I was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on April 17, 1959. I left school at 16 with two "O" levels, in Art and English. I had a variety of jobs, including selling cheese in a supermarket, shovelling snow, and working as a welder at my dad's steel fabrication shop before I discovered acting while attending an art course at Rotherham College...
I auditioned for London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in April 1980. One of 30 successful applicants (out of a field of 11,000) to win a scholarship, I began studying at RADA in Spring 1981. I was awarded a silver medal for his graduation performance in Waiting for Godot in Spring 1983.
My professional acting debut was as Tybalt in the Watermill Theatre (Newbury) production of Romeo and Juliet in May 1983. I appeared on stage in London's West End in a number of productions, including The Fair Maid of the West, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Royal Shakespeare Company. More recently my career has focused on film and TV.
Although best known in North America for my "bad guy" roles in Patriot Games, Clarissa and GoldenEye, I have earned a solid reputation as a "heart-throb" on British television playing Richard Sharpe, the 19th century soldier in the series adapted from Bernard Cornwell's Peninsular War novels; as well as Mellors in Ken Russell's BBC adaptation of Lady Chatterley, and Paul, the compromised photographer in A Woman's Guide to Adultery.
My other British projects include Bravo Two Zero (the story of Andy McNab and his ill-fated mission to Iraq during the Gulf War); Extremely Dangerous for ITV; and Granada Films' Essex Boys.
My most recent international films are Ronin; The Fellowship of the Ring (the first in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy); sci-fi flick Equilibrium; suspense-thriller Don't Say a Word and children's film Tom & Thomas.
Never one to shy away from doing my own stunts, I carry a souvenir from my appearance in Patriot Games: during the climactic fight scene Harrison Ford accidentally cut me above my left eye with a boat hook (and it fuckin' hurt!) an injury which required 8 stitches to close.
My other "distinguishing marks" are a black "100% Blade" tattoo on my left shoulder and a tattoo on my right shoulder which reads "Nine" in Elvish - a reference to the nine members of the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings, all of whom got similar tattoos.
I am divorced from my third wife, actress Abigail Cruttenden, who played Jane Sharpe in the Sharpe television series. I also have an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.
