Known For
Acting
Born
Jan 12, 1961
Place of Birth
Penang, Malaysia
Credits
74 titles
Simon Russell Beale
Biography
Sir Simon Russell Beale CBE (born January 12, 1961) is an English actor. He is known for his appearances in film, television and theatre, and work on radio, on audiobooks and as a narrator. For his services to drama, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2019. He has spent much of his theatre career working in productions for both the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. He has received ten Laurence Olivier Award nominations, winning three awards for his performances in Volpone (1996), Candide (2000), and Uncle Vanya (2003). For his work on the Broadway stage he has received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for his performance as George in the Tom Stoppard play Jumpers in 2004. For his role as Henry Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and was nominated for an Olivier Award. Beale has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation". Beale made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando (1992). He continued acting in films such as Persuasion (1995), Hamlet (1996), My Week with Marilyn (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Into the Woods (2014), and Mary Queen of Scots (2018). In 2017, he starred in Armando Iannucci's dark comedy The Death of Stalin playing Lavrentiy Beria for which he received the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also appeared in the television projects The Young Visiters (2003), Dunkirk (2004), and as Falstaff in the BBC made-for-television films Henry IV, Part I and Part II (2012). He was part of the main cast of Showtime's Penny Dreadful.
Known For
Filmography
Prima Facie
De Gaulle: Liberté
Winston Churchill
De Gaulle: Résistance
Winston Churchill
The Magic Faraway Tree
Know All
The Choral
Sir Edward Elgar
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Sir Hector Moreland
Douglas Is Cancelled
Bently
Firebrand
Stephen Gardiner
Mary & George
Sir George Villiers
Home! Home!
Narrator (voice)
House of the Dragon
Ser Simon Strong
Thor: Love and Thunder
Dionysus
Remembers…
Self
Operation Mincemeat
Winston Churchill
The Outfit
Roy Boyle
Benediction
Robbie Ross
A Christmas Carol
Scrooge's voice (voice)
The Hour
Himself
Radioactive
Professor Lippmann
National Theatre Live: The Lehman Trilogy
Henry Lehman
National Theatre Live: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
Richard II
Mary Queen of Scots
Robert Beale
Vanity Fair
John Sedley
Operation Finale
David Ben-Gurion
Museo
Frank Graves
The Death of Stalin
Lavrenti Beria
My Cousin Rachel
Couch
RSC Live: The Tempest
Prospero
The Legend of Tarzan
Mr. Frum
Cunk on Shakespeare
Self - Actor
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC
Richard II
Monteverdi in Mantua - The Genius of the Vespers
presenter
Into the Woods
Baker's Father
The Mysterious Mr Webster
Self - Interviewee
Penny Dreadful
Ferdinand Lyle
National Theatre Live: King Lear
Lear, King of Britain
Legacy
Hookey
Lava Land - Glowing Hawaii
Narrator
National Theatre Live: 50 Years on Stage
Hamlet
Muse of Fire
Self
National Theatre Live: Timon of Athens
Timon
Shakespeare's Sonnets
The Hollow Crown
Falstaff
Simon Schama's Shakespeare
A Musical Nativity with John Rutter
Sacred Music: God's Composer
Presenter
National Theatre Live: Collaborators
Joseph Stalin
The Deep Blue Sea
Sir William Collyer
My Week with Marilyn
Cotes-Preedy
Symphony