Background

Hart was born Ian Davies on October 8, 1964, in the Knotty Ash district of Liverpool. He was one of three siblings.

Education

Hart attended Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Liverpool's West Derby suburb. He was a member of the city's Everyman Youth Theatre in his teens, before studying drama at the now-defunct Mabel Fletcher College of Music and Drama. From 1988 to 1991, Hart studied video production at South Mersey College (now part of Liverpool Community College).

Career

Ian Hart started acting as his career in 1980. He never confined himself to one type of character. He played the scallies, authors, physicists, etc. Hart's portrayals of the iconic Beatle in the heralded black-and-white character study short "The Hours and Times" (1991) and the engagingly speculative, music-infused drama "Backbeat" (1994) were roundly acclaimed. The blue-eyed actor was well-disguised for the roles with wigs and contact lenses, making him a perfect physical match to the late musician, while allowing him to escape typecasting.

Ian played Sir Arthur Canon Doyle in the film Finding Neverland in 2004, Adolf Hitler in BBC drama The Man Who Crossed Hitler. Ian garnered major accolades for his roles for portraying John Lennon in the British film Backbeat(1995), Quirinus Quirrell in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dr. Watson in BBC's The Hound of Baskervilles, etc.

Hart mostly worked for the British theater and television and rarely did he work for American movies. He is famous for his British Television Productions like Sir Arthur Canon Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Silk Stocking, and The Hound of Baskervilles.

Ian Hart also played Adolf Hitler in the BBC drama The Man Who Crossed Hitler, which aired in August 2011. He is also starring in The Last Kingdom on Netflix as Father Beocca which first aired in October 2015.

Achievements

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  A Liverpudlian actor who shot to fame with two memorable turns as John Lennon in the early 1990s, Ian Hart went on to build an impressive career, with an unending list of film roles that showcased his talent and versatility. Hart's fondness and talent for immersing himself fully in a role, and chameleonic ability to become someone entirely different in looks and manner made him a sought after character player who enjoyed a fruitful career.
  
  

Works

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  • Backbeat

    (In 1960, close friends Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) a...)

    1994
  • Urban Hymn

    (A redemptive coming of age story about a wayward teen, Ja...)

    2015
  • Breakfast on Pluto

    (In the 1970s, a young trans woman, Patrick "Kitten" Brade...)

    2005
  • Killing Me Softly

    (An American woman in London dumps her boyfriend for an ex...)

    2002
  • Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story

    (Michael Winterbottom's witty take on Laurence Sterne's cl...)

    2005
  • The Butcher Boy

    (A dark journey into the mind of a troubled Irish boy whos...)

    1997
  • Escape from Pretoria

    (Based on the real-life prison break of two political capt...)

    2020
  • The Hours and Times

    (A fictional account of what might have happened in April ...)

    1991
  • Frogs For Snakes

    (A loan shark (Robbie Coltrane) promises his actress/waitr...)

    1998
  • Born Romantic

    (The hypnotic beat of salsa provides the backdrop to this ...)

    2000
  • Strictly Sinatra

    (A Scottish singer with Italian roots, Tony Cocozza (Ian H...)

    2001
  • God's Own Country

    (Johnny works on his family's remote farm in northern Engl...)

    2017
  • Dough

    (An unlikely friendship forms between a baker and his youn...)

    2015
  • Clockwork Mice

    (Set in a school for emotionally disturbed children, Clock...)

    1995
  • The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain

    (When an English cartographer must tell a Welsh village th...)

    1995
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

    (Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out on their perilous missio...)

    2011
  • Within The Whirlwind

    (During Stalin's reign of terror, Evgenia Ginzburg, a lite...)

    2009
  • Spring Forward

    (In this profound drama, a young ex-con and a retiring mun...)

    1999
  • Mary Queen of Scots

    (Fiery feminist take on the rivalry between Mary Stuart an...)

    2018
  • Modern Life Is Rubbish

    (Initially drawn together by their shared love of music, a...)

  • Monument Ave.

    (Bobby O'Grady (Denis Leary) is a low-level thug in Charle...)

    1998
  • The End Of The Affair

    (When a married woman inexplicably ends a deeply passionat...)

    1999
  • Morris: A Life with Bells On

    (Morris: A Life with Bells On is a 2009 British independen...)

    2009
  • No Surrender

    (A scheduling mixup means two groups of old-timers have re...)

    1985
  • Ripley Under Ground

    (Tom Ripley and his friend hide the body of their artist f...)

    2005
  • Enemy Of The State

    (A lawyer goes on the run after he is given a video tying ...)

    1998
  • A Boy Called Dad

    (When he becomes a father at the tender age of fourteen, R...)

