John Shrapnel

Acting · 1.1 popularity

Age

Movies

Born: April 27, 1942 – February 14, 2020
From: Birmingham, England, UK

Biography

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.

Works

82 films

Troy

20047.2

Gladiator

20008.2

Notting Hill

19997.3

101 Dalmatians

19965.9

The Duchess

20087.0

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

20076.7

K-19: The Widowmaker

20026.6

Mirrors

20086.3

The Awakening

20116.4

Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty

2002

The Body

20015.5

Fatherland

19946.2

Alien Autopsy

20065.7

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

19896.3

Nicholas and Alexandra

19717.0

Two Deaths

19965.6

Hennessy

19755.1

Pope Joan

19726.1

Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus

19868.0

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

19864.5

Poppyland

19857.0

Personal Services

19876.0

Shadow of the Sword

20055.8

Mary, Mother of Jesus

19994.1

Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters

19997.2

King Charles III

20176.4

National Theatre Live: Macbeth

20137.0

Flayed

1978

Run.

2013

National Theatre Live: Phèdre

20097.8

King Lear

19826.5

Theban Plays: Antigone

19869.0

Troilus & Cressida

19818.0

Selling Hitler

19938.0

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story

19907.0

Hamlet

20158.2

King Lear

197510.0

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale

20157.7

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

197810.0

The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka

199910.0

King Arthur: His Life and Legends

19958.5

Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies

20076.0

SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

19924.0

Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

2004

OXI, an Act of Resistance

2014

Gossip from the Forest

19797.0

The Gentleman Thief

2001

Alone

20025.1

England, My England

19956.5

Timon of Athens

19818.5

The Ha-Ha

1969

Hamlet

1992

Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes

20008.0

St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral

19977.0

The Burston Rebellion

19858.0

Partition

19875.5

Chemical Wedding

20084.2

Hamlet Within

2022

It's Called the Sugar Plum

1969

Claim

20025.1

Testimony

19885.6

Whistle

20026.3

An Organization of Dreams

2009

The Return of the Flying Scotsman

2016

Hitting Town

1976

Wild Women of Viramba

2003

The Three Hostages

1977

Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2

20017.5

The Race for Everest

200310.0

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt

200410.0

Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome

2004

Once Upon a Time on the Westway

2007

The Tom Machine

1980

Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain

2014

The Victim

19807.0

Animals of the Ocean Desert

2001

Professional Foul

19777.5

Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic

2005

Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story

20177.0

Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine

2000

Lion Queen

19989.0

The Misfit and the Matterhorn

2001