David Thewlis Biography

David Thewlis (n Wheeler; born 20 March 1963) is an English actor. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter film series. Other notable performances include the films Naked (for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes Film Festival), Dragonheart, Kingdom of Heaven, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Theory of Everything, Black Beauty and Macbeth, in which he played King Duncan. He has also done voice work in the films James and the Giant Peach (1996), The Miracle Maker (2000) and Anomalisa (2015). He is also known for the role of Cyrus Crabb in the TV mini series Dinotopia.

Early life

Thewlis, the second of three children, was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, the son of Maureen (ne Thewlis) and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his father's shop. As a teenager, he played in a rock band called QED, and played lead guitar with a punk rock band called Door 66. He was educated at Highfield High School, a state secondary school in South Shore, Blackpool. Later, he enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 1984.

Acting career

Thewlis had a minor role in an episode of the 1980s sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. He also appeared in an episode of popular sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1985) as a friend of Rodney. His first professional role was in the play Buddy Holly at the Regal in Greenwich.

Thewlis' breakout role was in Naked (1993; dir. Mike Leigh), as the main character, Johnny, a highly intelligent, embittered, rambling street philosopher, for which Thewlis was named Best Actor by the National Society of Film Critics (United States), the London Film Critics Circle, the Evening Standard, the New York Film Critics' Circle and the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he appeared on television as a sexual predator named James Jackson in Prime Suspect 3, opposite Helen Mirren and Ciarn Hinds. Before that, his first television appearance was alongside Ken Jones in Valentine Park.

During the 1990s, Thewlis appeared in a variety of films, mostly fantasy and period, including Restoration (1995), Black Beauty (1994), Total Eclipse (1995) with Leonardo DiCaprio, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), Dragonheart (1996) and Seven Years in Tibet (1997), opposite Brad Pitt. He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Divorcing Jack (1998), and played Clov in a (2000) television film of Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Notable appearances also include Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged (1998) and Paul McGuigan's Gangster No. 1 (2000), opposite Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell.

He auditioned for the role of Quirrell in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but the part went to Ian Hart. Despite missing out on the first film, he was cast in 2004 as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He did not have to audition as he was director Alfonso Cuarn's first choice for the role. Thewlis reprised the role in four other films in the series.

He appeared as an SS Commandant of a Nazi death camp and father of the main character in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was well received. Other credits include Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Terrence Malick's The New World (2005) and The Omen (2006).

Thewlis played the late Dr. Michael Aris, husband of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, with Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Suu Kyi, in the biopic The Lady directed by Luc Besson. In 2012, he received an International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Plus Camera Award.

In June 2015, Thewlis was reported to be filming scenes for a Donald Crowhurst biopic, The Mercy, on the beach at Teignmouth, Devon, playing Donald Crowhurst's press agent, Rodney Hallworth, while Colin Firth is playing Donald Crowhurst. He also starred in Regression, a thriller released in autumn 2015, in which he was reunited with Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson, who starred alongside Ethan Hawke. In September 2015, Thewlis starred as Inspector Goole in Helen Edmundson's BBC TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls, alongside Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson. In October 2015, he played King Duncan in the film Macbeth, with Michael Fassbender starring as Macbeth.

Thewlis' next film project is reported to be a role in Wonder Woman, the upcoming DC Comics film adaptation based on the character of the same name, set for release in 2017 and then Thewlis play as Rufus in film The Dreamstone.

Directing and other ventures

Thewlis directed Hello, Hello, Hello in 1995, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film. He also wrote, directed and starred in the feature Cheeky (2003). Thewlis is also an author; his debut novel, The Late Hector Kipling, is a black comedy set in the art world and was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.

Personal life

In 1992, Thewlis married director Sara Sugarman; they divorced in 1994. He then had a brief relationship with Bill Oddie's daughter Kate Hardie. In 2001, he began a relationship with actress Anna Friel, whom he met on a flight to Cannes. They have one child together. Friel and Thewlis ended their relationship in late 2010.