    2009
  • Aberdeen

    (Kaisa is a successful London lawyer who snorts coke and h...)

    2000
  • Robinson Crusoe

    (Robinson Crusoe is trapped on a deserted island after a d...)

    1997
  • The Hollow Reed

    (When doctor Martin Wyatt comes out of the closet, it tear...)

    1996
  • Hard Boiled Sweets

    (Ex-con Johnny is forced into pulling a heist he wants not...)

    2012
  • Finding Neverland

    (Barrie forges a platonic bond with a widow, Sylvia, who h...)

    2004
  • Nothing Personal

    (A raw depiction of the Belfast "troubles" as savage triba...)

    1995
  • B. Monkey

    (Tired of criminal activity, a wild and beautiful thief na...)

    1998
  • Michael Collins

    (Michael Collins, the man and the movie, stands tall. The ...)

    1996
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

    (Based on the wildly popular J.K. Rowling's book about a y...)

    2001

Religion

Hart was brought up in a Catholic family.

Views

Quotations: "I hate auditions - when I'm doing them, I can't wait to get out the bleeding door."

"There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true."

"I need something to do when I'm not working, or I crawl up the walls. So I've just taken up kung fu. I was looking for some kind of calming, relaxing activity. I tried yoga, but it wasn't really me."

"I just wanna build momentum again. Keeping yourself in work is one thing, keeping yourself in good work's another. But if it doesn't work out, so be it. As the Taoists say, Learn to accept that which you cannot change."

"Well, put it like this, if you're not a kid, you're a wizard."

"My philosophy was, if I just do good work, someone will like it enough to employ me. It never made me famous. And I'm way, way too old now, mate. That boat's sailed."

"I'm belligerent rather than ambitious."

"You learn more doing than doing training."

"I'm still working, I've got two arms, two legs, two gorgeous kids, a lovely wife. Fifteen years ago, I was homeless. So when you think about it, I'm lucky."

"I was relatively technically adept. I can edit and wire up a light."

"When you get to 15 and most of your teachers are priests, there's bound to be a conflict."

"I'm not usually attracted to big-budget American films."

"I don't know how to construct a career that'll make me famous. Except maybe get my ears pinned back, get my teeth done, and go to America. But then I'll be competing with billions of actors who haven't got false teeth, and who are 25."

"Not being able to work would make me very unhappy."

"Everyone should be good at what they do."

"I've only used my own voice about four times on film."

"Even before my audition, there were several pages missing from my script because those bits were so unbelievably secret not even I was allowed to see them."

"We tend to think about fascism in terms of the Second World War."

That's what I like about Neil Jordan's films: everyone is better at what they do than you are."

"I just want to be rich and famous."

"I play the town taxidermist. Norman starts coming over to see my character's daughter, but he becomes fascinated by preserving dead animals. In one episode his dog dies, so I teach him how to preserve it. He becomes obsessed with taxidermy."

"It's one of those things where you turn round and say 'I've moved to LA by accident. It was a happy accident, though. Santa Monica isn't bad - I can get Heinz beans and Cadbury's chocolate and PG Tips tea. You can get proper brown sauce in the shop round the corner. It's not like America and it doesn't feel too showbiz. I did see Warren Beatty the other day doing his shopping. I was thinking 'he's getting on a bit' but then I realized that he had more hair than me - and he's in his 70s."

"Most good roles are written for young men. We are fixated on youth. So however much people say there is nothing wrong with being bald, the reality is once the hair is gone, you might not get the parts."

"On moving to L.A.: I went to film a TV series (Luck with Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina and Nick Nolte) for HBO. Three months turned into nine months. Nine months turned into a year, then 18 months and so on and so on. One part led on to another. My wife and kids were never seeing me, so they moved over, too. Now they are in school over here, and we've got a house in Santa Monica."

"It's not any desire on my part to start playing dads, but it's a convention of drama. If you don't get the parts of young people going out to nightclubs, you have to play their fathers."

Personality

Ian Hart once hit a man from the audience during an interview.

When he was about to act for the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he went to the local bookshop and asked for the Harry Potter series, and he was confused reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Physical Characteristics: Height: 5' 7¾" (1,72 m)

Interests

• Favorite Color: Grey

Connections

Ian Hart's personal life comes with the note that he had a peaceful and enjoyed throughout his life. His wife is Lynne, and they have a daughter. He moved to Los Angeles, accidentally and started living in Los Angeles for a couple of years. On a shoot for HBO, he reached Los Angeles, and slowly their wife and kid moved, and they even own a house there.

Spouse:

Lynne Hart

Daughter:

Holly Hart

Daughter:

Daisy Hart

Friend:

David Morrissey

A lifelong friend of fellow Liverpudlian actor David Morrissey.