Nook NotesPick a film
David Morrissey

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.

Read more

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.

Start here

The best way into David Morrissey's work
The Other Boleyn Girl posterFirst 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 film

Essential films

Ranked by acclaim and reach

Filmography

57 films as actor
  1. TBAInflicted KindnessDS Mark Thompson
  2. 2026The OresteiaChristopher Middleton
  3. 2025The Woman in Cabin 10Thomas Heatherley
  4. 2024SlingshotSam Napier
  5. 2022DampyrGorka
  6. 2021The Colour RoomFred Ridgeway
  7. 2020A Separate PeaceJohn Brown
  8. 2018National Theatre Live: Julius CaesarMark Antony
  9. 2016The Ones BelowJon
  10. 2016National Theatre Live: HangmenHarry
  11. 2013Too Far GonePhilip Blake (The Govenor)
  12. 2013Welcome to the PunchThomas Geiger
  13. 2012EarthboundBill Norman
  14. 2011BlitzDunlop
  15. 2011MacbethMacbeth
  16. 2011Gee GeeMichael
  17. 2010Thorne: ScaredycatDI Tom Thorne
  18. 2010Cooked(voice)
  19. 2010CenturionBothos
  20. 2010Mrs MandelaTheunis Swanepoel
  21. 2009Nowhere BoyBobby Dykins
  22. 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980Maurice Jobson
  23. 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983Maurice Jobson
  24. 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974Maurice Jobson
  25. 2009U Be DeadDr. Jan Falkowski
  26. 2009Is Anybody There?Steve
  27. 2008Doctor Who: The Next DoctorJackson Lake
  28. 2008The Other Boleyn GirlThomas Howard - Duke of Norfolk
  29. 2007The Water HorseCaptain Thomas Hamilton
  30. 2007The ReapingDoug
  31. 2006Viva BlackpoolRipley Holden
  32. 2006Basic Instinct 2Michael Glass
  33. 2005StonedTom Keylock
  34. 2005DerailedSam Griffin
  35. 2003The DealGordon Brown
  36. 2003This Little LifeRichie MacGregor
  37. 2002Out of ControlMike
  38. 2001Captain Corelli's MandolinCaptain Günther Weber
  39. 2000Born RomanticFergus
  40. 2000Some VoicesPete
  41. 2000The Suicide ClubHenry Joyce
  42. 1999Fanny & ElvisRob
  43. 1998Hilary and JackieKiffer Finzi
  44. 1998Big CatLeo
  45. 1998The CommissionerMurray Lomax
  46. 1996The One That Got AwayAndy "Mac" McNab
  47. 1994Being HumanCyprion's Man
  48. 1992Black and BlueDC Norman Mills
  49. 1992WaterlandDick Crick
  50. 1991The Storyteller: Greek Myths - Theseus & the MinotaurTheseus
  51. 1991ClublandDC Judd
  52. 1991Robin HoodLittle John
  53. 1990The WidowmakerRob
  54. 1990Available LightMarcus
  55. 1988Drowning by NumbersBellamy
  56. 1988Out of TownThe Traveller
  57. 1987Cause CélèbreGeorge Bowman