Rupert Penry-Jones

Rupert Penry-Jones
Penry-Jones in October 2006
Born	Rupert William Penry-Jones (1970-09-22) 22 September 1970 London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1994–present
Spouse	Dervla Kirwan ​ (m. 2007)​
Children	2
Parents	Peter Penry-Jones (father) Angela Thorne (mother)

Rupert William Penry-Jones (born 22 September 1970) is a British actor, known for his performances as Adam Carter in Spooks, Clive Reader in Silk, DI Joseph Chandler in Whitechapel, and Mr Quinlan in the American horror series The Strain.

Early life

Penry-Jones was born in London, the son of Welsh actor Peter Penry-Jones and English actress Angela Thorne. His brother, Laurence Penry-Jones, is an actor turned ambulance driver who is married to actress Polly Walker.

On BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast in August 2010, it was revealed that Penry-Jones' maternal grandfather, William, had served with the Indian Army Medical Corps at the Battle of Monte Cassino and that his earlier ancestors had a long-standing connection with the Indian Army. Penry-Jones also discovered that he had Indian ancestry from the early 19th century.

Penry-Jones was educated at Dulwich College in Dulwich, London, until the age of 19 when he was enrolled at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He was thrown out of Bristol Old Vic "for having a bad attitude".

Career

In 1995, Penry-Jones appeared with his mother on television in Cold Comfort Farm.

Penry-Jones made his London stage debut at the Hackney Empire theatre in 1995 playing Fortinbras to Ralph Fiennes's Hamlet in an Almeida production of Hamlet. He was cast as Richard in the premiere staging of Stephen Poliakoff's Sweet Panic at Hampstead Theatre in 1996. The following year he appeared in both The Paper Husband at Hampstead Theatre and as the upper-class Pip Thompson in a revival of Arnold Wesker's Chips with Everything on the Lyttelton stage at the Royal National Theatre.

In 1998, he created the role of the Boy in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby at the Almeida Theatre. In 1999, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, playing the title role in Don Carlos at The Other Place theatre and Alcibiades in Timon of Athens at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Both productions transferred to the Barbican Centre in London in 2000, where his performance as Don Carlos won the Ian Charleson Award. At the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, in 2001 he was cast as Robert Caplan in J.B. Priestley's thriller "time-play" Dangerous Corner opposite Dervla Kirwan, who played Olwen Peel. The production then transferred for a four-month run at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End. From July to October 2003 at the National's Cottesloe Theatre he played the leading role of Louis XIV in Nick Dear's historical drama Power. Penry-Jones returned to the theatre at the end of 2009 playing the role of Carl in Michael Wynne's new play The Priory at the Royal Court Theatre, London, from 19 November 2009 to 16 January 2010.

On television, Penry-Jones has played barrister Alex Hay in C4's ten-part serial North Square in 2000; Donald Maclean in the BBC's four-part production of Cambridge Spies in 2003; and Grimani in Russell T. Davies' production of Casanova in 2005. In 2004, he joined the cast in series 3 of the BBC's BAFTA-winning series Spooks. He played the lead role of section leader Adam Carter for four series before leaving the show in 2008. He won a ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for his role in Spooks in 2008. He also went on to play the role of Captain Wentworth in ITV's adaptation of Persuasion.

In 2008, he starred with Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell in Burn Up playing an oil executive who becomes embroiled in the politics surrounding global warming and oil stocks. He played Richard Hannay in the BBC adaptation of The 39 Steps which was screened at Christmas 2008.

In February 2009, Penry-Jones took the lead in an ITV drama, Whitechapel, a three-part thriller based on the copycat killings of Jack the Ripper. Whitechapel was the highest-performing new drama in 2009. A second series of the show based around the Kray twins was broadcast in autumn 2010; the third series began in January 2012. The fourth and last series aired in September 2013.

Penry-Jones was scheduled to appear alongside other celebrities in Soccer Aid 2010, but broke a bone in his knee during training, putting him in a plaster cast and ruling him out of the final match on 6 June 2010.

Penry-Jones was also cast opposite Maxine Peake in a legal drama Silk created by Peter Moffat. The show revolves around two barristers, played by Penry-Jones and Peake who are competing to become QCs. Series 2 aired in 2012 and Series 3 premiered on 24 February 2014. He also joined the cast of the film A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet as Antoine. The film was directed by Alan Rickman.

In August 2020, the release of the first trailer for The Batman revealed that he had an as-yet unannounced role in the film, later reported to be that of Gotham City Mayor Don Mitchell.

In March 2022, Penry-Jones starred as Mike/Toby in ITV 1's drama Our House alongside Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton.

Personal life

Penry-Jones married Irish actress Dervla Kirwan in August 2007, following a three-year engagement. They had met in 2001 at a production of J. B. Priestley's Dangerous Corner. They have two children. His brother Laurence is married to TV and film actress Polly Walker.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Black Beauty	Wild-Looking Young Man
1997	Bent	Guard on road
	Food of Love	Head office staff
1998	The Tribe	Dietrich
	Hilary and Jackie	Piers
	Still Crazy	Young Ray
1999	Virtual Sexuality	Jake
2001	Charlotte Gray	Peter Gregory
2002	The Four Feathers	Tom Willoughby
	A Family Man	Tarquin
2005	Match Point	Henry
2011	Manor Hunt Ball	Laurence
2012	Red Tails	Campbell
2014	A Little Chaos	Antoine Nompar de Caumont
2017	Pegasus Bridge	Richard Geoffrey Pine-Coffin
2018	Vita and Virginia	Harold Nicolson
2020	Getting to know you	Luke Manning
	Love Sarah	Matthew
	Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears	Jonathon Lofthouse
2022	The Batman	Mayor Don Mitchell, Jr.
TBA	Prisoner of Paradise	TBA

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Fatherland	Hermann Jost
1995	Cold Comfort Farm	Dick Hawk-Monitor
	Absolutely Fabulous	Boy at party	1 episode: "The End"
1996	Kavanagh QC	Ralph Kinross	1 episode: "The Burning Deck"
	Cold Lazarus	Militiaman / Policeman	2 episodes
	The Ring	Gerhard von Gotthard
	Faith in the Future	Sam	2 episodes
1997	The Moth	Stanley Thorman
	Jane Eyre	St. John Rivers
1998	The Student Prince	The Prince
2000	North Square	Alex Hay	10 episodes
2003	Cambridge Spies	Donald Maclean	4 episodes
	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Roddy Winter	1 episode: "Sad Cypress"
2004–2008	Spooks aka MI-5	Adam Carter	41 episodes
2005	Casanova	Grimani	3 episodes
2006	Krakatoa: The Last Days	Willem Beijerinck
2007	Persuasion	Captain Wentworth
	Joe's Palace	Richard Reece
2008	Burn Up	Tom	2 episodes
	The 39 Steps	Richard Hannay
2009–2013	Whitechapel	Joseph Chandler	18 episodes
2011–2014	Silk	Clive Reader	18 episodes
2012	Treasure Island	Squire Trelawney	2 episodes
	The Last Weekend	Ollie
2014–2017	The Strain	Mr. Quinlan	29 episodes
2015, 2017	Black Sails	Thomas Hamilton	6 episodes
2015	Life in Squares	Duncan Grant (older)
	Crown for Christmas	King Maximillian
2018	Stan Lee's Lucky Man	Samuel Blake	8 episodes
2020	Wizards: Tales of Arcadia	Lancelot (voice)	6 episodes
2021	The Drowning	Mark	Main role
2022	Our House	Toby/Mike	Main Role

References

• Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

External links

• Rupert Penry-Jones at IMDb