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Robert Hardy
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Robert Hardy

The greatly respected and experienced stage and screen actor Robert Hardy first worked professionally at the Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 1949, playing many classical seasons there and with the Old Vic in London and in America.

His career has since encompassed film, TV and theatre although many will know him as Winston Churchill in The Wilderness Years which was broadcast world wide and in the much loved TV role of Siegfried Farnon in seven series of All Creatures Great and Small.

Notable feature film credits include: The Spy Who Came into the Cold; 10 Rillington Place; Young Winston; Le Silencieux, Dark Places; Yellow Dog; La Gifle; Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight; How I Won the War; The Shooting Party; Robin Hood, Paris by Night; David Hare's A Feast at Midnight; Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility; Mrs. Dalloway; The Tichborne Claimant; An Ideal Husband; The Barber of Siberia and The Gathering.

Hardy is a popular figure in British television with many credits including: David Copperfield; Twelfth Night; An Age of King (as Henry V); Coriolanus; The Troubleshooters; Manhunt; Daniel Deronda; Elizabeth R (as the Earl of Leicester); Edward VII (as Prince Albert); Caesar and Claretta (as Musselini); Horses in our Blood (adapted, narrated and presented); Speed King; Fothergill; The Demon Lover; Jenny's War; Death of the Heart; Hot Metal; Far Pavillions; Make or Break; Blat; Northanger Abbey; ABC Entertainment's mini series War and Remembrance; Death by Misadventure; Sherlock Holmes - The Master Blackmailer; Inspector Morse; Middlemarch; Bramwell; Gulliver's Travels; Nancherrow, Midsomer Murders and The Tenth Kingdom. Hardy can most recently be seen in Lucky Jim; The Lost World, Foyle's War, The Falkland's Play and Kenneth Branagh's Shackleton.

Hardy is as at home on stage with productions including: Much Ado About Nothing; The River Lane; Camino Real; The Rehearsal; A Severed Head; The Constant Couple; Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus; DearLiar (as George Bernard Shaw); the role of Winston Churchill in Winnie at the Victoria Palace; Body & Soul and The Man Who Said No at the Palais des Congres in Paris.

A greatly experienced actor with over 50 years experience in theatre, film, TV and radio, Hardy has also written and co-directed the TV film The Picardy Affair; a radio play The Leopard and the Lilies and a documentary for BBC's Chronicle. He has published two books on the same subject entitled Longbow and The Great War-Bow.

Trustee and Consultant to the Mary Rose Trust on archery equipment, his interests include archery, medieval history, bowery, horses and birds. Hardy was a trustee of the Royal Armouries of the Tower of London from 1984 to 1995 and is an Hon Dlit of two universities.

Hardy was appointed a CBE in June 1981 and elected FSA in 1990.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

Robert Hardy Facts

OccupationActor
BirthdayOctober 29, 1925 (98)
SignScorpio

Selected Filmography

Not available.