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Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) (2026). 9781557835239, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN 9781557835239 is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film The Hours, Stannis Baratheon in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2012–2015) and Thomas Jefferson in the HBO miniseries John Adams (2008), a part which earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. An experienced stage actor who has been called an "actor's actor", Dillane won a Tony Award for his lead performance in Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing (2000) and gave critically acclaimed performances in Angels in America (1993), Hamlet (1990), and a one-man Macbeth (2005). His television work has additionally garnered him BAFTA and International Emmy Awards for best actor.
At school, Dillane began performing in end-of-term plays and had "a certain facility" for funny accents. He often found himself in women's roles, which he says "wasn’t good for my confused adolescent psyche", but also recalls a part in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as being particularly memorable, noting that shouting "Fire!" as Rosencrantz while pointing at the audience was "a very thrilling thing to be able to do."
He studied history and politics at the University of Exeter, concentrating on the Russian Revolution, and afterward became a journalist for the Croydon Advertiser. Unhappy in his career, he read one day how actor Trevor Eve gave up architecture for acting; this, along with reading Hamlet and Peter Brook's The Empty Space back-to-back, made him "light up inside somewhere" and spurred him to enter the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School at 25. During his early acting career, he was known as Stephen Dillon but reverted to his birth name in the 1990s.
Dillane also portrayed Horatio in the 1990 film adaptation of Hamlet. He played Michael Henderson in Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), a character based on British journalist Michael Nicholson, and the impatient and easily agitated Harker in Spy Game (2001).
Dillane is also known for his portrayal of Leonard Woolf in The Hours (2002), English professional golfer Harry Vardon in The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) and Glen Foy in the Goal! trilogy. He also starred in John Adams as Thomas Jefferson.
He joined the cast of Game of Thrones in 2011 as Stannis Baratheon, a major contender for the throne of the fictional realm of Westeros. While admitting he had not read the books on which the series is based, he commented that the show's appeal was due to "the storytelling, the extraordinary world that’s created and the way it reflects our actual world – a naked, ruthless pursuit of power in all its forms."
In 2012, he also played Rupert Keel, head of the private security agency Byzantium, in the BBC drama series Hunted. The following year he went on to take the male lead, opposite Clémence Poésy, in the crime drama series The Tunnel, an Anglo-French remake of the Scandinavian The Bridge. Dillane, who had not seen the original series, plays Karl Roebuck, the laid-back, experienced British detective to Poésy's humourless French counterpart. His performance won him an International Emmy Award for Best Actor. In a second series in 2016, titled The Tunnel: Sabotage, he reprised his role alongside Poésy for a new case involving a deadly airliner crash in the English Channel.
Besides television, Dillane also starred in the 2012 British independent film Papadopoulos & Sons as successful entrepreneur Harry Papadopoulos, who rediscovers his life after being forced to start again from nothing in the wake of a banking crisis. His son, Frank Dillane, plays his son in the film. That same year he also had roles in the films Zero Dark Thirty and Twenty8k.
Offscreen, the actor in 2014 collaborated with visual artist Tacita Dean for the Sydney Biennale and Carriageworks in a project called Event for a Stage. The work, performed live and later adapted for radio broadcast and film, explored the process of filmmaking and the "concept of artifice on the stage" through a single actor, Dillane. The performance encompassed readings from texts as well as his personal reflections on acting, theatre, and family. 2015 saw Dillane making other brief returns to stage including a reprise of his reading of Four Quartets in London and a one-off appearance in Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree at the National Theatre.
In 2016, besides appearing in the second series of The Tunnel, Dillane returned to the Donmar Warehouse for a revival of Brian Friel's Faith Healer. His performance as Frank, an itinerant Irish healer, was described as "poetic and powerful." In addition, he appeared as artist Graham Sutherland in The Crown, Netflix's TV series about British monarch Elizabeth II. In 2017, Dillane appeared in two biopics, playing Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax in Joe Wright's Darkest Hour, as the antagonist of Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, and writer William Godwin, the father of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, in the film Mary Shelley.
