Timothy Spall

 ( 1957 Births ) 

Following a film debut in Quadrophenia and wider TV exposure playing, as Wayne says, "the gormless radish" awkward Barry Taylor in all four series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Kevin in Outside Edge and Aubrey the appalling chef in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet, Spall has since appeared in the films Crusoe, Secrets & Lies, Shooting the Past, Topsy-Turvy, Vanilla Sky, Rock Star, All or Nothing, The Last Samurai, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and The King's Speech. He performed as Peter Pettigrew ("Wormtail") in the Harry Potter film series. In 1991, he guest starred in the series 5 Red Dwarf episode "Back to Reality". In 1993, Spall was a guest on the Scottish comedy series Rab C. Nesbitt. He played Inspector Truscott in a 1997 Radio 3 broadcast of Loot by Joe Orton, repeated in 2017. Loot, BBC Media Centre notice accessed 4 April 2025.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Spall performed lead vocals on the song "The Devil is an Englishman"Liner notes from the 2009 reissue of the Thomas Dolby album The Flat Earth. Dolby composed the score for Gothic. from the Ken Russell film Gothic (1986), in which Spall portrayed John William Polidori. Spall played the starring role of Albert Pierrepoint in the 2005 film Pierrepoint, which was released as The Last Hangman in the United States. In the 2006 video game , Spall voiced Phil Collins' manager, Barry Mickelthwaite. In 2007, he starred as Nathaniel in Disney's Enchanted and Beadle Bamford in Tim Burton's production of . He also starred as Georgie Godwin in a one-off television drama The Fattest Man in Britain, on ITV1, which aired on 20 December 2009. The drama also featured Bobby Ball, Frances Barber, Aisling Loftus, and Jeremy Kyle.

In 2010, he portrayed Winston Churchill in the film The King's Speech, for which, as a member of the ensemble, he was jointly awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Spall reprised the role at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

In 2012, Spall filmed Wasteland (known as The Rise in Britain), with actors Matthew Lewis and Vanessa Kirby. The Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, screened Wasteland in April 2013. ”Wasteland Newport Beach Film Festival 2013 Screenings” Also in 2012, Spall played Charlie Morgan in the edgy film Comes a Bright Day.

In 2013 and 2014, Spall starred in the BBC television series Blandings, a comedy series adapted by Guy Andrews from the Blandings Castle stories of P. G. Wodehouse. It was first broadcast on 13 January 2013.

In 2014, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mr. Turner, a biographical film on J. M. W. Turner directed by Mike Leigh. Spall has mentioned that this role is his personal favourite as it inspired him to take on painting. In 2016, Spall portrayed Holocaust denier David Irving in the film Denial, directed by Mick Jackson.

From 29 March to 14 May 2016, Spall played the title role of Davies in Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker, directed by Matthew Warchus at the Old Vic theatre in London opposite George MacKay and Daniel Mays.

In 2018, he played Terry Perkins, one of the robbers, in the ITV miniseries Hatton Garden.

Spall went on to play Major Alistair Gregory in the acclaimed dramatic film Spencer (2021). He shared several psychologically charged scenes with Kristen Stewart, who portrayed Princess Diana.

Spall received the 2024 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for his performance as Peter Farquhar in the BBC's true-life drama series The Sixth Commandment, which aired in 2023.

Also in 2024, Spall played the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC dramatisation of the Hilary Mantel novel Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, taking over the role played in the first series by the late Bernard Hill.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2 in Europe, in May 2025, Spall performed a public reading in London of the speech Winston Churchill had delivered when Germany surrendered.

In 2025 Spall played Polonius in a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, scripted by Michael Lesslie and directed by Aneil Karia.

Having been a portly man for much of his career, Spall resolved to slim down for his role in 2015's The Enfield Haunting and, through his efforts, shed a notable amount of weight.

In 1996, Spall was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, but has since been in remission. He has said of his illness:

I didn't know what made me ill but stress had something to do with it and the point is now to head off stress at the pass. It made me aware of things and become more selective. I am less worried about employment. I really do my homework so I am not getting stressed on the set because I don't know what I'm doing.

He is the owner of a Dutch barge, in which he and his wife sailed around the British Isles; their voyage formed a BBC Four TV series .

• Amy Raphael, "Spall in the Family," (Interview of Timothy Spall and actor son Rafe) The Observer, 28 October 2007
• Stuart Jeffries, "I don't always play losers," The Guardian, 5 November 2007