John Shrapnel
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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
Credits
Gladiator (2000)
as Gaius
Troy (2004)
as Nestor
Notting Hill (1999)
as PR Chief
101 Dalmatians (1996)
as Skinner
The Duchess (2008)
as General Grey
Mirrors (2008)
as Lorenzo Sapelli
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
as Lord Howard
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
as Admiral Bratyeev
The Awakening (2011)
as Reverend Hugh Purslow
The Body (2001)
as Moshe Cohen
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
as Petya
Alien Autopsy (2006)
as Michael Kuhn
Two Deaths (1996)
as Cinca
Shadow of the Sword (2005)
as Archbishop
Hennessy (1975)
as Tipaldi
Fatherland (1994)
as General Globus
King Charles III (2017)
as Archbishop of Canterbury
Pope Joan (1972)
as Father James
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters (1999)
as General Charette
Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999)
as Simon
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
as Psychiatrist
Poppyland (1985)
as George Sims
The Three Hostages (1977)
as Gaudian
Personal Services (1987)
as Lionel
King Lear (1982)
as Earl of Kent
The Ha-Ha (1969)
as Jamie
Hamlet Within (2022)
Actor
King Lear (1975)
as Duke of Cornwall
Chemical Wedding (2008)
as Crowley
Selling Hitler (1993)
as Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King (1986)
as Creon
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale (2015)
as Camilo
England, My England (1995)
as Samuel Pepys
Flayed (1978)
as Robert
Timon of Athens (1981)
as Alcibiades
Whistle (2002)
as Paul
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus (1986)
as Creon
Run. (2013)
as St. Peter
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies (2007)
as Himself (Narrator)
The Victim (1980)
as Vincent Craig
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (1992)
as Narrator
National Theatre Live: Macbeth (2013)
as Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
National Theatre Live: Phèdre (2009)
as Théramène
Hamlet (2015)
as Claudius/Ghost
Testimony (1988)
as Andre Zhdanov
Claim (2002)
as Lex Vandenberg
Gossip from the Forest (1979)
as Matthias Erzberger
Partition (1987)
as General Flood
The Gentleman Thief (2001)
as Monty Sinclair
Once Upon a Time on the Westway (2007)
as Billy Palmer
It's Called the Sugar Plum (1969)
as Wally Zuckerman
Professional Foul (1977)
as McKendrick
Theban Plays: Antigone (1986)
as Creon
Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978)
as Maj. Alexander Hardinge
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka (1999)
as Iwaszkiewicz
Troilus & Cressida (1981)
as Hector
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine (2000)
as Self - Narrator
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story (1990)
as BKA Police Chief
The Tom Machine (1980)
Actor
The Burston Rebellion (1985)
as Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece (2004)
as Narrator
The Race for Everest (2003)
as Narrator
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes (2000)
as Narrator
Alone (2002)
as Hannah
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic (2005)
as Narrator (English Version)
King Arthur: His Life and Legends (1995)
Actor
Hamlet (1992)
as Claudius
The Return of the Flying Scotsman (2016)
as Narrator - (Voice)
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty (2002)
as Narrator (English Version)
OXI, an Act of Resistance (2014)
as Creon
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story (2017)
as Narrator (Voice)
An Organization of Dreams (2009)
as Father
Lion Queen (1998)
as Narrator (voice)
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain (2014)
as Narrator
Hitting Town (1976)
as Leonard Brazil (voice)
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral (1997)
as Narrator (English voice)
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2 (2001)
as Narrator
Animals of the Ocean Desert (2001)
as Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome (2004)
as Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt (2004)
as Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba (2003)
as Narrator