Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce is a Welsh actor whose career has encompassed acclaimed work in theatre, film and television. After graduating from RADA, he joined Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, eventually becoming its artistic director, before working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Nottingham Playhouse. He made his screen debut in a 1972 episode of Doomwatch and soon attracted attention onstage for his performances in Trevor Griffiths' Comedians. The play transferred to Broadway in 1976 under Mike Nichols, earning Pryce the 1977 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Pryce continued to establish himself as a leading stage actor, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Taming of the Shrew and Antony and Cleopatra. His performance as Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre in 1980 earned him an Olivier Award and widespread critical acclaim. His early film work included Voyage of the Damned, Breaking Glass, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Ploughman's Lunch and Martin Luther, Heretic.

His international screen breakthrough came with Terry Gilliam's dystopian dark comedy Brazil (1985), in which he played the protagonist Sam Lowry. He subsequently appeared in films including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Age of Innocence, Evita and Tomorrow Never Dies. His portrayal of writer Lytton Strachey in Carrington earned him the Best Actor Award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

Pryce also became one of the leading stage performers of his generation in musical theatre. In 1990, he originated the role of the Engineer in the West End production of Miss Saigon. His casting in the Broadway production became the subject of a major controversy over the use of yellowface, but he ultimately performed the role after Actors' Equity Association reached an agreement allowing him to appear. He won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the performance. He later starred as Professor Henry Higgins in the acclaimed 2001 London production of My Fair Lady and returned to Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in 2006.

His film career continued with major roles in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequels Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, in which he played Governor Weatherby Swann. Other notable credits included The Brothers Grimm, The New World, De-Lovely and The Wife.

Beginning in the 2010s, Pryce experienced a major resurgence in screen work. He played Thomas Wolsey in the BBC series Wolf Hall and the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, as well as Sir Stuart Strange in Taboo. He continued his stage career with productions including The Merchant of Venice and The Height of the Storm, the latter transferring from London's West End to Broadway in 2019.

Pryce received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as Pope Francis opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes (2019). He subsequently portrayed Prince Philip in the final two seasons of Netflix's The Crown, earning Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations. From 2022 to 2024, he starred as David Cartwright, a retired senior MI5 officer, in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses. His other recent work includes the television series Riot Women.