Jonathan Pryce
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Jonathan Pryce (b. June 1, 1947) is a British actor born in Holywell, Wales.
In 1974 he married actress Kate Fahy and they have three children. Pryce appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1970s. A Welsh speaker, he appeared at the concert to launch the National Assembly for Wales, reciting poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym. In 1980, he appeared as Ken in Breaking Glass, and had a small but pivotal role in the 12th episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, one that he reprised for the "Quintessential Phase" which was broadcast in 2005.
Pryce played the subdued protagonist Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film, Brazil. Brazil won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association 1985 awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, as well as Academy Awards in 1986 for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Pryce has a good relationship with Brazil's Director, Terry Gilliam, later being cast by him in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), and The Brothers Grimm (2005).
Pryce was spokesman in a 1993/1994 series of American television commercials for Infiniti. These commercials were popularly parodized on Saturday Night Live in December, 1993, with Mike Myers doing an impersonation of Pryce spokesmodeling for sleek luxury toilets instead of automobiles. They have also been parodied in other advertisements, such as some of those for the Jordan's Furniture chain in the 1990's.
Jonathan Pryce has shown himself a diverse and capable actor, playing downtrodden and timid characters in Brazil and Glengarry Glen Ross while also filling strong and authoritative roles in Evita, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In 1995 he won the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his performance as Lytton Strachey in the film Carrington.
His comic version of The Master in the 1999 Doctor Who spoof The Curse of Fatal Death was very well received by critics, partly because of the accuracy of Pryce's observation.
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Theatre (incomplete)
- Comedians (1975) as Gethin Price
- Miss Saigon (1989) as The Engineer
- Oliver! (1994 revival) as Fagin
- My Fair Lady (2001 revival) as Professor Higgins
Films (incomplete)
- Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983) as Mr. Dark
- Brazil (1985) as Sam Lowry
- Man on Fire (1987) as Michael
- Consuming Passions (1988) as Mr Farris
- The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (1988) as Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson
- Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) as James Lingk
- Barbarians at the Gate (1993) as Henry Kravis
- Carrington (1995) as Lytton Strachey
- Evita (1996) as General Juan Perón
- Regeneration (1997) as Dr William Rivers
- Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) as Elliot Carver
- Ronin (1998) as Seamus
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as Gov. Weatherby Swann
Television Commercials
External links
- Jonathan Pryce (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Pryce,+Jonathan) at the Internet Movie Database
- Jonathan Pryce (http://snl.jt.org/imp.php?i=1138) at SNL Archivescy:Jonathan Pryce