Charles dance
“People like Tywin Lannister are very much victims of that system, and of that environment: 'This is my place, don't threaten it'. I don't know how relevant that is to today. Politics is the most corrupt profession on earth, no matter where you are.”
ALSO KNOWN FOR
Walter Charles Dance is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director who was born on the 10th of October, 1946 in Worcestershire, England. Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid-to-late 1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Later he returned to the RSC to take the title role in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon and Newcastle in 1989, and at the Barbican Theatre in 1990. He received rave reviews and a Critics' Circle Best Actor award for his performance as C. S. Lewis in William Nicholson's Shadowlands, in the 2007 stage revival.
Dance made his screen debut in 1974, in the ITV series Father Brown as Commandant Neil O'Brien in "The Secret Garden". Dance then made one of his earliest big-screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus. Though he turned down the opportunity to screen test for the James Bond role, in 1989 he played Bond creator Ian Fleming in Anglia Television's dramatised biography directed by Don Boyd, Goldeneye. He has also starred in many other British television dramas such as Edward the Seventh, Murder Rooms, Randall and Hopkirk, Rebecca, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith and Bleak House, for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.
Dance's debut film as a writer and director was Ladies in Lavender (2004), which starred Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. In 2009, he directed his own adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis's The Inn at the Edge of the World.
Dance made a guest appearance on the BBC drama series Merlin as the Witchfinder Aredian and as a vainglorious version of himself in the third series of Jam & Jerusalem. He played Lord Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, and as the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski in Paris Connections. He is most well-known for playing the role of Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin. Dance was wooed for the role by the producers while filming Your Highness in Belfast. Dance also played Conrad Knox on the British television series Strike Back: Vengeance as the primary villain in the series. In 2019, he played an antagonist in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and appeared as Lord Mountbatten in series 3 of The Crown later in the same year.
FILMOGRAPHY
2022 The Sandman (TV Series)
Roderick Burgess (11 episodes)
2022 Against the Ice
Neergaard
2021 The King's Man
Kitchener
2020 Mank
William Randolph Hearst
2020 The Book of Vision
Dr. Johan Anmuth
2020 The Singapore Grip (TV Series)
Mr. Webb (1 episode)
2019-2020 The Crown (TV Series)
Lord Mountbatten (5 episodes)
2019 The Delivered
John Lye
2019 Iron Mask
Lord Dudley
2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Alan Jonah
2019 The Widow (TV Series)
Martin Benson (7 episodes)
2018 The Little Drummer Girl (TV Series)
Commander Picton (2 episodes)
2018 Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
Bertie
2018 Johnny English Strikes Again
Agent Seven
2018 Hang Ups (TV Series)
Jeremy Pitt (4 episodes)
2018 The Woman in White (TV Mini-Series)
Mr. Fairlie
2017 Euphoria
Mr. Daren
2017 That Good Night
The Visitor
2016 Underworld: Blood Wars
Thomas
2016 Ghostbusters
Harold Filmore
2016 Me Before You
Stephen Traynor
2016 Despite the Falling Snow
Old Alexander
2016 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Mr. Bennet
2015 And Then There Were None (TV Mini-Series)
Judge Lawrence Wargrave
2015 Childhood's End (TV Mini-Series)
Karellen
2015 Victor Frankenstein
Frankenstein
2015 Deadline Gallipoli (TV Mini-Series)
Sir Ian Hamilton
2015 Child 44
Major Grachev
2011-2015 Game of Thrones (TV Series)
Tywin Lannister (27 episodes)
2015 Woman in Gold
Sherman
2015 Admiral
