Paul Rhys (born 19 December 1963) is a British television, film and theatre actor.
Rhys was born in Wales and studied at RADA, leaving with the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1987. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners (1986). Since then he has seldom been off the stage and screen. His first US exposure was when legendary American film director Robert Altman cast Rhys, who was then still a student, as Theo van Gogh in Vincent and Theo opposite Tim Roth as Vincent.[1]
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Paul was born in Neath, south Wales, to Catholic parents. His mother, Kathryn Ivory, was Irish-Welsh and his father, Richard Charles Rhys, was Welsh. The family moved to an inner city estate when Paul was ten. A committed punk during his youth, Rhys was in several bands before leaving for London to study at RADA.
Paul’s first acting job was playing Liverpudlian judo expert Ralph in John Godber’s hit play Bouncers, before he even went to RADA. In the first summer vacation from RADA, he was spotted by Philip Prowse and was invited to perform in Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, playing the illegitimate son, Gerald. He then returned to RADA for two terms before leaving again, this time to play Dean Swift in Julian Temple’s Absolute Beginners. Rhys completed his education at RADA by winning the William Pole prize and the Bancroft Gold Medal on graduation.
His first film role was in Franklin J. Schaffner’s Lionheart. After a brief spell at the Royal Shakespeare Company he played opposite Colin Firth in Richard Eyre’s award winning film Tumbledown. Soon after this he appeared in Vincent & Theo, directed by the legendary American film director, Robert Altman. Continuing the theme of famous brothers, Paul then played Sidney Chaplin opposite Robert Downey Junior’s Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin. He went on to play Massis in Alan Bennett’s 102 Boulevard Hausmann, after which he played opposite Peter O’Toole in Rebecca's Daughters. A series of films then followed including From Hell, Food of Love, Love Lies Bleeding and Hellraiser: Deader.
Running parallel to Rhys's film work has been a diverse and notable television career, working in leading roles with directors such as Mike Hodges, Stephen Frears, Sir Richard Eyre, Philip Martin, Christopher Morahan, Tom Vaughan, Edward Hall, Harry Bradbeer in productions including Tumbledown, A Dance to the Music of Time, Heroes, Gallowglass', The Healer, Anna Karenina, The Deal, Beethoven, and more recently the television series Luther, Spooks and Being Human (in which he played king of the vampires, Ivan).
In 1995, he portrayed Simon Templar (aka "The Saint") for a series of radio plays.
Rhys is known to commit so fully to stage roles that on two occasions it has caused him to be taken to hospital, once with pneumonia and the other with mental exhaustion. In 2000 he performed in the title role of Hamlet at the Young Vic and later in Tokyo and Osaka. He received several awards for this performance. He also played Angelo in Measure for Measure for which he won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award, Houseman in The Invention of Love and Edgar in King Lear, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award; these three plays were all at the Royal National Theatre. Edmund in Long Day's Journey Into Night and Leo in Design for Living at The Donmar Warehouse, this was opposite Rachel Weisz and Clive Owen. He also briefly played the title role in Howard Brenton’s play Paul at the National Theatre, but was unable to continue as he had lost a considerable amount of weight from overwork, dropping from 12 stones to 9.
He has won several film, television and stage awards.
Real-life characters played by Rhys have included Ludwig van Beethoven,[2] Peter Mandelson, [3] Paul McCartney, Thomas de Quincy, A. E. Housman, and Frederic Chopin.
Rhys had a seven-year relationship with the late Australian actress Arkie Whiteley, with whom he appeared in Gallowglass.
He is now an American Green Card holder and lives in Los Angeles for part of the year with writer Katherine Fugate and their four-year-old daughter Madeleine.