Rory Kinnear
Encyclopedia
Rory Kinnear is an award-winning English
actor who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company
and the Royal National Theatre
.
and actress Carmel Cryan
, he has two sisters, Kirsty and Karina, and is the god-son of Michael Williams. Educated at Tower House School
and St Paul's School (London), he read English at Balliol College, Oxford
and then studied acting at LAMDA.
He is also the grandson of the Scottish rugby player Roy Muir Kinnear
.
at the National Theatre
, winning a Laurence Olivier Award and Ian Charleson Award. Other notable theatre work includes the lead in Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy
, the role of Pyotr in Gorky's Philistines and the role of Mitia in a stage adaptation of the Nikita Mikhalkov
film Burnt by the Sun, all for the National Theatre.
Further to his theatre work he received particularly positive reviews for his sympathetic portrayal of Denis Thatcher
in The Long Walk to Finchley
(2008), a BBC dramatisation of the early years of Margaret Thatcher
's political career, which also starred Andrea Riseborough
and Samuel West
.
He portrayed Bill Tanner
in the Bond films Quantum of Solace (2008) and Skyfall
(2012).
In 2010 he played Angelo in Measure For Measure
at the Almeida Theatre
. Later in 2010 he played the title role in Hamlet
at the National Theatre. The two portrayals won him the best actor award in the Evening Standard drama awards for 2010.
In 2010, he played Flugkapitän Jürgen Rahl in the BBC Radio drama Slipstream
as a disaffected German pilot who joins a mission to steal an alien spacecraft harboured by the Nazis. He also starred alongside Lucy Punch
and Toby Stephens
in the BBC Two
series Vexed
.
Broadcast on 19 October 2010, he was the co-lead in the BBC4 TV drama, The First Men in the Moon
written by and co-starring Mark Gatiss
.
In 2011, he provided narration during the BBC Proms production of 'Henry V - suite' arranged by Muir Mathieson
during their Film Music Prom.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company
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...
and the Royal National Theatre
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...
.
Early life
The son of actor Roy KinnearRoy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
and actress Carmel Cryan
Carmel Cryan
Carmel Cryan is a British actress, best known for the role of Brenda Boyle in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders.-Life and career:Cryan was born in London. She was married to the actor Roy Kinnear, until his death in 1988...
, he has two sisters, Kirsty and Karina, and is the god-son of Michael Williams. Educated at Tower House School
Tower House School
Tower House School is an independent prep school in London, England.- History :Established in 1932, Tower House is an independent preparatory school for boys aged 4 to 13 located near Richmond Park London, England.- Notable past pupils :* Jack Whitehall...
and St Paul's School (London), he read English at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
and then studied acting at LAMDA.
He is also the grandson of the Scottish rugby player Roy Muir Kinnear
Roy Muir Kinnear
Roy Muir Kinnear was a Scottish dual-code international rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1920s and 30s, who at representative level played rugby union for British Lions, and , and at representative level played rugby league for Great Britain and Other...
.
Career
Kinnear's performances in Phyllida Lloyd's production of Mary Stuart and Trevor Nunn's Hamlet, in which he played Laertes, met with acclaim. He also achieved recognition as the outrageous Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of ModeThe Man of Mode
The Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter is a Restoration comedy by George Etherege, written in 1676 and first performed March 2 of the same year. Gibbons argues that the play "offers the comedy of manners in its most concentrated form"...
at the National Theatre
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...
, winning a Laurence Olivier Award and Ian Charleson Award. Other notable theatre work includes the lead in Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy
The Revenger's Tragedy
The Revenger's Tragedy is an English language Jacobean revenge tragedy, in the past attributed to Cyril Tourneur but is sometimes considered to be the work of Thomas Middleton by "Middletonians"...
, the role of Pyotr in Gorky's Philistines and the role of Mitia in a stage adaptation of the Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
film Burnt by the Sun, all for the National Theatre.
Further to his theatre work he received particularly positive reviews for his sympathetic portrayal of Denis Thatcher
Denis Thatcher
Major Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen, née Bird...
in The Long Walk to Finchley
The Long Walk to Finchley
Margaret Thatcher - The Long Walk to Finchley, subtitled in the initial credits How Maggie Might Have Done It, is a 2008 BBC Four television drama based on the early political career of the young Margaret Thatcher , from her attempts to gain a seat in Dartford in 1949 via invasion to her first...
(2008), a BBC dramatisation of the early years of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's political career, which also starred Andrea Riseborough
Andrea Riseborough
-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....
and Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
.
He portrayed Bill Tanner
Bill Tanner
Bill Tanner is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel series.-Character summary:Superb in a crisis, and blessed with a dry sense of humour, Tanner is M's Chief of Staff. He is also Bond's staunchest ally in the Service, and they often enjoy a round of golf when off-duty...
in the Bond films Quantum of Solace (2008) and Skyfall
Skyfall
Skyfall is a 2012 James Bond film starring Daniel CraigSkyfall may also refer to:*Skyfall , a 2004 novel by Catherine Asaro in the Saga of the Skolian Empire series*Skyfall, a 2007 novel by Anthony Eaton in the Darklands Trilogy...
(2012).
In 2010 he played Angelo in Measure For Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
at the Almeida Theatre
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
. Later in 2010 he played the title role in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
at the National Theatre. The two portrayals won him the best actor award in the Evening Standard drama awards for 2010.