In 2018, he appeared in the film The Thin Man, which has since been retitled The Man In The Hat, opposite Ciarán Hinds; it was directed by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck.
Career
Dillane is an experienced theatre actor; his notable roles include Archer in The Beaux' Stratagem (Royal National Theatre, 1989), Prior Walter in Angels in America (1993), Hamlet (1994), Clov in Samuel Beckett's Endgame (1996), Uncle Vanya (1998), Henry in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (for which he won a Tony Award in 2000), The Coast of Utopia (2002), and a one-man version of Macbeth (2005) directed by Travis Preston. He has also performed T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets in London and New York City, and was seen in the 2010 Bridge Project's productions of The Tempest and As You Like It.
Personal life
Dillane has two sons with actress-director Naomi Wirthner: Séamus and actor Frank Dillane, with whom he co-starred in Papadopoulos & Sons.
Politics
In October 2023, Dillane signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to Joe Biden, President of the United States, calling for a ceasefire of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Acting credits
Film
Alternate title: Stolen Hearts (Lead role) (Lead role) (Lead role) (Lead role) Original title: Red Mist (Lead role) Post-production Filming
Television
Episode: "Steel Searching: Part 1" Episode: "#1.2624" Episode: "Shift Work" Series 2; Episode 4: "Frankie & Johnnie" Episode: "White Lies" Television film Mini-series; 4 episodes Mini-series; 4 episodes Television film; alternate title: An Affair in Mind Television film Television film Series 7; Episode 1 of Screen Two Television film Episode: "Help Me Make It Through the Night" Episode: "Achilles Heel" Mini-series; 4 episodes Television film Mini-series; 3 episodes Episode: "Hard Knocks" Mini-series; 3 episodes Episode: "The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd" Mini-series; 2 episodes Mini-series; 4 episodes 6 episodes Mini-series; 6 episodes Television film Television film Episode: "The Secret of Chimneys" 2 episodes 8 episodes Mini-series; 4 episodes Television film 24 episodes 2 episodes: "Undercover Cloth: Parts One & Two" 24 episodes Episode: "Assassins" Main role; 23 episodes Mini-series; 6 episodes 10 episodes 8 episodes Series 2; 6 episodes
Theatre
Selected credits
1989 The Beaux' Stratagem Archer Royal National Theatre 1990 Long Day's Journey into Night Edmund Tyrone 1993–1994 Angels in America Prior Walter 1994–1995 Hamlet Prince Hamlet International Tour and Gielgud Theatre 1996 Endgame Clov Donmar Warehouse 1998 Uncle Vanya Vanya Young Vic 1999–2000 The Real Thing Henry Donmar Warehouse, West End, Broadway 2002 The Coast of Utopia Alexander Herzen Royal National Theatre 2004–2006 Macbeth Various Almeida Theatre, Various 2010 As You Like It Jaques Tour including Old Vic and Brooklyn Academy of Music The Tempest Prospero 2010–2011 The Master Builder Halvard Solness Almeida Theatre 2016 Faith Healer Francis Hardy Donmar Warehouse 2019 When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other Man Royal National Theatre
Awards and nominations
1995 Richard Burton Shakespeare Globe Award 1998 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Drama 1999 Evening Standard Award for Best Actor 2006 Helpmann Awards for Best Actor in a Play 2016 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor Faith Healer 2019 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for Best Actor 2023 The Offies, The Offies
See also
External links
Categories: 1957 Births, 20th-century English Male Actors, 21st-century English Male Actors, Aacta Award Winners, Male Actors From London, People From Kensington, Alumni Of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Alumni Of The University Of Exeter, Best Actor Bafta Award Winners, Drama Desk Award Winners, International Emmy Award For Best Actor Winners, English Male Film Actors, English People Of Australian Descent, English People Of Irish Descent, English Male Stage Actors, English Male Television Actors, English Male Voice Actors, English Male Shakespearean Actors, Living People, Male Actors From Kent, People From West Wickham, Royal Shakespeare Company Members, Theatre World Award Winners, Tony Award Winners, Actors From The London Borough Of Bromley, Actors From The Royal Borough Of Kensington And Chelsea
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