Charles II
2014 Instruments of Darkness
Duncan
2014 The Great Fire (TV Mini-Series)
Lord Denton
2014 Dracula Untold
Master Vampire
2014 The Imitation Game
Commander Denniston
2014 Forbidden Kingdom
V roli lorda Dadli
2013 Justin and the Knights of Valour
Legantir (voice)
2013 Patrick: Evil Awakens
Doctor Roget
2012 Secret State (TV Mini-Series)
John Hodder
2012 Strike Back (TV Series)
Conrad Knox (10 episodes)
2012 St George's Day
Trenchard
2012 Midnight's Children
William Methwold
2012 Underworld Awakening
Thomas
2010-2011 Rosamunde Pilcher's Shades of Love (TV Series)
Edmund Aird (4 episodes)
2011 Neverland (TV Mini-Series)
Doctor Richard Fludd
2011 Your Highness
King Tallious
2011 There Be Dragons
Monsignor Solano
2011 Ironclad
Archbishop Langton
2010 Paris Connections
Aleksandr Borinski
2010 Going Postal (TV Mini-Series)
Lord Vetinari (2 episodes)
2009 Trinity (TV Series)
Dr. Edmund Maltravers (8 episodes)
2009 Merlin (TV Series)
Aredian (1 episode)
2007 Consenting Adults (TV Movie)
Jack Wolfenden
2007 Intervention
Private Investigator
2007 Fallen Angel (TV Mini-Series)
David (3 episodes)
2006 Twice Upon a Time
Le maître de cérémonie du Battar
2006 Starter for 10
Michael Harbinson
2006 Scoop
Mr. Malcolm
2006 Marple (TV Series)
Septimus Bligh (1 episode)
2005 Bleak House (TV Mini-Series)
Mr. Tulkinghorn
2005 To the Ends of the Earth (TV Mini-Series)
Sir Henry Somerset
2005 Fingersmith (TV Mini-Series)
Mr. Christopher Lilly-
2005 Last Rights (TV Mini-Series)
Wheeler
2004 Don Bosco (TV Movie)
Marchese Clementi
2003 City and Crimes
Cox William
2003 Labyrinth
Charles Lushington
2003 Looking for Victoria (TV Movie)
Charles Greville
2003 Henry VIII (TV Movie)
Duke of Buckingham
2003 Trial & Retribution (TV Series)
Greg Harwood (2 episodes)
2003 Swimming Pool
John Bosload
2002 Foyle's War (TV Series)
Guy Spencer (1 episode)
2002 Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future (TV Series)
Col. Simon Lasker (voice - 1 episode)
2002 Black and White
Roderic Chamberlain
2002 Ali G Indahouse: The Movie
David Carlton
2001 Jurij
Padre di Jurij
2001 Gosford Park
Raymond Stockbridge
2001 Dark Blue World
Wing Commander Bentley
2001 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (TV Movie)
Ralph Nickleby
2000 Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (TV Series)
Kenneth Crisby (1 episode)
2000 Justice in Wonderland (TV Movie)
Neil Hamilton
2000 Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes (TV Mini-Series)
Sir Henry Carlyle
1999 Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Frank
1998 Hilary and Jackie
Derek Du Pré
1998 What Rats Won't Do
Gerald
1997 The Blood Oranges
Cyril
1997 In the Presence of Mine Enemies (TV Movie)
Captain Richter
1997 Rebecca (TV Mini-Series)
Maxim de Winter
1996 Space Truckers
Nabel / Macanudo
1996 Michael Collins
Soames
1996 Undertow (TV Movie)
Lyle Yates
1994 The Surgeon
Dr. Ed Mittlesbay
1994 Desvío al paraíso
Quinn
1994 Kabloonak
Robert Flaherty
1994 China Moon
Rupert Munro
1993 Century
Professor Mandry
1993 Last Action Hero
Benedict
1992 La valle di pietra
L'agrimensore
1992 Alien³
Clemens
1990 The Phantom of the Opera (TV Mini-Series)
The Phantom (Erik)
1989 Mission: Impossible (TV Series)
Prime Minister (1 episode)
1989 Goldeneye (TV Movie)
Ian Fleming
1988 First Born (TV Mini-Series)
Edward Forester
1988 Out of the Shadows (TV Movie)
Michael Hayden
1988 Pascali's Island
Anthony Bowles
1987 White Mischief
Josslyn Hay
1987 Hidden City
James Richards
1987 Good Morning Babylon
D.W. Griffith
1987 Out on a Limb (TV Mini-Series)
Gerry Stamford (2 episodes)
1986 The Golden Child
Sardo Numspa
1985 Plenty
Raymond Brock
1984 The Secret Servant (TV Series)
Harry Maxim (3 episodes)
1984 The Jewel in the Crown (TV Mini-Series)
Guy Perron
1983 The Last Day (TV Movie)
Alan
1983 The Professionals (TV Series)
Parker (1 episode)
1982 Frost in May (TV Mini-Series)
Reynaud Callaghan
1982 Nancy Astor (TV Mini-Series)
Edward Hartford-Jones
1981 For Your Eyes Only
Claus
1975 Edward the King (TV Mini-Series)
Prince Eddy (2 episodes)