
Actor
David Morrissey
Born June 21, 1964 in Everton, Liverpool, England, UK57 films
David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. He grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. Learning to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At age 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
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Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though took other defining roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998). More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former won him a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter a Best Actor award at the Royal Television Society Awards. His film roles have not always been acclaimed; his appearance as the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006) was widely criticised, and The Reaping (2007) bombed at the box office. Since then, he has had leading roles in Sense and Sensibility (2008), Red Riding (2009) and Five Days (2010), acted in the films Nowhere Boy (2009) and Centurion (2010), and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne (2010). Returning to the stage in 2008, he did a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011.
As director, Morrissey has helmed short films, and the dramas Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004) for the BBC. His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010. He is married to novelist Esther Freud, has three children, and is a patron of numerous charities.
THEATRE includes Hangmen at the Royal Court; and The Lover / The Collection at Theatre Royal Bath; The End of History at The Royal Court; King John at The Barbican; The School for Scandal and Peer Gynt at The National Theatre; Twelfth Night and Three Days of Rain at the Donmar Warehouse; Macbeth at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; Much Ado About Nothing in The West End; In a Dark Dark House at The Almedia; Julius Caesar at The Bridge. TELEVISION includes Gone, Daddy Issues, Tip Toe, The Siege, The Walking Dead, Prime Target, Sherwood, Red Riding, State of Play (BAFTA nomination for Best Actor), The Missing, The City and The City, Britannia, Extant, and The Driver (also Executive Producer), The Long Shadow, Inside No.9, The Singapore Grip, Good Omens, The 7.39, Our Mutual Friend, Clocking Off, Holding On, State of Play, The Deal, Viva Blackpool, Doctor Who, Sense and Sensibility, The Hollow Crown, True Love, The Field of Blood, South Riding, Thorne: Sleepyhead/Scaredy Cat, One Summer.
FILM includes the upcoming The Beatles biopics, Welcome to the Punch, Nowhere Boy, Centurion, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Woman in Cabin 10, The Colour Room, Slingshot, Dampyr, Blitz, The One’s Below, Hilary & Jackie, Some Voices, Born Romantic, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Derailed, Stoned, The Reaping, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
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The best way into David Morrissey's work
First watchThe Other Boleyn Girl20086.7as Thomas Howard - Duke of NorfolkA sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history: two beautiful sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, driven by…View filmEssential films
Ranked by acclaim and reachFilmography
57 films as actor- TBAInflicted KindnessDS Mark Thompson
- 2026The OresteiaChristopher Middleton
- 2025The Woman in Cabin 10Thomas Heatherley
- 2024SlingshotSam Napier
- 2022DampyrGorka
- 2021The Colour RoomFred Ridgeway
- 2020A Separate PeaceJohn Brown
- 2018National Theatre Live: Julius CaesarMark Antony
- 2016The Ones BelowJon
- 2016National Theatre Live: HangmenHarry
- 2013Too Far GonePhilip Blake (The Govenor)
- 2013Welcome to the PunchThomas Geiger
- 2012EarthboundBill Norman
- 2011BlitzDunlop
- 2011MacbethMacbeth
- 2011Gee GeeMichael
- 2010Thorne: ScaredycatDI Tom Thorne
- 2010Cooked(voice)
- 2010CenturionBothos
- 2010Mrs MandelaTheunis Swanepoel
- 2009Nowhere BoyBobby Dykins
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980Maurice Jobson
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983Maurice Jobson
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974Maurice Jobson
- 2009U Be DeadDr. Jan Falkowski
- 2009Is Anybody There?Steve
- 2008Doctor Who: The Next DoctorJackson Lake
- 2008The Other Boleyn GirlThomas Howard - Duke of Norfolk
- 2007The Water HorseCaptain Thomas Hamilton
- 2007The ReapingDoug
- 2006Viva BlackpoolRipley Holden
- 2006Basic Instinct 2Michael Glass
- 2005StonedTom Keylock
- 2005DerailedSam Griffin
- 2003The DealGordon Brown
- 2003This Little LifeRichie MacGregor
- 2002Out of ControlMike
- 2001Captain Corelli's MandolinCaptain Günther Weber
- 2000Born RomanticFergus
- 2000Some VoicesPete
- 2000The Suicide ClubHenry Joyce
- 1999Fanny & ElvisRob
- 1998Hilary and JackieKiffer Finzi
- 1998Big CatLeo
- 1998The CommissionerMurray Lomax
- 1996The One That Got AwayAndy "Mac" McNab
- 1994Being HumanCyprion's Man
- 1992Black and BlueDC Norman Mills
- 1992WaterlandDick Crick
- 1991The Storyteller: Greek Myths - Theseus & the MinotaurTheseus
- 1991ClublandDC Judd
- 1991Robin HoodLittle John
- 1990The WidowmakerRob
- 1990Available LightMarcus
- 1988Drowning by NumbersBellamy
- 1988Out of TownThe Traveller
- 1987Cause CélèbreGeorge Bowman







