Guy Henry
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| Guy Henry | |
 Guy Henry in Foyle's War |
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| Birth name | Guy Henry |
| Born | 17 October 1960 UK |
| Years active | 1987-present |
Guy Henry (born 17 October 1960) is a British stage and screen actor who trained at RADA (1979-81, at the same time as Paul McGann).
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[edit] Stage Work
[edit] RSC work
Henry's main work has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company. As this list of his RSC work (listed by season, in descending chronologicl order) demonstrates, he is often cast in roles demanding a tall, thin actor and/or Machiavellian parts:
- 2003 - Parolles, Alls Well that Ends Well[1]
- 2001 - Malvolio, Twelfth Night; King John, King John; Mosca, Volpone
- 1999 - Octavius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra;
- 1999 - Performer, Versailles, Directions and Russayev, Yuri Gagarin
- 1998 - Lord Chamberlain, Henry VII
- 1997 - Cloten, Cymbeline and Dr Caius - a hilarious French accent and farce instinct, despite his quoted protestation that 'I don't do accents!', on the basis that it's all in Shakespeare's phonetic spelling of the lines, The Merry Wives of Windsor
- 1996 - Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Twelfth Night
- 1994 - Director [character name], A Life in the Theatre
- 1993 - Second Tempter and Second Knight, Murder in the Cathedral; Lelio, The Venetian Twins
- 1992 - Osric, Hamlet and Sir Former Trifle, The Virtuoso
- 1991 - Thurio, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Poggio, Tis Pity She's a Whore and Ananias, The Alchemist).
[edit] Other work
He has also worked with Cheek by Jowl, Theatre Set Up and the National Theatre(including Turgenev in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia in 2002).
He was an acclaimed Earl of Leicester in the 2005-06 Donmar Warehouse production of Schiller's Mary Stuart, which transferred to the West End.[2]
[edit] Television appearances
[edit] 1980s-1990s
He took the title role in the Young Sherlock Holmes series (1987), and has made guest appearances in the 1996 schools series Look and Read: Spywatch, the BBC's 1996 adaptation of Emma. In 1998 he made one appearance in the medical soap opera Peak Practice and in two episodes of The Grand.
[edit] 2000-2004
He appeared in 4 episodes of the 2001 series of another medical soap Doctors.
He has also frequently been cast as a conspiratorial and/or Machiavellian civil servant, as in Fields of Gold (2002) and Foyle's War (in a 2003 episode). He played the title role in Channel 4's documentary Who Killed Thomas Becket? (2004)[3] and was a deportement tutor and a shoemaker respectively in the BBC's The Young Visiters [sic] (2003) and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (Christmas 2004).
[edit] 2005
In 2005 he appeared in the feature-length ITV drama Colditz and had a recurring role in Extras, which continued into a few episodes of the comedy's second series. His main role that year, however, was as Cassius (fictionalised version of Gaius Longinus Cassius) in the last two or three episodes of the first series of HBO/BBC series Rome. He reprised this role in the second series (broadcast 2007) until the character's death at the Battle of Philippi in the episode Philippi. His friend Sarah Kennedy (see #Radio) commented that this was a natural progression for one with his 'lean and hungry look' (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 2.I).
[edit] 2006
In 2006, he played a lawyer in Midsomer Murders, appeared with Michael Sheen in Fantabulosa! (as Hugh Paddick), and featured in the first, fifth and sixth episodes of the first series of The Chase (in another role he is reprising in 2007).
[edit] 2007
In 2007 he appeared as the UK's UN Ambassador in The Trial of Tony Blair and appeared in the seventh episode of the second series of Hotel Babylon.
[edit] Film
His film credits include appearences in Stephen Fry's 2003 film Bright Young Things, in V for Vendetta as Conrad Heyer, and as a university professor in Starter For 10.
[edit] Radio
He is a friend of the Radio 2 presenter Sarah Kennedy, who goes to his plays and because of this and through letters to her from Henry himself, his father and 'the Lady Agrippa' (a nickname for his mother) gives regular updates on his appearances on her show. A recording of his voice announces her regular 'It's Showtime!' slot of tunes from the musicals at about 7.12am GMT - originally he just spoke the title of the slot, but now a whole repertoire of different recordings is used, including 'I'm ready for my showtime close-up, Miss Kennedy!', 'Start the music, light the lights, it's showtime!' and 'Overture and Beginners, ready please, clear the wings, the show is about to begin - it's showtime!' He also occasionally appears live on her show, including once when he co-hosted with her in winter 2005 as part of the charity appeal Children in Need.
[edit] Trivia
Henry was a guest speaker at a NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) summer seminar entitled Shakespeare: Enacting the Text. (July 5 to August 6, 1999).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Henry remains associated with the RSC, although this was his last appearance with them to date.
- ^ Ironically, it was precursored by his appearance - again as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester- in the 1986 TV drama Lady Jane.
- ^ A 'promotion' from his role as Tempter in the RSC Murder in The Cathedral, TS Eliot's version of the same story
