John Shrapnel
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Apr 27, 1942
- Died
- Feb 14, 2020 (aged 77)
- Place of birth
- Birmingham, England, UK
- Credits
- 129
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Known for
Filmography
Hamlet Within
2022Movie
The Lions Rule
2017TV
Narrator (voice)
King Charles III
2017Movie
Archbishop of Canterbury
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
2017Movie
Narrator (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
2016Movie
Narrator - (Voice)
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015Movie
Camilo
Hamlet
2015Movie
Claudius/Ghost
OXI, an Act of Resistance
2014Movie
Creon
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
2014Movie
Narrator
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013Movie
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Run.
2013Movie
St. Peter
The Awakening
2011Movie
Reverend Hugh Purslow
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
2009Movie
Théramène
An Organization of Dreams
2009Movie
Father
Apparitions
2008TV
Cardinal Bukovak
Merlin
2008TV
The Sarrum
The Duchess
2008Movie
General Grey
Mirrors
2008Movie
Lorenzo Sapelli
Chemical Wedding
2008Movie
Crowley
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
2007Movie
Himself (Narrator)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007Movie
Lord Howard
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
2007Movie
Billy Palmer
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
2006TV
Pompey
Alien Autopsy
2006Movie
Michael Kuhn
Shadow of the Sword
2005Movie
Archbishop
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
2004Movie
Narrator
Troy
2004Movie
Nestor
I Am Not an Animal
2004TV
Narrator (voice)
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
2004Movie
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
2004Movie
Narrator
New Tricks
2004TV
DAC John Felsham
The Race for Everest
2003Movie
Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
2003Movie
Narrator
Foyle's War
2002TV
Raymond Brooks
Whistle
2002Movie
Paul
K-19: The Widowmaker
2002Movie
Admiral Bratyeev
Claim
2002Movie
Lex Vandenberg
Alone
2002Movie
Hannah
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
2002TV
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
The Gentleman Thief
2001Movie
Monty Sinclair
Animals of the Ocean Desert
2001Movie
Narrator
Waking the Dead
2001TV
John Christie
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
2001Movie
Narrator
The Body
2001Movie
Moshe Cohen
The Misfit and the Matterhorn
2001Movie
Narrator
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
2000Movie
Narrator
Gladiator
2000Movie
Gaius
The 10th Kingdom
2000TV
Governor of Prison
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
2000Movie
Self - Narrator
Mary, Mother of Jesus
1999Movie
Simon
Notting Hill
1999Movie
PR Chief
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
1999Movie
General Charette
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
1999Movie
Iwaszkiewicz
Solo Shuttle
1998Movie
Cain
Lion Queen
1998Movie
Narrator (voice)
Invasion: Earth
1998TV
Air Marshal Bentley
Predators Killing for a Living
1997TV
Jonathan Creek
1997TV
Prof. Lance Graumann
Bodyguards
1997TV
Commander Alan MacIntyre
Midsomer Murders
1997TV
Max Jennings, Leo Clarke
True Tilda
1997TV
Reverand Glasson
101 Dalmatians
1996Movie
Skinner
Two Deaths
1996Movie
Cinca
Alien Empire
1996TV
Narrator
Coogan's Run
1995TV
Douglas Crown
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
1995Movie
Kavanagh Q.C.
1995TV
Mr. Justice Griffin
England, My England
1995Movie
Samuel Pepys
Fatherland
1994Movie
General Globus
Wycliffe
1994TV
Dr. Sam Malvern
Selling Hitler
1993Movie
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Hamlet
1992Movie
Claudius
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
1992TV
Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
Between the Lines
1992TV
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning, D.C.C. Dunning
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
1992Movie
Narrator
Selling Hitler
1991TV
Gerd Schülte-Hillen
G.B.H.
1991TV
Dr Jacobs
For the Greater Good
1991TV
Norman May-Boys MP
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
1990Movie
BKA Police Chief
Centrepoint
1990TV
Claud Wareing
The Chief
1990TV
Dan Cheyney
Blackeyes
1989TV
Detective Blake
About Face
1989TV
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989Movie
Psychiatrist
Testimony
1988Movie
Andre Zhdanov
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
1988TV
Thomas Mann
Vanity Fair
1987TV
Lord Steyne
Partition
1987Movie
General Flood
Personal Services
1987Movie
Lionel
Theban Plays: Antigone
1986Movie
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
1986Movie
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
1986Movie
Creon
The Burston Rebellion
1985Movie
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Poppyland
1985Movie
George Sims
Screen Two
1985TV
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland, Heiger
Sorrell and Son
1984TV
Thomas Roland
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
1984TV
Adrian Vyner
Natural World
1983TV
Narrator
King Lear
1982Movie
Earl of Kent
The Woman in White
1982TV
Sir Percival Glyde
Troilus & Cressida
1981Movie
Hector
Private Schulz
1981TV
German Newsreel Commentator (voice, uncredited)
Timon of Athens
1981Movie
Alcibiades
The Tom Machine
1980Movie
The Victim
1980Movie
Vincent Craig
Screenplay
1979TV
Matthias Erzberger
Gossip from the Forest
1979Movie
Matthias Erzberger
Edward and Mrs Simpson
1978TV
Major Alexander Hardinge
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
1978Movie
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
Flayed
1978Movie
Robert
Armchair Thriller
1978TV
Vincent Craig
The Three Hostages
1977Movie
Gaudian
Professional Foul
1977Movie
McKendrick
BBC2 Play of the Week
1977TV
McKendrick, Robert
Hitting Town
1976Movie
Leonard Brazil (voice)
Plays for Britain
1976TV
Voice of Leonard Brazil
Hennessy
1975Movie
Tipaldi
Space: 1999
1975TV
Jack Tanner
King Lear
1975Movie
Duke of Cornwall
Good Girl
1974TV
Christopher Wimple
Pope Joan
1972Movie
Father James
Nicholas and Alexandra
1971Movie
Petya
Justice
1971TV
Roger Anderson
Elizabeth R
1971TV
Earl of Sussex
It's Called the Sugar Plum
1969Movie
Wally Zuckerman
The Ha-Ha
1969Movie
Jamie
Omnibus
1967TV
Zborowski
ITV Playhouse
1967TV
Schoner
BBC Play of the Month
1965TV
Duke of Cornwall, Viktor Myshlaevsky