Jasper Britton
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| Jasper Britton | |
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 Jasper Britton as Petruchio |
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| Born | December 11, 1962 London, England, United Kingdom |
Jasper Britton, born December 11, 1962 in Chelsea, England is a classical stage actor.
Son of veteran actor Tony Britton, his mother is Danish sculptor and member of the World War II Danish Resistance Eva Castle Britton (nee Skytte Birkefeldt). His sisters are television presenter Fern Britton and scriptwriter Cherry Britton.
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[edit] Background
Britton attended Belmont Prep and Mill Hill School, where he achieved a grade 'U' in Maths O'Level, but where also, bored during a history lesson, he turned over the paper on which he was doodling to discover it was a script of his father's, started to read it, and began a long love affair with the theatre.
[edit] Career
[edit] Stage
Britton worked for six years as an assistant stage manager and sound operator until 1989 when, while working for Jonathan Miller at the Old Vic, he forced his way into Miller's office and refused to leave until Miller agreed to let him audition for King Lear. His King of France to Eric Porter's Lear was the first of many parts.
Early plays included The Visit with Theatre de Complicite at the Royal National Theatre, The Cherry Orchard, Macbeth and A Flea in her Ear at Nottingham Playhouse. A season at the Royal Shakespeare Company included A Jovial Crew for Max Stafford-Clarke, Tamburlaine for Terry Hands and The Beggar's Opera and Anthony and Cleopatra for John Caird. There followed the Dauphin in St Joan at the Strand Theatre and an award winning performance as Rupert in Rope at Salisbury Theatre.
It was playing the title role in Brian Cox's 1995 Richard III and opening to rave reviews that Britton emerged as one of the prominent actors of his generation. He next returned to the Old Vic, this time as the lead role in Blood Wedding, the first in a series of romantic leads, followed by Rupert Goold's adaptation of End of the Affair, Jonathan Church's Romeo and Juliet, and Bill Bryden's Three Sisters.
He was part of Trevor Nunn's ensemble company at the National Theatre in 1999, revealing a more playful side as an irreverant character actor in the eccentric repertoire of Thersites in Troilus and Cressida, Ryumin in Maxim Gorky's Summerfolk, Smooth in Money directed by John Caird and revealing a strong singing voice as The Cat in Honk!.
A season at the Globe Theatre for Mark Rylance followed, playing Palamon in The Two Noble Kinsmen, the title role in Macbeth, and in The Tempest a Caliban that has passed into Globe legend, a muddy loveable monster who stole props to hide in his underpants, and who spat fish-heads at the audience.
After Simon Gray's Japes for Peter Hall at the Haymarket Theatre and Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the Aldwych Theatre came Britton's performance as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed for Greg Doran at the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was the hit of the season and transferred to the Queen's Theatre in London and the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. for award-winning sell-out runs.
Most recent stage credits are Henry II in Becket at the Haymarket Theatre for John Caird, Hedda Gabler for Matthew Lloyd, Satan in Paradise Lost for Rupert Goold and Adolf in The Father for Angus Jackson.
He has recently appeared in Dominic Cooke's Rhinoceros at the Royal Court Theatre, as John Gielgud in the Evening Standard critic Nicholas de Jongh's first play A Plague Over England, and as Nansen in Tony Harrison's Fram at the Royal National Theatre.
[edit] Film
Britton played the Court Laureate in Terrence Malick's The New World alongside Colin Farrell, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Bale, and pirate William Howard in Blackbeard with Mark Umbers and Stacey Keach. He starred alongside Oliver Dimsdale and Heathcote Williams in Nostradamus, and most recently donned bells and hankies to play Will Frosser, the foreman of the Millsham Morris Side in the forthcoming feature film, Morris: A Life with Bells On, which also features Derek Jacobi, Harriet Walter, Greg Wise, Sophie Thompson and Dominique Pinon.
[edit] Television
Britton's television credits include two series of My Dad's the Prime Minister, and Brief Encounters: Semi-Detached for the BBC, as well as Highlander: The Series.
