Paul Blackthorne Biography

Paul Blackthorne (born 5 March 1969) is an English actor for film, television, and radio. Although born in Shropshire, England, he spent his early childhood on British Military bases in both England and Germany. Blackthorne broke into acting via television commercials in England. His breakthrough commercial in the UK came in the Grim Reaper commercial for Virgin Atlantic, which was hugely successful. Numerous radio commercials followed.

Film

Blackthorne's first film role was as Captain Andrew Russell in the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film Lagaan. He spent six months learning Hindi for the role.

He also starred in Mindcrime and the festival-winning indie feature length film Four Corners of Suburbia, winner of both the Crossroads Film Festival in Best Narrative Feature (2006) and in the category of Best Composer at the Avignon Film Festival, Avignon, France (2006).

Additional indie film credits include Bret Easton Ellis's This Is Not an Exit, and a starring role in the British film The Truth Game. Blackthorne appeared as Jonas Exiler in Special, with Michael Rapaport.

Television

Minor and supporting roles

In 2002, Blackthorne portrayed British import Doctor Matt Slingerland of Presidio Med and made notable appearances as Guy Morton in the British television series Holby City, Liam MacGregor in Peak Practice, Doctor Jeremy Lawson in NBC's ER and biological terrorist Stephen Saunders on 24. He also made appearances on Medium in two roles (one uncredited as Henry Stoller, Junior), Deadwood, and an episode of Monk Season 5 Episode 10 "Mr. Monk and the Leper" as dermatologist Aaron Polinski. He appeared as Shane Healy, a British musician and husband of Wendy Healy (played by Brooke Shields), in the NBC series Lipstick Jungle for two seasons. He played an Irish terrorist in the US series Burn Notice in 2009 in one episode. In 2010 he appeared in two episodes of Leverage as an arms dealer and in an episode of CSI: Miami directed by Rob Zombie. Later that year he had a recurring role in The Gates as Christian Harper. Also on 7 December 2010, he appeared in the Christmas episode ("Secret Santa") of the SyFy series Warehouse 13. He appeared in a two-part cliffhanger during the mid-season break of White Collar Season 2.

Lead character

In the Sci Fi Channel's 2007 series, The Dresden Files, Blackthorne portrayed the lead character, wizard / detective Harry Dresden.

Blackthorne starred as Clark Quitely in the ABC original paranormal/adventure/horror television series The River about a group of people on a mission to find a missing TV explorer in the Amazon. In the fall of 2012, he joined the cast of Arrow as series regular, Detective Quentin Lance.

Photography and philanthropy

Paul Blackthorne is also an accomplished photographer. His exhibition, Delhi to Manhattan, appeared at Tibet House in New York City from April to June 2009, to benefit the Tibetan children of the village of Dharamsala.

In 2001, shortly after filming of Lagaan finished in India, the town where filming took place was levelled by an earthquake, including the apartment building in which the cast of Lagaan was staying. To assist the earthquake victims, Blackthorne exhibited his photography in a special show in London.

Filmography

• Romeo Thinks Again (1998) " Romeo
• The Truth Game (2001) " Dan
• Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) " Captain Andrew Russell
• Mindcrime (2003) " Man
• Four Corners of Suburbia (2005) " Walt Samson
• Special (2006) " Jonas
• The Gold Lunch (2008) " Ex-Husband
• Justice League: Doom (2012) " John Corben/Metallo, Henry Ackerson

TV series

• Jonathan Creek " Gino (1 episode, "The Eye of Tiresias", 1999)
• Rhythm & Blues (2000) " John
• Holby City " Guy Morton (11 episodes, 2001)
• Presidio Med (13 episodes, 2002"2003) " Dr. Matt Slingerland
• Gramercy Park (unaired pilot 2004) " Jack Quinn
• ER " Dr. Jeremy Lawson (5 episodes, 2004)
• 24 " Stephen Saunders (10 episodes, 2004)
• Medium (2005) " Henry Stoller
• Monk (2006) TV Series - "Mr. Monk and the Leper" " Dr. Aaron Polanski
• The Dresden Files (2007) " Harry Dresden
• Big Shots (2007) " Terrence Hill
• Lipstick Jungle (2008"2009) " Shane Healy
• Burn Notice (2009) " Thomas O'Neil (1 episode, "Long Way Back")
• Warehouse 13 " Larry Newly (1 episode, "Secret Santa", 2010)
• Leverage (2010) " Tony Kadjic (2 episodes)
• CSI: Miami (2010)
• White Collar (2010)
• The Gates " Christian Harper (2010)
• The River " Clark Quitely (2012)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation " Professor Tom Laudner (2012)
• Necessary Roughness (TV series) " Jack St. Cloud (2012)
• Arrow " Detective Quentin Lance