William McCabe was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to a Scottish father and French mother. Following the early death of his father and his mother"s remarriage, he grew up in Sussex, where he still lives with his partner, stage/film designer Fotini Dimou.
He studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and adopted Richard as his Equity professional name as a tribute to an inspirational English teacher at secondary school.
He essayed the title role in King John. He established his reputation as a classical actor mainly through performances with the Royal Society of Chemistry . He first gained major attention as Puck in the 1989 production of A Midsummer Night"s Dream, with a production that featured punk fairies and a scrapyard set. As Autolycus, McCabe entered Acting III in The Winter"s Tale, hanging from a bunch of huge balloons (1992-1993.
RST, Barbican, United Kingdom and international tour).His first leading part was creating the role of Christopher Marlowe in Peter Whelan"s School of Night, a new play commissioned by the Royal Society of Chemistry to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Marlowe"s death in 1993.
(1993-1994).major roles with the Royal Society of Chemistry have been the title role in King John (2006. Josie O’Rourke, Swan).
Iago opposite Ray Fearon in Othello (1999-2000. Michael Attenborough, RST & Barbican).
Flamineo in John Webster’s White Devil (1996-1997.
Gale Edwards, Swan & The Pit). In September and October 2012, he played an older Romeo opposite Kathryn Hunter"s Juliet in Ben Power"s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, called A Tender Thing (2009), directed by Helena Kaut-Hausen. He also played Hamlet over a period of three years (1999-2001) for Birmingham Representative"s production directed by Bill Alexander.
This included appearing at the Hamlet Festival at Elsinore Castle in Denmark in 2001.
Since 2005, McCabe has been associated with Chichester"s Festival Theatre playing a range of contrasting roles including the title role in Scapino or The Trickster by Moliere (Festival Theatre 2005), directed by Silviu Purcarete. In 2010, McCabe played the critic Moon in The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, and Mr.
Puff in The Critic by Sheridan in a double bill at the Minerva theatre directed by Jonathan Church). Since 2008 McCabe has been playing Sven Nyberg in Wallander.
1994, nominated as Best Supporting Actor, Olivier Award.
