Nathaniel Parker Biography

Nathaniel Parker (born 18 May 1962) is an English actor best known for playing Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

Personal life

Parker was born in London, the son of the businessman (and one-time British Rail chairman) Sir Peter Parker and Jillian, Lady Parker, a GP and expert gardener who wrote "The Purest of Pleasures:Creation of a Romantic Garden". He was educated at Fox Primary School, Colet Court and Leighton Park School in Reading, Berkshire.

Parker's brother is the film director Oliver Parker. He also has another brother, Alan Parker, who is chairman of Brunswick Group Ltd. Nathaniel Parker is married to actress Anna Patrick. The couple live in London with their daughters Raphaella (born 1998) and Angelica (born 1996).

Career

Parker joined the National Youth Theatre, and after training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He portrayed Bassanio in Peter Hall's 1989 production of The Merchant of Venice in both London and on Broadway, co-starring with Dustin Hoffman. In 1997, Nathaniel portrayed David in a made-for-TV film of the life of the biblical character King David. In 2000, he played Bob in Rupert Goold's West End revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. "With his unforced, tough demeanour and conviction Parker substantially carries the evening," wrote John Thaxter in The Stage (6 July 2000).

In a Radio Times interview in 2007, Parker said that his first big television break came in 1988 when he played a Battle of France pilot in ITV's glossy six-part drama Piece of Cake. Other early roles include playing Wilfred Owen in Derek Jarman's War Requiem, a 1989 film adaptation of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, co-starring Laurence Olivier as an old soldier in his last screen role before his death, and playing Edward Rochester in John Duigan's 1993 film adaptation of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.

Parker established his reputation by playing a variety of television costume drama roles, such as Martin Jordan in the 1995 TV production of Joanna Trollope's A Village Affair, Gabriel Oak in the ITV production of Far From the Madding Crowd (1997), Martin Tanley in the comedy film Beverly Hills Ninja (1997), Rawdon Crawley in a BBC version of Vanity Fair (1998), and notably Harold Skimpole in the BBC1 dramatisation of Bleak House (2005). He starred in the BBC series Merlin as Lord Agravaine, Arthur's uncle.

From 2001 through 2007, Parker played Detective Inspector Lynley in the long-running BBC1 thriller series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, co-starring Sharon Small as his sidekick Det. Sgt. Barbara Havers. He played Edward Gracey in Disney's 2003 film adaptation of The Haunted Mansion, Albert Speer in the 2006 BBC production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial and Dunstan Thorne in the 2007 fantasy film Stardust. Parker also starred briefly in St Trinian's (directed by his brother, Oliver).

Parker is a voiceover artist and has done work in audio books, including Eoin Colfer's children's Artemis Fowl series, the first three books in Charlie Higson's Young James Bond series, and The Gardens of The Dead by William Brodrick. He read Mark Haddon's novel A Spot of Bother for BBC Radio Four's Book at Bedtime. Parker also appeared in the indie comedy-drama The Perfect Host, alongside David Hyde Pierce.

In 2011, Parker joined the cast of Merlin, where he played the character of Agravaine for all 13 episodes to the fourth series. He played Axel in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth first broadcast on BBC Radio Four Extra on 20 November 2011 and again on 12 November 2012.

