Background

Russell was born on December 7, 1945, in Reeth, North Riding of Yorkshire, England but brought up in Fife, Scotland.

Education

Clive Russell originally trained as a teacher, but when his drama lecturer resigned and took over a theatre in the provincial town of Bolton, Lancashire, Russell joined him.

Career

Russell first performed before an audience in 1960 on The Shari Lewis Show, but it was not until 1980 that he had his first real acting job – performing on the London stage as the superintendent in Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's satire Accidental Death of an Anarchist, about police corruption in Italy. The reviews were good, and he reprised that role for television in 1983. After further honing his skills in various British TV productions and a handful of films – including Jute City, The Power of One, The Hawk and Seconds Out – Russell received exposure before international audiences as Caleb Garth in the celebrated BBC miniseries Middlemarch, based on the George Eliot novel of the same name. A year later, he fell in love on the movie screen with Helena Bonham Carter in Margaret's Museum, for which he earned a Genie nomination at the 16th Genie Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. After more TV roles and another film, Russell played Ralph Fiennes' father in another critically acclaimed film, Oscar and Lucinda. Growing recognition of his acting skills then brought him major roles in four major TV miniseries: Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Railway Children and The Mists of Avalon.

Russell has appeared in numerous television series including Boys from the Blackstuff, Hope and Glory, Neverwhere, Great Expectations, The Mists of Avalon, Heartburn Hotel, Roughnecks, Monarch of the Glen, Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, Rockface, and Spaced. Russell has also made appearances in Still Game, Happiness, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and Cracker. From 2005 to 2006, Russell played Phil Nail in ITV's Coronation Street. Russell made an appearance in Waterloo Road as Lisa and Lenny Brown's grandfather for one episode, also playing Billy Wilson for two in Shameless.

He has appeared as Jock in the third series of the BBC's Jam and Jerusalem, as "Bayard, King of Mercia" in Merlin and in Hotel Babylon as an artist forced to fake his own death when he is in debt. In 2012, he joined the cast of the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones as Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully. In 2016, he joined the cast of Hollyoaks as Billy, brother of established character Jack Osborne.

In 2017, he had a small role in the BBC Three comedy "Uncle", portraying Sam and Andy's father and later in the year appeared in Doc Martin. In Margaret's Museum, a highly acclaimed film, he starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter as the Gaelic-speaking Neil Currie. Russell's other film credits include Festival, Ladies in Lavender, King Arthur, Made of Honour, Lecture 21, The 13th Warrior and The Wolfman.

He made an appearance in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes as Captain Tanner, and reprised the role in the film's 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. He appeared in the 2010 film The Wolfman as MacQueen. Russell also appeared in Robin Hardy's The Wicker Tree which was released in the first quarter of 2012, playing the character of Beame alongside the Hobbit star Graham McTavish. He played Inspector Frederick Abberline in BBC One's Ripper Street. He also played Tyr in the live-action film Thor: The Dark World (2013).

Achievements

• 

  Russell is a familiar and unforgettable face on British television. He earned a Genie nomination at the 16th Genie Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role the movie "Margaret's Museum."

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Book of Blood

    (A paranormal expert investigating a brutal murder discove...)

    2009
  • Fatherland

    (In April 1964, more than 20 years after the Nazis won Wor...)

    1994
  • Hatton Garden The Heist

    (Following the lead up to one of the biggest robberies of ...)

    2017
  • Sherlock Holmes

    (Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary inte...)

    2009
  • Wicker Tree

    (Charmed by the residents of Tressock, Scotland, two young...)

    2011
  • The Wolfman

    (Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro tear up the screen i...)

    2010
  • Ladies in Lavender

    (Aging spinster sisters Ursula (Judi Dench) and Janet (Mag...)

    2004
  • The Mayor Of Casterbridge

    (Ciarán Hinds (The Terror) and James Purefoy (Rome) star i...)

    2003
  • Thor: The Dark World

    (When the Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into d...)

    2013
  • Margaret's Museum

    (Margaret MacNiel, a girl living in a Cape Breton coal min...)

    1995
  • The Power of One

    (An orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs, ...)

    1992
  • King Arthur

    (In a gritty reimagining of the legend of Camelot, Arthur ...)

    2004
  • The Young Messiah

    (In this fictional, but fascinating biblical tale, a seven...)

    2016
  • Oscar And Lucinda

    (The love story of two misfits, an heiress and a would-be ...)

    1997
  • Curfew

    (A group of amateur drivers from all over the world compet...)

    2019
  • Watch Great Expectations

    (Violence and Victorian gentility meet in one of Dickens' ...)

    1999
  • Made Of Honor

    (Tom loves his life, until he realizes he also loves his b...)

    2008
  • The 13th Warrior

    (A band of warriors are being attacked by ferocious creatu...)

    1999
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

    (Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the r...)

    2011
  • Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy

    (This movie centers on five Border Collies in rural Scotland.)

    2006
  • Mad Dogs

    (Follows the reunion of four old sixth form friends. They ...)

    2002
  • Mary Queen of Scots

    (A queen who lost three kingdoms. A wife who lost three hu...)

    2013
  • Barbarians Rising

    (Rome. The greatest empire the world has ever known. This ...)

    2016

• TV series

  • Merlin

    (These are the brand new adventures of Merlin, the legenda...)

    2008
  • Ripper Street

    (The streets of Whitechapel are the haunt of Detective Ins...)

    2012
  • Game of Thrones

    (Nine noble families fight for control over the mythical l...)

    2013
  • Neverwhere

    (Richard Mayhew leads an ordinary life in London when one ...)

    1996
  • Outlander

    (An English combat nurse from 1945 is mysteriously swept b...)

    2016
  • Coronation Street

    (The U.K.'s longest-running television soap, Coronation St...)

    2005

Personality

Clive Russell often plays tough characters due to his imposing stature.

Physical Characteristics: Height - 6' 6" (1,98 m)

He has a husky toned voice.

Connections

colleague:

Michelle Fairley

She is a Northern Irish actress, best known for her roles as Catelyn Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2013), Dr. Ava Hessington in multiple episodes of USA Network series Suits (2013), and as terrorist Margot Al-Harazi, a main antagonist in 24: Live Another Day (2014).

colleague:

Sophie Turner

(born 21 February 1996)

She is an English actress.

colleague:

Lena Headey

(born 3 October 1973)

She is an English actress.