Harkin, National Theatre, London
  Royal National Theatre
  The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
  
  
• Tales From The Vienna Woods, National Theatre, London
• Scenes from the Big Picture, National Theatre, London
• The Walls, National Theatre, London
• Cardiff East, National Theatre, London
• The Ends of the Earth, National Theatre, London
• Machine Wreckers, National Theatre, London
• The Shape of The Table, National Theatre, London
• Black Snow, National Theatre, London
• Golden Boy, National Theatre, London
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, National Theatre, London
• The Sea, National Theatre, London
• Uncle Vanya, National Theatre, London
• Don Quixote, National Theatre, London
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, National Theatre, London
• The Fawn, National Theatre, London
• Glengarry Glen Ross, National Theatre, London
• Wild Honey, National Theatre, London
• The Rivals, National Theatre, London
• The Mysteries, National Theatre, London
• Animal Farm, National Theatre, London
• Almost Nothing/At The Table, Royal Court Theatre, London
  Royal Court Theatre
  The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
  
  
• Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen, Royal Court Theatre, London
• This Is A Chair, Royal Court Theatre, London
• The Night Heron, Royal Court Theatre, London
• Boy Gets Girl, Royal Court Theatre, London
• The Weir, Royal Court Theatre, London
• Been So Long, Royal Court Theatre, London
• Just a Little Less Than Normal, Royal Court Theatre, London
• Sudlow's Dawn, Royal Court Theatre, London
• Irish Eyes and English Tears, Royal Court Theatre, London
• In The Company of Men, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford
  Royal Shakespeare Company
  The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
  
  
• TV Times, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford
• Knight of the Burning Pestle, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford
• Amadeus, Peter Hall Company
• The Country Wife, Centreline Productions
• The Last Yankee, Leicester Haymarket
• Woyzeck, Foco Novo at Lyric Hammersmith
• War Crimes, ICA
  Institute of Contemporary Arts
  The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
  
  
• The Dresser, Leatherhead
• Hedda Gabler, Yvonne Arnaud Guildford
• Much Ado About Nothing, Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
  Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
  Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...
  
  
• As You Like It, Old Vic
  Old Vic
  The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
  
  
• Vieux Carre, West End

Selected TV career

• Small Island
  Small Island (television drama)
  Small Island is a two-part 2009 BBC One television drama adapted from the 2004 novel of the same title by Andrea Levy. The programme stars Naomie Harris and Ruth Wilson as joint respective female protagonists Hortense Roberts and Queenie Bligh, two women who struggle to fulfil their personal...
  
  
• Lark Rise to Candleford
  Lark Rise to Candleford (TV series)
  Lark Rise to Candleford is a British television costume drama series, adapted by the BBC from Flora Thompson's trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels about the English countryside, published between 1939 and 1943. The first episode aired on 13 January 2008 on BBC One and BBC HD in the UK. In the...
  
  
• New Tricks
• The Chatterley Affair
  The Chatterley Affair
  The Chatterley Affair is a BBC television drama, produced by BBC Wales and broadcast on BBC Four on 20 March, 2006. It is an account of the obscenity trial surrounding the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960...
  
  
• Nostradamus
• Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
  Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
  Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire is a 2006 BBC One docudrama series, with each episode looking at a different key turning point in the history of the Roman Empire.-Production:...
  
  
• Why We Went to War
• Midsomer Murders
  Midsomer Murders
  Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
  
  
• Rome
  Rome (TV series)
  Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
  
  
• Ray's Daze
• Born and Bred
  Born and Bred
  Born and Bred is a light-hearted British drama series that aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2005. Created by Chris Chibnall and Nigel McCrery, Born and Breds cast was led by James Bolam and Michael French, who play a father and son who run a cottage hospital in Ormston, a fictional Lancashire village...
  
  
• The Mayor of Casterbridge
• Without Motive
• David Copperfield
  David Copperfield (1999 film)
  David Copperfield is a two part BBC television drama adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield, adapted by Adrian Hodges. The first part was shown on Christmas Day and the second on Boxing Day in 1999...
  
  
• Vanity Fair
• The Temptation of Franz Schubert
• Wing and a Prayer
• An Independent Man
• As You Like It
• Catherine the Great
• When I'm 64
• Sons and Lovers

External links

• Karl Johnson at the Internet Movie Database