Charles Dance

 ( 1946 Births ) 

Walter Charles Dance (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor. He is known for playing intimidating, authoritarian characters and villains. Dance started his career on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) before appearing in film and television. For his services to drama he was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006.

He made his feature film debut in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981). He has since acted in a string of critically acclaimed period films such as Michael Collins (1996), Gosford Park (2001), The Imitation Game (2014), Mank (2020), and The King's Man (2021). He has also appeared in the films The Golden Child (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Last Action Hero (1993), Dracula Untold (2014), and (2019). He made his directorial film debut with the drama film Ladies in Lavender (2004), which he also wrote and executive produced.

On television, Dance played Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Mr Tulkinghorn in Bleak House (2005), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones (2011–2015), and Lord Mountbatten in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown (2019–2020), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

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Early life Walter Charles Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, on 10 October 1946, the younger son of Eleanor Marion ( Perks; 1911–1984), a cook, and Walter Dance (1874–1949), an electrical engineer who served as a sergeant in the 2nd Regular Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers during the Second Boer War (having previously served in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion) and who was in his 70s when his son was born. By his father's previous marriage, Dance had two older half-sisters, Norah (1898–1993) and Mary (1903–1908). On his maternal side, he also has an elder half-brother, Michael (born 1936).

During filming of an episode for the genealogical series Who Do You Think You Are? in 2016, Dance discovered that his mother had Belgian ancestry, which traced back to the city of Spa. His immigrant ancestor Charles François Futvoye (1777–1847) had been a pioneer in the art of japanning during the early half of the 19th century. Growing up in Plymouth, Dance attended the now-defunct Widey Technical School for Boys (then known as Widey High School) in Crownhill. He later attended the Plymouth Drawing School (later renamed to Plymouth College of Art, and now known as Arts University Plymouth) and Leicester College of Arts (now known as De Montfort University), where he studied graphic design and photography.

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Career

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Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid-to-late 1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Later he returned to the RSC to take the title role in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon and Newcastle in 1989, and at the Barbican Theatre in 1990. He received rave reviews and a Critics' Circle Best Actor award for his performance as C. S. Lewis in William Nicholson's Shadowlands, in the 2007 stage revival.

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Television and film Dance made his screen debut in 1974, in the ITV series Father Brown as Commandant Neil O'Brien in "The Secret Garden". Other small parts followed, including a 1983 cameo as a assassin in The Professionals, but his big break came the following year when he played Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown (Granada Television, Christopher Morahan 1984), an adaptation of Paul Scott's novels that also made stars of Geraldine James and Art Malik. Dance made one of his earliest big-screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus. Though he turned down the opportunity to screen test for the James Bond role, in 1989 he played Bond creator Ian Fleming in Anglia Television's dramatised biography directed by Don Boyd, Goldeneye (the name of Fleming's estate in Jamaica and a title later used for a James Bond GoldenEye).

He has also starred in many other British television dramas such as Edward the Seventh (as Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Edward VII's oldest son, and heir to the throne), , Randall and Hopkirk, Rebecca, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith and Bleak House (for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie). He was name-checked in the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, as being slated to play the title character in The Life of Jesus Christ 2, which was filming in Morocco at the same time as the main characters of the series were there for a photo shoot. He also played Guy Spencer, the pro-Adolf Hitler propagandist, in the second instalment of Foyle's War, and had an ongoing role as Dr. Maltravers in the ITV drama Trinity.

Dance made a guest appearance on the BBC drama series Merlin as the Witchfinder Aredian, and as a vainglorious version of himself in the third series of Jam & Jerusalem. He played Lord Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, and the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski in Paris Connections. He played the role of Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin. Dance was wooed for the role by the producers while filming Your Highness in Belfast. Dance also played Conrad Knox on the British television series as the primary villain in the series.

Since 2012, Dance has had a recurring role in The Big Fat Quiz of the Year reading excerpts from books, such as Fifty Shades of Grey or the autobiographies of English media personalities, in a deadpan manner. On 30 June 2013, Dance appeared with other celebrities in an episode of the BBC's Top Gear as a "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" for the debut of the Vauxhall Astra. In summer 2018, Dance narrated a documentary entitled Spitfire, which featured the legendary Supermarine Spitfire and recounted the efforts of the RAF pilots who flew them during the Second World War.

In February 2017, Dance participated as a featured guest at the inaugural Saudi Comic Con in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, alongside fellow Game of Thrones actor Julian Glover.