In 2012, Parker was also cast alongside YouTube reviewer Stuart Ashen in the Alienware sponsored sci-fi/thriller series The Proxy. Despite his British accent, he was also cast as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sret du Qubec in the film adaption of Louise Penny's murder mystery novel Still Life, set in rural Quebec. He also starred in the TV series, Me and Mrs Jones.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Piece of Cake	Flying Officer 'Flash' Gordon
1989	Inspector Morse: Deceived By Flight	Jamie Jasper
1989	Never Come Back	Desmond Thane
1989	War Requiem	Wilfred Owen
1990	Harry Enfield's Television Programme	"Fire Man"	Episodes 1-4
1990	Heroes II: The Return	Ivan Lyon
1990	Hamlet	Laertes
1991	Absolute Hell	Sam Mitchum
1991	Agatha Christies's Poirot: The Affair at the Victory Ball	Chris Davidson
1991	The War that Never Ends	Alcibiades
1991	The Black Candle	Lionel Filmore
1992	Look at It This Way	Miles
1992	The Bodyguard	Clive Healy
1993	The Vision Thing	Michael Fisher
1993	Rik Mayall Presents: Dancing Queen	Nigel
1993	Wide Sargasso Sea	Edward Rochester
1994	Unsigned (the shooting Gallery)	The Devil
1994	Without walls for one night only - Errol Flynn	Errol Flynn
1994	A Village Affair	Marin Jordan
1994	Squanto: A Warrior's Tale	Thomas Dermer
1994	Dangerous Games [Gefhrliche Spiele]	Thomas Cranmer
1995	A Touch of Frost: Quarry	Stephen Milmore
1995	Othello	Cassio
1995	A Little Loving	Greek God Pan
1996	The Short Cut	Ross	Short film
1997	Beverly Hills Ninja	Martin Tanley
1997	Into Thin Air: Death On The Everest	Rob Hall
1997	The Bible: David	David
1998	Far from the Madding Crowd	Gabriel Oak
1998	Vanity Fair	Rawdon Crawley
1999	Trust	Andrew Pearce
1999	McCallum: Beyond Good and Evil	Dan Gallagher	Series 3
2000	Lover's Prayer (aka All Forgotten)	Valdimir's Father
2000	Pretending to be Judith	James Lovel
2001-2007	The Inspector Lynley Mysteries	Inspector Thomas Lynley
2003	The Haunted Mansion	Master Gracy
2003	The Private Life of Samuel Pepys	Charles II
2004	Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde	Himself
2005	Bedtime Stories	Narrator
2005	Bleak House	Harrold Skimpole
2005	Fade to Black	Guido Viola
2006	Flawless	Oliver Ashtoncroft
2006	Stardust	Dustan Thorn
2006	Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial	Albert Speer
2006	A Class Apart	Anthony Troth
2007	I really hate my job	Guy II	Cameo role
2007	St. Trinian's	Chairman of the National Gallery	Cameo role
2008	Hotel Babylon: Is Love Really in the Air?	Alexander Crawfield	Series 3 episode 2
2009	Malice In Wonderland	Harry Hunt
2009	The Perfect Host	Detective Morton
2009	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler	Dr Juliusz Majkowski
2009	Land Girls	Lord Lawrence Hoxley	series 1
2009	Lewis: The dead of winter	Lieutenant Philip Coleman	Series 4
2009	My Family	Uncle Richard	BBC; Christmas episode 2009
2010	The Domino Effect	Tramp
2010	Sergeant Slaughter	Father
2010	Tell Me	Dr. Anton Sharple
2010	The Chronicles of Narnia (Dawn Treader)	Caspian IX	Cameo role
2010	Injustice	Marin Newall
2011	Merlin	Agravaine	Series 4
2012	The Proxy	Peter Baker
2012	The Charles Dickens Show	Doctor Guffquatt
2012	Me and Mrs Jones	Tom Marshall
2012	Still Life: An Inspector Gamache Mystery	Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Theatre work

Year	Title	Role	Company	Theatre	Notes
1981	Richard III		National Youth Theatre
1982	Macbeth	Macbeth	National Youth Theatre
1984	Trumpets and Drums (based on the The Recruiting Officer)	Captain Brazen	London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
1985	Claw	Ludsby	Theatre Clwyd / Mold	Theatre Clwyd / Mold
1985	Trumpets and Drums (based on the The Recruiting Officer)	Captain Brazen	Theatre Clwyd / Mold	Theatre Clwyd / Mold
1986	Romeo and Juliet	Tybolt	Young Vic, London	Old Vic	11.02.86
1986	The Gift		RSC	Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
1986	The Kiss	Oliver	RSC
1986-1987	The Winter's Tale	Florizel	RSC	Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, Tyne Theatre Newcastle upon Tyne, Barbican Theatre London
1986-1987	Every Man in His Humour	Wellbred	RSC	Swan Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, Mermaid Theatre London, The Peoples Theatre Newcastle upon Tyne
1986-1987	The Rover	Don Pedro	RSC	Swan Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, The Peoples Theatre Newcastle upon Tyne
1986	Richard III	Harry Percy	RSC	Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, Tyne Theatre Newcastle upon Tyne, Barbican Theatre London
1987	The Storm	Vanya Kudryash	RSC	Pit, London
1987	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Lysander	RSC	Barbican Theatre, London
1989	Merchant of Venice	Bassanio	Peter Hall Company	Phoenix Theatre London, 46th Street Theater New York	(UK) 01.06.1989, (US) 20.12.1989 to 24.02.1990
1997	Cargo Cult			Barbican Theatre	02.09.1987
1999	50 Revolutions		Oxford Stage Company	Whitehall Theatre	07.09.1999 to 25.09.1999
2000	Speed the plow			Duke of York's, London	29.06.2000 to 19.08.2000
2008	Quartermaine's Terms	Quartermaine		Theatre Royal Windsor, New Victoria Theatre Woking, The Richmond Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Royal Brighton	13.05.2008 to 21.06.2008
2013	The Audience	Gordon Brown		Gielgud Theatre	15.02.2013 to 15.06.2013
2013/14	Wolf Hall	Henry VIII	RSC	Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon	11.12.2013 to 29.03.2014