Known For
Acting
Born
Apr 27, 1942
Died
Feb 14, 2020
Place of Birth
Birmingham, England, UK
Credits
130 titles
John Shrapnel
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.
Known For
Filmography
Hamlet Within
The Lions Rule
Narrator (voice)
King Charles III
Archbishop of Canterbury
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
Narrator (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
Narrator - (Voice)
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Camilo
Hamlet
Claudius/Ghost
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Creon
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
Narrator
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Run.
St. Peter
The Awakening
Reverend Hugh Purslow
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
Théramène
An Organization of Dreams
Father
Apparitions
Cardinal Bukovak
Merlin
The Sarrum
The Duchess
General Grey
Mirrors
Lorenzo Sapelli
Chemical Wedding
Crowley
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Himself (Narrator)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lord Howard
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
Billy Palmer
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
Pompey
Alien Autopsy
Michael Kuhn
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
Narrator (English Version)
Shadow of the Sword
Archbishop
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Narrator
Troy
Nestor
I Am Not an Animal
Narrator (voice)
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Narrator
New Tricks
DAC John Felsham
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Narrator
The Race for Everest
Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
Narrator
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
Narrator (English Version)
Foyle's War
Raymond Brooks
Whistle
Paul
K-19: The Widowmaker
Admiral Bratyeev
Claim
Lex Vandenberg
Alone
Hannah
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
The Gentleman Thief
Monty Sinclair
Animals of the Ocean Desert
Narrator
Waking the Dead
John Christie
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
Narrator
The Body
Moshe Cohen
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
Narrator
Gladiator
Gaius
The 10th Kingdom
Governor of Prison
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
Self - Narrator