John Shrapnel
Acting
- Born:
- 1942-04-27
- Died:
- 2020-02-14
- Place of birth:
- Birmingham, England, UK
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
Filmography
Hamlet Within
The Lions Rule
King Charles III
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Hamlet
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Run.
The Awakening
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
An Organization of Dreams
Apparitions
Merlin
The Duchess
Mirrors
Chemical Wedding
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
Alien Autopsy
Shadow of the Sword
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Troy
I Am Not an Animal
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
New Tricks
The Race for Everest
Wild Women of Viramba
Foyle's War
Whistle
K-19: The Widowmaker
Claim
Alone
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
The Gentleman Thief
Animals of the Ocean Desert
Waking the Dead
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
The Body
The Misfit and the Matterhorn
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
Gladiator
The 10th Kingdom
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Notting Hill
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Solo Shuttle
Lion Queen
Invasion: Earth
Predators Killing for a Living
Jonathan Creek
Bodyguards
Midsomer Murders
True Tilda
101 Dalmatians
Two Deaths
Alien Empire
Coogan's Run
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
Kavanagh Q.C.
England, My England
Fatherland
Wycliffe
Selling Hitler
Hamlet
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
Between the Lines
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Selling Hitler
G.B.H.
For the Greater Good
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
Centrepoint
The Chief
Blackeyes
About Face
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Testimony
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
Vanity Fair
Partition
Personal Services
Theban Plays: Antigone
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
The Burston Rebellion
Poppyland
Screen Two
Sorrell and Son
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Natural World
King Lear
The Woman in White
Troilus & Cressida
Private Schulz
Timon of Athens
The Tom Machine
The Victim
Screenplay
Gossip from the Forest
Edward and Mrs Simpson
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
Flayed
Armchair Thriller
The Three Hostages
Professional Foul
BBC2 Play of the Week
Hitting Town
Plays for Britain
Hennessy
Space: 1999
King Lear
Good Girl
Pope Joan
Nicholas and Alexandra
Justice
Elizabeth R
It's Called the Sugar Plum
The Ha-Ha
Omnibus
ITV Playhouse
BBC Play of the Month