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English stage, film, television actor and director From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen. In 2024 he played Paul Peveril in 6 part BBC drama Nightsleeper.
The son of a plumber/builder, Tom Threlfall and his wife, Joyce Foulds, David was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, Lancashire. The family lived in Blackley then moved to the Bradford area of Manchester and then Burnage when he was 8/9.[4] His introduction to drama came from school and two English teachers, Alan Johnson and Frank Casey, at Wilbraham High School, where he was a contemporary of the younger Lorraine Ashbourne.
He studied at Art college in Sheffield (now Sheffield Hallam University), but only stayed for a year. A few months of labouring and thinking followed. Then, having consulted a magazine in a public library which listed drama colleges, Threlfall successfully applied to Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. By graduation, he had an audition with Mike Leigh.[5]
Threlfall has been a supporter of Manchester City since childhood and was the voice over for the film played before every home game during the 2017–18 season.[6]
Threlfall graduated from the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. He has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his 1977 acting debut in "The Kiss of Death" (Mike Leigh). Was in the original Play for Today version of the film Scum as the eloquent Archer.[7] Television appearances include Trevor in Mike Leigh's 1977 made-for-TV film Kiss of Death, Leslie Titmuss in Paradise Postponed, Edgar in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983) opposite Laurence Olivier in the title role. He also had regular roles in the situation comedies Nightingales,[8] and Men of the World,[8] and guest appearances in dramas such as Cutting It, The Knock, CI5: The New Professionals and Spooks. He played Prince Charles in Diana: Her True Story (1993) and his father Prince Philip in The Queen's Sister (2005). Threlfall played the central character of Frank Gallagher in Paul Abbott's Shameless, shown on Channel 4 for 11 series between 2004 and 2013.[8]
He also played the role of Friedrich Kritzinger in the BBC/HBO drama Conspiracy (2001),[9] a dramatisation of the infamous Wannsee Conference. In 2006, he played the domineering husband of wartime diarist Nella Last, in the TV drama Housewife, 49.[9] Film credits include John le Carré's The Russia House,[9] Patriot Games,[9] Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,[9] alongside Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age,[9] and as John Lennon's Uncle George in Nowhere Boy.[9]
He was in the 2006 film Alien Autopsy[9] and played the character Martin Blower acting alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the British comedy film Hot Fuzz (2007).[8]
He starred in an episode of The Whistle Blowers. He starred as the lead role in the fifth episode of the BBC docu-drama series Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire as the Emperor Constantine I. Threlfall voiced the part of Iago in Othello for the Arcangel audio production of same. He also voiced the detective Paolo Baldi in BBC Radio 4's Baldi.[10] He also read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for a radio adaptation. Threlfall played Jack in When the Whales Came (1989), opposite Paul Scofield and Helen Mirren.
In 2013, he played retired London detective Len Harper in the short murder mystery BBC series What Remains alongside Russell Tovey and Amber Rose Revah.[11]
In 2024, he starred alongside Noel Fielding in The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.[8]
In 1980, he played Smike in the eight-hour stage version of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby for the Royal Shakespeare Company in both London and New York.
Other notable stage performances include Riddley Walker, Oedipus, Macbeth, Your Home In The West and Peer Gynt "The Count of Monte Cristo" all at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Bolingbroke in Richard II and Orgon in Tartuffe at the National Theatre in London. Frank McGuiness' "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" at the Ambassador's Theatre 2005 for which he received an Olivier Nomination. Also Beckett's rarely performed "The Old Tune" with Niall Buggy directed by Trevor Nunn at Jermyn Street Theatre 2019.
In March 2016, he appeared as the lead in Don Quixote, at the Swan Theatre, Stratford for the [Royal Shakespeare Company where he is an Associate Artist]. The play was revived in 2018 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He is also a director of ATS (Artists Theatre School) started by Amanda Redman 24 years ago to help give young actors who cannot afford full time Drama School fees get exposure to training from industry professionals
Threlfall was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University on 15 July 2013. An Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 2014. He has a SWET (Olivier) Award, 2 TONY nominations and an EMMY Nomination, The Clarence Derwent Award, 5 RTS Awards and a BAFTA for Housewife49 with Victoria Wood. Two Sony Radio Awards for playing Spike Milligan 2018 and Ken Dodd 2020 [12]
Threlfall has been married to Bosnian actress Brana Bajic since 1995.[13] They met in 1994, whilst working on The Count of Monte Cristo at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.[13] They have two children.
Threlfall has said that despite his Shameless character being a chain smoker, in real life he is a non-smoker who has a dislike for nicotine.[14]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | The Russia House | Wicklow |
| 1992 | Patriot Games | Inspector Robert Highland |
| 2003 | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World | Preserved Killick |
| 2006 | Alien Autopsy | Jeffrey (Film restorer) |
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Martin Blower |
| Elizabeth: The Golden Age | John Dee | |
| 2009 | Nowhere Boy | George Smith |
| 2014 | Black Sea | Peters |
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | The Kiss of Death | Trevor |
| Scum | Archer | |
| 1982 | The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby | Smike |
| 1985 | The Daughter-in-Law [15] | Luther |
| 1986 | Paradise Postponed | Leslie Titmuss |
| 1987 | The Marksman - BBC1 (3 part TV Series) | Don Weaver |
| 1989 | Frederick Forsyth Presents: A Casualty of War | Tom Rowse |
| 1990–1993 | Nightingales | "Ding Dong" Bell |
| 1991 | Titmuss Regained | Leslie Titmuss |
| A Murder of Quality | Stanley Rode | |
| 1994–1995 | Men of the World | Lenny Smart |
| 1999 | Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll | Norman |
| 2000 | Catherine Cookson's A Dinner of Herbs | Hal Royston |
| 2001 | Conspiracy | Dr Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger |
| 2004 | Cutting It | Beauregard Smee |
| 2004–2013 | Shameless | Frank Gallagher |
| 2006 | Housewife, 49 | William Last |
| Afterlife | Ian Garland | |
| 2013 | What Remains | DI Len Harper |
| 2014 | Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This | Tommy Cooper |
| 2015 | The Ark | Noah |
| Code of a Killer | Detective David Baker | |
| Midwinter of the Spirit [16] | Rev Huw Owen | |
| 2016 | Ripper Street | Abel Croker |
| 2018 | Troy: Fall of a City | Priam |
| 2019 | Bing | Flop (voice) |
| 2020 | Isolation Stories | Grandad |
| 2022 | Dodger | Sir Charles Rowen |
| 2023 | Passenger | Jimmy |
| Funny Woman | George Park | |
| 2024 | The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin | Tom King |
| Nightsleeper | Paul 'Pev' Peveril |
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