In 2019 he played an antagonist in and appeared as Lord Mountbatten in series 3 of The Crown in the same year. In 2020, Dance portrayed William Randolph Hearst in David Fincher's Mank, co-starring alongside Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried. In January 2021, Dance was cast in the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman. Neil Gaiman's ‘The Sandman’ Casts Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry And Sanjeev Bhaskar

In 2024 Dance starred as Michelangelo in the BBC docu-drama .

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Screenwriting and directing Dance's debut film as a screenwriter and director was Ladies in Lavender (2004), which starred Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. In 2009, he directed his own adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis's The Inn at the Edge of the World.

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Personal life Dance married Joanna Haythorn in 1970, and they had a son named Oliver (born 1974) and a daughter named Rebecca (born 1980) before divorcing in 2004.

(2026). 9780787690403, Gale / Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780787690403

He later dated Eleanor Boorman from 2008 to 2014, and they had a daughter named Rose (born 2012). He is in a relationship with Italian production manager and former actress Alessandra Masi, whom he met in Italy in 2018.

As of 2018, Dance resides in Kentish Town, London.

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Political views Dance has described his political views as "British left" and "Hard left". He supported the UK remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, and expressed his wish for the country to be closer to Europe to avoid "being a little satellite of America". In a 2020 interview with the Financial Times, he felt NHS workers were not being offered a decent enough pay rise and labelled Boris Johnson a "bumbling buffoon".

In October 2023, after the Gaza war began, Dance was one of over two thousand to sign an "Artists for Palestine" letter calling for a ceasefire and accusing western governments of "not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them." In January 2024, Dance contributed to a video published by the Palestine Festival of Literature in support of South Africa's legal motion accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In September 2025, Dance signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people." Later that month, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dance said that anyone with a conscience should be obsessed with the war and that "there would not be peace in the Middle East until the Balfour Declaration is unpicked... France and England need to announce: ‘Sorry, we f***ed up’."

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Honours Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006.London Gazette issue 58014 17 June 2006 page 10

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Acting credits

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Film

+ List of film acting credits
1981	For Your Eyes Only	Claus
1985	Plenty	Raymond Brock
1986	The Golden Child	Sardo Numspa
1987	White Mischief	Josslyn Hay
	Good Morning, Babylon	D. W. Griffith
	Hidden City	James Richards
1988	Pascali's Island	Anthony Bowles
1992	Alien 3	Jonathan Clemens
	Kalkstein	Surveyor
1993	Last Action Hero	Mr. Benedict
	Century	Professor Mandry
1994	China Moon	Rupert Munro
	Kabloonak	Robert J. Flaherty	Paris Film Festival Award for Best Actor
	Shortcut to Paradise	Quinn
1995		Dr. Ed Mittlesbay
1996	Space Truckers	Nabel / Macanudo
	Michael Collins	Soames
1997	The Blood Oranges	Cyril
1998	What Rats Won't Do	Gerald
	Hilary and Jackie	Derek Du Pré
1999	Don't Go Breaking My Heart	Frank
2001	Gosford Park	Raymond Stockbridge
	Jurij	Padre di Jurij
	Dark Blue World	Wing Commander Bentley
2002	Black and White	Roderic Chamberlain
	Ali G Indahouse	David Carlton
2003	Swimming Pool	John Bosload
	Labyrinth	Charles Lushington
	City and Crimes	Cox William
	Ladies in Lavender		Director, writer and executive producer only
2006	Dolls	Narrator	Voice; short film
	Scoop	Mr. Malcolm
	Twice Upon a Time	Master of Ceremonies
	Starter for 10	Michael Harbinson
2007	The Contractor	DCS Andrew Windsor	Direct-to-DVD
	Intervention	Private Investigator
2010	Paris Connections	Aleksandr Borinski
	The Commuter	Traffic Warden	Short film
2011	Ironclad	Stephen Langton
	Your Highness	King Tallious
	There Be Dragons	Monsignor Solano
2012	Midnight's Children	William Methwold
		Thomas
	St George's Day	Trenchard
2013	Patrick	Doctor Roget
	Justin and the Knights of Valour	Legantir	Voice
2014	Viy	Lord Dudley	Credited by his name in
	Dracula Untold	Master Vampire
	The Imitation Game	Commander Alastair Denniston
2015	Victor Frankenstein	Baron Frankenstein
	And Then There Were None	Judge Lawrence “Justice” Wargrave
	Michiel de Ruyter	Charles II
	Woman in Gold	Sherman
	Child 44	Major Grachev
2016	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies	Mr. Bennet
	Me Before You	Stephen Traynor
	Ghostbusters	Harold Filmore
	Despite the Falling Snow	Old Alexander
		Thomas
2017	Euphoria	Mr. Daren
	That Good Night	The Visitor
2018	Johnny English Strikes Again	Agent Seven	Cameo
	Happy New Year, Colin Burstead	Bertie
2019		Alan Jonah
		Lord Dudley
	Fanny Lye Deliver'd	John Lye
2020	The Book of Vision	Johan Anmuth
	Mank	William Randolph Hearst	‘Mank’: Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, ‘Downton Abbey's Tuppence Middleton & More Join David Fincher Pic
2021	The King's Man	Lord Kitchener
2022	Against the Ice	Niels Neergaard
	Lancaster	Narrator
	The Hanging Sun	Jacob
2024	The First Omen	Father Harris	Cameo
	Rumours	Edison Wolcott
	Samana Sunrise	Noah Blum
2025	Frankenstein	Baron Leopold Frankenstein
	Wildcat	Frasier Mahoney
			Post-production
			Post-production