Thewlis owns a converted Victorian ballroom in Clerkenwell. He is often mistaken for fellow actor Rhys Ifans: "Twice a week, people come up to me and say, 'You were great in Notting Hill.' The public seem to think we are the same person."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Road	Joey
	'	Clive	Short film
1988	Vroom	Ringe
	Little Dorrit	George Braddle
1989	Resurrected	Kevin Deakin
1991	Life Is Sweet	Nicola's lover
	Afraid of the Dark	Locksmith Tom Miller
1992	Swords at Teatime	Michael	Short film
	Damage	Detective
1993	'	Franz
	Naked	Johnny
1994	Black Beauty	Jerry Barker
1995	Total Eclipse	Paul Verlaine
	Restoration	John Pearce
	Hello, Hello, Hello	N/A	Short film; directed and wrote
1996	James and the Giant Peach	Earthworm (voice)
	Dragonheart	King Einon
	'	Edward Douglas
1997	American Perfekt	Santini
	Seven Years in Tibet	Peter Aufschnaiter	Banned from entering the People's Republic of China.
1998	'	Knox Harrington
	Divorcing Jack	Dan Starkey
	Besieged	Jason Kinsky
1999	Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?	Nesbit
2000	'	Judas Iscariot (voice)
	Gangster No. 1	Freddie Mays
	Beckett on Film - Endgame	Clov
2001	Goodbye Charlie Bright	Charlie's dad
2002	D.I.Y. Hard	Man
2003	Cheeky	Harry Sankey	Also directed and wrote
	Timeline	Robert Doniger
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Remus Lupin
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	Hospitaller
	All the Invisible Children	Jonathan
	'	Edward Wingfield
2006	Basic Instinct 2	Roy Washburn
	'	Keith Jennings
2007	'	Martin Frost
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Remus Lupin
2008	'	SS-Obersturmbannfhrer Ralph
2009	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Remus Lupin
	Veronika Decides to Die	Dr. Blake
2010	Mr. Nice	Jim McCann
	London Boulevard	Jordan
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1	Remus Lupin
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
	'	Michael Aris
	Anonymous	William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
	War Horse	Lyons
2012	Separate We Come, Separate We Go	Norman	Short film
2013	RED 2	The Frog
	The Fifth Estate	Nick Davies
	The Zero Theorem	Joby
2014	The Theory of Everything	Dennis Sciama
	Stonehearst Asylum	Mickey Finn
	Queen and Country	Bradley
2015	Regression	Professor Kenneth Raines
	Legend	Leslie Payne
	Macbeth	King Duncan
	Anomalisa	Michael Stone (voice)
2016	The Mercy	Rodney Hallworth	Filming
2017	Wonder Woman		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Only Fools and Horses	Stew	Episode: "It's Only Rock and Roll"
	Radio Pictures	Jim Grams	TV film
1986	'	Second Soldier	Episodes: "Lovely Days" "Who Done It"
1987-1988	Valentine Park	Max
1989	'	Paul Simcock	Episodes: "The White Wedding" "The Dentist's Dinner Dance" "The Angling Club Christmas Party" "The Charity Horse-Racing Evening" "The Crowning of Miss Frozen Chicken" "The Registry Office Wedding"
	Skulduggery	Tony	TV film
1990	Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit	Doctor	TV mini-series
1991	Journey to Knock	Terry	TV film
	Shrinks	Terry Slater	Episode 1.5
	Screen One	Tim Shanks	Episode: "Filipina Dreamgirls"
1992	Black and Blue	Crematorium attendant	TV film
1993	Frank Stubbs Promotes	Mike Bence	Episode: "Striker"
	Prime Suspect 3	James Jackson	TV film
1994	Dandelion Dead	Oswald Martin	TV mini-series
1999	Love Story	Dealer	TV film
2000	Endgame	Clov
2001	Hamilton Mattress	Hamilton Mattress (voice)
2002	Dinotopia	Cyrus Crabb	TV mini-series
2007	'	Joe Harry Jennerson	Episode: "Twins"
2014	Family Guy	British Father	Episode: "Chap Stewie"
2015	An Inspector Calls	Inspector Goole	TV film

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2004	World of Warcraft	Lord Darius Crowley
2010	World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Bibliography

• The Late Hector Kipling (2007)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1993	Cannes Film Festival	Best Actor	Naked
	Evening Standard British Film Award	Best Actor
	London Film Critics Circle Award	British Actor of the Year
	National Society of Film Critics Award	Best Actor
	New York Film Critics Circle Award	Best Actor
1995	BAFTA Award	Best Short Film Shared with Helen Booth and James Roberts	Hello, Hello, Hello
1998	British Independent Film Award	Best Performance by a British Actor in an Independent Film	Divorcing Jack
2006	Golden Raspberry Award	Worst Supporting Actor	Basic Instinct 2 / The Omen
2007	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actor - Drama Series	The Street
2008	British Independent Film Awards	Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Film
2009	Scream Award	Best Ensemble Shared with the entire cast	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2010	Evening Standard British Film Awards	Peter Sellers Award for Comedy	London Boulevard
2011	Scream Award	Best Ensemble Shared with the entire cast	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
2016	Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards	Best Depiction of Nudity, Sexuality, or Seduction Shared with Jennifer Jason Leigh	Anomalisa