Background
Waddington was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, the younger child of Peter Waddington and Averill Stubbs.
Waddington was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, the younger child of Peter Waddington and Averill Stubbs.
He attended Lawns Park Primary School and Intake High School, both in Leeds. He finished his training in the summer of 1989 and subsequently joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, first at Stratford and then at the Barbican and on tour in Newcastle.
He acted in school plays and appeared in several Yorkshire Television productions, among them Emmerdale Farm and Eighteen Desperate Hours, sometimes as an extra and sometimes with a few lines of dialogue. He was cast in his first film, Edward II, after being recommended to Derek Jarman by fellow actor, Nigel Terry, with whom he had worked previously in a production of Pericles at the Royal Society of Chemistry . His first film role was as the eponymous king in Derek Jarman"s Edward World War II Waddington starred as Prasutagus in the 2003 film Boudica as well the Duke of Buckingham (who, coincidentally, was directly related to Edward II) in the Showtime series The Tudors, released on 1 April 2007 in the United States. He also appeared in Tim Burton"s 1999 film version of Sleepy Hollow as Mr Killian.
He played a lead role as Jeff in Steve Coogan"s The Parole Officer (2001).
He more recently appeared in the Independent Television drama Vital Signs along with Tamzin Outhwaite and starred as King Richard in the Series 2 finale of Robin Hood. Waddington also starred as Wilfred of Ivanhoe in the 1997 British Broadcasting Corporation/A&East production of Ivanhoe, based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott.
Waddington reprised his role as Richard the Lionheart in the British Broadcasting Corporation/Discovery Channel drama documentary "Heroes and Villains: Richard the Lionheart" (2007). From April to July 2010 he portrayed canteen head Adam Fleet in Waterloo Road.
He has also featured in two Swedish films.
In 2012 he appeared in the four-part Independent Television mini-series Titanic, playing Second Officer Charles Lightoller.