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John Shrapnel

John Shrapnel

Birthday: 1942-04-27 | Place of Birth: Birmingham, England, UK

Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2013
National Theatre Live: Macbeth

as    Duncan, King of Scotland/Seyton, attendant to Macbeth/Old Man

2011
The Awakening

as    Reverend Hugh Purslow

2008
Apparitions

as    Cardinal Bukovak

2008
The Duchess

as    General Grey

2008
Mirrors

as    Lorenzo Sapelli

2006
Alien Autopsy

as    Michael Kuhn

2004
I Am Not an Animal

as    Narrator

2002
K-19: The Widowmaker

as    Admiral Bratyeev

2002
Alone

as    Hannah

2002
Whistle

as    Paul

2001
The Body

as    Moshe Cohen

2001
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2

as    Narrator

2000
Gladiator

as    Gaius

1999
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters

as    General Charette

1999
Mary, Mother of Jesus

as    Simon

1997
Bodyguards

as    Commander Alan MacIntyre

1996
Two Deaths

as    Cinca

1996
101 Dalmatians

as    Skinner

1994
Fatherland

as    General Globus

1989
How to Get Ahead in Advertising

as    Psychiatrist

1987
Partition

as    General Flood

1978
Edward & Mrs. Simpson

as    Maj. Alexander Hardinge