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Television

+ List of television acting credits
1974	Father Brown	Commandant Neil O'Brien	Episode: "The Secret Garden"
	The Inheritors	Simon Leadbetter	Episode: "Fathers and Sons"
1975	Edward the Seventh	Prince Eddy	2 episodes
1977	Raffles	Teddy Garland	Episode: "Mr. Justice Raffles"
1980, 1984	Play for Today	Colin / Captain John Truman	2 episodes
1982	Nancy Astor	Edward Hartford-Jones	Episode: "Guest for the Weekend"
1983	The Professionals	Parker	Episode: "The Ojuka Situation"
	The Last Day	Alan	Television
1984	The Jewel in the Crown	Guy Perron	5 episodes
	The Secret Servant	Harry Maxim	Mini-series
	Rainy Day Women	Captain John Truman	Play for Today
1985	Time for Murder	James Latimer	Episode: "This Lightning Always Strikes Twice"
1987	Out on a Limb	Gerry Stamford	2 episodes
	Tales of the Unexpected	Robert Smythe	Episode: "Skeleton in the Cupboard"
1988	First Born	Edward Forester	3 episodes
	Out of the Shadows	Michael Hayden	Television film
1989		Ian Fleming	2 episodes
		Prime Minister	Episode: "Command Performance"
1990	The Phantom of the Opera	Erik/The Phantom	2 episodes
1996	Undertow	Lyle Yates	Television film
1997	Rebecca	Maxim de Winter	2 episodes
	In the Presence of Mine Enemies	Captain Richter	Television film
1999	Chrono-Perambulator	James "Dougie" Douglas	Television short
2000	The Real Spartacus	Narrator
	Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes	Sir Henry Carlyle	Episode: "The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes"
	A History of Britain	Winston Churchill (voice)	Episode: "The Two Winstons"
	Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)	Kenneth Crisby	Episode: "Drop Dead"
2001	The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby	Ralph Nickleby	Television film
2002	Foyle's War	Guy Spencer	Episode: "The White Feather"
		Col. Simon Lasker (voice)	Episode: "Pilot of the Future"
2003	Henry VIII	Duke of Buckingham	Television film
	Trial & Retribution	Greg Harwood	Television film
	Looking for Victoria	Charles Greville	Television film
2004	When Hitler Invaded Britain	Narrator	Documentary
		Marquis Clementi	Television film
2005	Fingersmith	Mr. Lilly	2 episodes
	Bleak House	Mr. Tulkinghorn	12 episodes
	To the Ends of the Earth	Sir Henry Somerset	Episode: "Close Quarters"
	Last Rights	Richard Wheeler	3 episodes
	Titanic: Birth of a Legend	Narrator	Documentary
2006		Septimus Bligh	Episode: "By the Pricking of My Thumbs"
2007	Fallen Angel	David Byfield	3 episodes
	Consenting Adults	John Wolfenden	Television film
2009	Merlin	Aredian	Episode: "The Witchfinder"
	Trinity	Dr. Edmund Maltravers	8 episodes
2010	Going Postal	Lord Vetinari	2 episodes
20102011	Rosamunde Pilcher's Shades of Love	Edmund Aird	4 episodes
20112015	Game of Thrones		27 episodes
2011	Neverland	Dr. Richard Fludd	Episode: "Part 1"
2012	Secret State	John Hodder	4 episodes
		Conrad Knox	10 episodes
2013	Common Ground	Floyd	Pilot episode: "Floyd"
	Bones of the Buddha	Narrator	Documentary
2014	The Great Fire	Lord Denton	4 episodes
2015	Childhood's End	Karellen	3 episodes
	Deadline Gallipoli	General Ian Hamilton	2 episodes
	And Then There Were None	Justice Lawrence Wargrave	3 episodes
20172020	Savage Kingdom	Narrator	22 episodes
2018	The Woman in White	Mr. Fredrick Fairlie	4 episodes
	Hang Ups	Jeremy Pitt	4 episodes
	The Little Drummer Girl	Commander Picton	2 episodes
2019	The Widow	Martin Benson	7 episodes
20192020	The Crown	Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma
2020	The Singapore Grip	Mr. Webb	Episode: "Singapore for Beginners"
20202022		Narrator	12 episodes
20212022	Moley	Manny the Magic Book	52 episodes
2022	The Sandman	Roderick Burgess	Episode: "Sleep of the Just"
	The Serpent Queen	Pope Clement VII	2 episodes
	This England	Max Hastings	Episode #1.1
2023	Rabbit Hole	Ben Wilson	8 episodes
2024	The Day of the Jackal	Timothy Winthorp	Miniseries
		Michelangelo	3 episodes
2025	Washington Black	James Wilde	Miniseries