In 2010, he played Flugkapitän Jürgen Rahl in the BBC Radio drama Slipstream
Slipstream (radio)
Slipstream is a radio drama by Simon Bovey originally broadcast on BBC 7 during March 2008. It combines a story of a raid by British commandos into Germany during the Second World War with a science fiction story concerning a new Nazi aircraft capable of fantastic speeds, which shot down 150...
as a disaffected German pilot who joins a mission to steal an alien spacecraft harboured by the Nazis. He also starred alongside Lucy Punch
Lucy Punch
Lucy Punch is an English actress. Her credits include the television shows Doc Martin and The Class, and the films Hot Fuzz and Bad Teacher.-Life and career:...
and Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...
in the BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
series Vexed
Vexed (TV series)
Vexed is a comedy-drama, police procedural television series for BBC Two. Created and written by Howard Overman, the series stars Lucy Punch as D.I. Kate Bishop and Toby Stephens as D.I. Jack Armstrong, a detective duo with a fractious relationship. Jack is lazy and disorganised but charming...
.
Broadcast on 19 October 2010, he was the co-lead in the BBC4 TV drama, The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon (2010 film)
The First Men in the Moon, also promoted as H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon is a 2010 made for TV drama written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Damon Thomas. It is an adaptation of H. G. Wells's science fiction novel The First Men in the Moon...
written by and co-starring Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
.
In 2011, he provided narration during the BBC Proms production of 'Henry V - suite' arranged by Muir Mathieson
Muir Mathieson
James Muir Mathieson was a Scottish conductor and composer. Mathieson was almost always described as a "Musical Director" on a large number of British films.-Career:...
during their Film Music Prom.
Selected credits
- The SeagullThe SeagullThe Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
(2002, stage play: Theatre Royal, Northampton) as Konstantin - The TempestThe TempestThe Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
(2002, stage play: Theatre Royal, Plymouth) as Caliban - The Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
(2003, stage play: RSC) as Tranio - The Tamer Tamed (2003, stage play: RSC)
- CymbelineCymbelineCymbeline , also known as Cymbeline, King of Britain or The Tragedy of Cymbeline, is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance...
(2003, stage play: RSCRoyal Shakespeare CompanyThe 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...
) as 1st Lord - Festen (2004, stage play: AlmeidaAlmeidaAlmeida is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 518 km2 and a total population of 7,784 inhabitants. Located in Riba-Côa river valley, Almeida is an historic town in Beira Interior....
) as Michael - HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(2004, stage play: Old VicOld VicThe 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...
) as Laertes - Mary Stuart (2005, stage play: Donmar WarehouseDonmar WarehouseDonmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
) as Mortimer - Southwark Fair (2006, stage play: NT) as Simon
- The Man of Mode (2007, stage play: NT) as Sir Fopling Fluter
- Philistines (2007, stage play: NT) as Pyotr
- The Curse of SteptoeThe Curse of SteptoeThe Curse of Steptoe is a television play which was first broadcast on 19 March 2008 on BBC Four as part of a season of dramas about television personalities. It stars Jason Isaacs as Harry H. Corbett and Phil Davis as Wilfrid Brambell...
(2008, TV movie) as Alan SimpsonGalton and SimpsonRay Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based... - The Revenger's TragedyThe Revenger's TragedyThe Revenger's Tragedy is an English language Jacobean revenge tragedy, in the past attributed to Cyril Tourneur but is sometimes considered to be the work of Thomas Middleton by "Middletonians"...
(2008, stage play: NT) as Vindice - Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008, TV movie) as Denis ThatcherDenis ThatcherMajor Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was a British businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen, née Bird...
- Quantum of Solace (2008) as Bill TannerBill TannerBill Tanner is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel series.-Character summary:Superb in a crisis, and blessed with a dry sense of humour, Tanner is M's Chief of Staff. He is also Bond's staunchest ally in the Service, and they often enjoy a round of golf when off-duty...
- Burnt by the Sun (2009, stage play: NT) as Mitia
- Waking the DeadWaking the Dead (TV series)Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...
(2009, TV guest role) - Wish 143Wish 143Wish 143 is a British live action short film. The film's run time is approximately 24 minutes. It was written by Tom Bidwell, directed by Ian Barnes, and produced by Samantha Waite....
(2009, short film) - Ashes to AshesAshes to Ashes (TV series)Ashes to Ashes is a British science fiction and police procedural drama television series, serving as the sequel to Life on Mars.The series began airing on BBC One in February 2008. A second series began broadcasting in April 2009...
(2009) Jeremy (psychoanalyst) - Lennon NakedLennon NakedLennon Naked is a 2010 television biographical film focusing on the life of John Lennon between 1967 and 1971. It stars Christopher Eccleston as Lennon and was directed by Edmund Coulthard....
(2010, BBC Four) as Brian Epstein - VexedVexed (TV series)Vexed is a comedy-drama, police procedural television series for BBC Two. Created and written by Howard Overman, the series stars Lucy Punch as D.I. Kate Bishop and Toby Stephens as D.I. Jack Armstrong, a detective duo with a fractious relationship. Jack is lazy and disorganised but charming...
(2010, BBC Two) as Dan Bishop - GoldenEye 007GoldenEye 007 (2010 video game)GoldenEye 007 is a 2010 first-person shooter video game developed by Eurocom and published by Activision for the Wii video game console, and the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It is a reimagining of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, and the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007...
(2010, voice) as Bill Tanner - James Bond 007: Blood StoneJames Bond 007: Blood StoneJames Bond 007: Blood Stone is an action-adventure video game, developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision for the Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. It is the 24th game in the James Bond series although it is not a direct sequel to any game; it is...
(2010, voice) as Bill Tanner - HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(2010, stage play: National TheatreRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, London) as Hamlet - The First Men in the MoonThe First Men in the Moon (2010 film)The First Men in the Moon, also promoted as H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon is a 2010 made for TV drama written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Damon Thomas. It is an adaptation of H. G. Wells's science fiction novel The First Men in the Moon...
(2010) Julius Bedford - Women in Love (2011, BBC Series) as Rupert Birkin
- Skyfall (2012) as Bill Tanner