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Clive Russell

Clive Russell

Clive Russell starred with Helena Bonham Carter in the critically acclaimed romantic drama Margaret's Museum, playing Neil Currie, a giant of a man who movies from Scotland to Glace Bay, Canada. (He was nominated for Best Actor in the Canadian Academy Awards for this performance.) He also played Ralph Fiennes' father in Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda.

Most recent film work includes a film noir entitled Bodywork, directed by Gareth Rhys Jones, in which he plays a world weary detective; All Forgotten an adaptation of the Turgenev novel First Love and a new screenplay by Alan Bleasdale of the Dickens Classic Oliver Twist which he will be filming in Prague over the next month. Clive has also worked opposite Morgan Freeman in The Power of One, Rutger Hauer in Fatherland and Helen Mirren in The Hawk.

For BBC Television Clive has just finished playing Joe Gargery in a new adaptation of Great Expectations, directed by Julian Jarrold. Most recently he appeared in the BBC 1 hit series Heartburn Hotel, written by John Sullivan (writer of Only Fools and Horses). Clive will be shooting the second series in August of this year. His next project, coming out over the summer, is a hard hitting drama for the BBC Hope and Glory, set in a London school where he plays the Deputy Head teacher to Lenny Henry's Head teacher.

Other television roles include the Deputy Prime Minister of the Emmy Award winning BBC drama Crossing the Floor, a deeply psychotic gangster in the BBC miniseries Jute City and has starred in both series of Roughnecks, the BBC's oil-rig drama set off the coast of Scotland.

His other telefilm and series credits include Finney, Cracker III (playing Robbie Coltrane's brother) Neverwhere, as well as BBC productions Tell Tale Hearts, Seconds Out, Middlemarch, Ruffian Hearts and Flowers of the Forest.

Raised in Scotland, the 6'6 Clive trained as a drama teacher. When his lecturer resigned and set up a theatre in the provincial town of Bolton in Lancashire, Clive made the decision to pursue his passion for the theatre. For the next eight years Clive performed everything from fire eating stunts to stand up comedy. He also worked with several touring theatre companies such as Monstrous Regiment.

Clive came to national attention in 1980 in An Accidental Death of An Anarchist in London's West End. Later he worked at The Young Vic Theatre, well known for its presentation of contemporary work. He played Edmund in King Lear at the Old Vic, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for four seasons and rejoined the Royal Court Theatre for Our Country's Good.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2000.

Clive Russell Facts

OccupationActor

Selected Filmography

The Bourne Identity
The Young Messiah
The 13th Warrior
The Fighter's Ballad
The Wolfman
Ladies in Lavender
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Denzel Washington 4-Movie Spotlight Series
The History Boys
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