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Video games

+ List of video game credits

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Audiobooks

+ List of audiobook credits

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Podcasts

+ List of podcast credits

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Stage

• Toad of Toad Hall as Badger (1971)
• The Beggar's Opera as Wat Dreary (Chichester Festival Theatre, 1972)
• The Taming of the Shrew as Philip (Chichester, 1972)
• Three Sisters as Soliony (Greenwich Theatre, 1973)
• Hans Kohlhaus as Meissen (Greenwich, 1973)
• Born Yesterday as Hotel Manager (Greenwich, 1973)
• Saint Joan as Baudricourt (Oxford Festival, 1974)
• Sleeping Beauty as Prince (1974)
• Travesties as Henry Carr (Leeds Playhouse, 1977)
• Hamlet as Fortinbras / Reynaldo / Player (RSC The Other Place 1975; The Roundhouse, 1976)
• Perkin Warbeck as Hialas / Astley / Spanish Ambassador (RSC The Other Place, 1975)
• Richard III as Catesby / Murderer (RSC The Other Place, 1975)
• Henry V as Henry V (RSC Glasgow and New York, 1975)
• Henry IV, Part One and Henry IV, Part Two as Prince John of Lancaster (RSC Stratford, 1975; Aldwych Theatre, 1976)
• As You Like It as Oliver (RSC Stratford, 1977; Aldwych, 1978)
• Henry V as Scroop / Williams (RSC Stratford, 1977)
• Henry VI, Part 2 as Buckingham (RSC Stratford, 1977; Aldwych, 1978)
• The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs as Whistling Guard / Freeman (RSC Donmar Warehouse, 1978; The Other Place, 1979)
• Coriolanus as Volscian Lieutenant (RSC Stratford, 1977)
• Coriolanus as Tullus Aufidius (Aldwych, 1978 and 1979)
• The Women Pirates as Blackie / Vosquin (RSC Aldwych, 1978)
• The Changeling as Tomazo (RSC Aldwych, 1978)
• Irma la Douce as Nestor (Shaftesbury Theatre, 1979)
• The Heiress as Morris Townsend (1980)
• Turning Over as Frank (Bush Theatre, 1983)
• Coriolanus as Coriolanus (RSC Stratford and Newcastle upon Tyne, 1989; Barbican Theatre, 1990)
• Three Sisters as Vershinin (Birmingham Rep, 1998)
• Good as John Halder (Donmar Warehouse, 1999)
• Long Day's Journey into Night as James Tyrone (Lyric Theatre, 2000)
• The Play What I Wrote as a guest star (Wyndham's Theatre, 20012002) and (Theatre Royal, Bath, 2022)
• Celebration as Richard (Gate Theatre, Dublin; Albery Theatre, 2005)
• The Exonerated (Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London, 2006)
• Eh Joe as Joe (Parade Theatre, Sydney, 2006)
• Shadowlands as C. S. Lewis (Wyndham's Theatre, 2007 and Novello Theatre 20072008)

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Awards and nominations

+ List of awards and nominations received by Charles Dance
2018	Outstanding Narrator	Savage Kingdom
2019
2021	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	The Crown
2014	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Game of Thrones
2015
	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	The Imitation Game
2020	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	The Crown
2026	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Frankenstein

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Further reading

• Who's Who in the Theatre, 16th/17th editions, edited by Ian Herbert, Pitman/Gale 1977/1981
• Theatre Record and Theatre Record Indexes
• Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies Fourth edition by John Walker, HarperCollins 2006
• Charles Dance's own CVs in various theatre programmes

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External links

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