John Shrapnel
Biography
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
Gaius
Gladiator
PR Chief
Notting Hill
Nestor
Troy
Admiral Bratyeev
K-19: The Widowmaker
Michael Kuhn
Alien Autopsy
Moshe Cohen
The Body
Hamlet Within
Hannah
Alone
Psychiatrist
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Crowley
Chemical Wedding
General Charette
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
Lex Vandenberg
Claim
Narrator (English voice)
St.Stephan – Der lebende Dom
Narrator (English Version)
Wachau - Land am Strome
Narrator (English Version)
Schönbrunn - Quelle der Schönheit
Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
Leonard Brazil (voice)
Hitting Town
Reverend Hugh Purslow
The Awakening
Creon
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Father
An Organization of Dreams
Jamie
The Ha-Ha
Duncan, King of Scotland/Seyton, attendant to Macbeth/Old Man
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Narrator
Animals of the Ocean Desert
General Flood
Partition
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Selling Hitler
Lionel
Personal Services
Archbishop
The Headsman
Narrator (Voice)
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
The Tom Machine
McKendrick
Professional Foul
BKA Police Chief
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
Claudius/Ghost
Hamlet
Narrator - (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
General Globus
Fatherland
Matthias Erzberger
Gossip from the Forest
Alcibiades
Timon of Athens
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Gaudian
The Three Hostages
Lord Howard
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Tipaldi
Hennessy
Samuel Pepys
England, My England
Camilo
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Narrator
Supermassive Black Holes
Himself (Narrator)
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Archbishop of Canterbury
King Charles III
Hector
Troilus & Cressida
Cinca
Two Deaths
Andre Zhdanov
Testimony
General Grey
The Duchess
Skinner
101 Dalmatians
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
Creon
Theban Plays: Antigone
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
Lorenzo Sapelli
Mirrors
Petya
Nicholas and Alexandra
Earl of Kent
King Lear
Paul
Whistle
George Sims
Poppyland
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Father James
Pope Joan
Théramène
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
Simon
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Narrator
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
Narrator
The Race for Everest
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
The Burston Rebellion
Iwaszkiewicz
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Narrator
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
Narrator
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Robert
Flayed
Monty Sinclair
The Gentleman Thief
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
73
Gender
Male
Birthday
1942-04-27
Place of Birth
Birmingham, England, UK
Also Known As
John Morley Shrapnel