Alun Armstrong (actor)

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For other persons of the same name, see Alun Armstrong.

Alun Armstrong (far right) as Brian Lane in New Tricks, with fellow stars Amanda Redman, James Bolam and Dennis Waterman

Alun Armstrong (born July 17, 1946) is an English actor from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. He made his debut in the 1971 film Get Carter, and has since worked regularly in British stage and television productions, often playing leading characters. Armstrong has also appeared in several films, although in this medium he has usually played supporting or minor rôles. Recently, he has appeared in the films Sleepy Hollow, The Mummy Returns and Van Helsing. On television, Armstrong has played the character Brian Lane in the BBC drama New Tricks. He also played Austin Donohue in the 1996 BBC drama series Our Friends in the North, a character based on the politician T. Dan Smith, Inspector Bucket in the 2005 BBC adaptation of Bleak House and Mr Evans in Carrie's War.

He spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford upon Avon and London, including the rôles of Mr Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby and Monsieur Thénardier in the original cast of Les Miserables. In 2006, he returned to the London stage to star in Trevor Nunn's new production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National Theatre. At the end of 2006 he will star as Uncle Garrow in the film Eragon.

He has been nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award six times and won in 1994, for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance of Sweeny Todd in the musical of the same name.

He is perhaps best known, however, for his ingenious performance as Thénardier in the original London production of Les Miserables in October 1985 with Sue Jane Tanner along side him as Mme. Thénardier, for which he was also nominated for a Laurence Oliver Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He reprised this rôle at the 10th Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1995. In 2005 he was unofficially voted the greatest ever London Thénardier, winning 40% of the votes.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, he starred alongside his son, Joe Armstrong, in the ITV1 drama Between the Sheets.