- Damian Lewis
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Damian Lewis Born Damian Watcyn Lewis
11 February 1971
St. John's Wood, Westminster, EnglandOccupation actor, film producer Years active 1993– Spouse Helen McCrory (m. 2007) Children Manon Lewis
Gulliver LewisDamian Watcyn Lewis (born 11 February 1971) is a British actor and producer. He currently stars as Nicholas Brody in the counter-terrorism drama Homeland. His acting roles include Soames Forsyte in the ITV remake of The Forsyte Saga, Detective Charlie Crews in the NBC drama Life, and Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.[1]
Contents
Early life
I went to English boarding schools and grew up around people very much like Soames and in a milieu very much like the Forsytes's.
— Damian Lewis (2002)[2]Lewis was born in St John's Wood, London, the son of Charlotte Mary (née Bowater) and J. Watcyn Lewis, a City broker.[3][4] His paternal grandparents were Welsh.[5] His maternal grandfather was Lord Mayor of London Ian Frank Bowater and his maternal grandmother's ancestors include Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn (a doctor to the royal family) and philanthropist Alfred Yarrow.[3][6] Lewis was brought up an Anglican.[citation needed]
Lewis made several visits to the United States to visit relatives during his summers as a child.[7][8] He first decided to become an actor at age 16.[4] He was educated at the independent Ashdown House School in the village of Forest Row in East Sussex and at Eton College and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993, after which he served as a stage actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company. During his time with the RSC, he played Borgheim in Adrian Noble's production of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf, as well as Posthumus in William Shakespeare's Cymbeline. He has also starred in another of Ibsen's plays, Pillars of the Community.
Career
Lewis once worked as a telemarketer selling car alarms, a job he detested.[9]
Lewis appeared in the 1997 film Robinson Crusoe, playing Patrick Conner. Lewis also appeared in Jonathan Kent's production of Hamlet, playing Laertes opposite Ralph Fiennes' Hamlet. This production was seen by Steven Spielberg, who subsequently cast Lewis as Richard Winters in the HBO/BBC World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, his first role of several that required a credible American accent.[7]
Subsequently, Lewis has played Soames Forsyte in the ITV series The Forsyte Saga (later shown as a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries), which earned him rave reviews and further exposed him to a US audience.[10] He returned to the US to star in Dreamcatcher, a Stephen King film about a man who becomes possessed by an evil alien. The character is American but when possessed he takes on a British accent.[7] On the heels of this role, he starred in Keane as a Manhattanite with a fragile mental state who is searching for his missing daughter. Despite the film's poor box-office performance, the role won Lewis rave reviews.[11][12][13]
He played Jeffrey Archer in the satirical TV special Jeffrey Archer: The Truth. Since 2004, he has appeared in a number of films, as well as the 2005 BBC TV adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, as part of the ShakespeaRe-Told season. Lewis played the role of Yassen Gregorovich in the film Stormbreaker.
On 10 November 2006, 1 May 2009 and 18 November 2010, he was the guest host on BBC's Have I Got News For You.
In 2008, Lewis starred as the main character Charlie Crews in the US television series Life on NBC. The show premiered in the US on 26 September 2007 and was affected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Only half of the first season's shows were produced. Regardless, the show won a 2008 AFI Award for best television series.[14] Although the show received critical acclaim, when it returned the following television season, it was shuffled from night to night. With its high production costs, the show was cancelled by NBC to clear its time slot for the much less expensive daily program The Jay Leno Show.
Lewis appeared, the following year, in the lead role in The Baker, a film directed by his brother, Gareth Lewis, and also took the supporting role of Rizza in The Escapist, which he also helped produce.
Lewis leads the cast in Martin Crimp's version of Molière's comedy, The Misanthrope, which opened in December 2009 at the Comedy Theatre, London.[15] Other cast members included Tara FitzGerald, Keira Knightley and Dominic Rowan.
Charity work
In March 2010, he became a trade justice ambassador for Christian Aid, a UK charity. Later that year, he also appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC drama Friends and Crocodiles. Also in 2006, he was a player for England in Soccer Aid in late May, and golfed for Europe in the All*Star Cup, in late August, both shown on ITV.
Lewis is involved with a number of charities, including being one of three patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.[16] He participated in Soccer Aid 2010, which supported the charity UNICEF. During the first half he hit the crossbar after lobbing former Arsenal and German international goalkeeper Jens Lehmann with a shot from 25 yards. He also scored in the penalty shoot-out. Lewis himself is a devoted Liverpool F.C. fan, attending as many games as his schedule allows. He stars as Gareth, the father of an 11-year old Liverpool fan (Will), in a 2011 British sport drama titled "Will", and played a part in convincing present the Liverpool manager "King" Kenny Dalglish to get involved in the movie, after Dalglish had expressed doubts over his involvement in the movie due to his convictions about whether the movie was proper or not.[17]
Personal life
On 4 July 2007, Lewis married actress Helen McCrory; together they have a daughter, Manon (born 8 September 2006), and a son, Gulliver (born 2 November 2007).[18] They live in Tufnell Park and Los Angeles.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes 1993 Micky Love Clive Television special 1995 "Hickory Dickory Dock" in Agatha Christie : Poirot Leonard Bateson Television series 1996 "Deep Waters" in A Touch of Frost Adam Weston Television series 1997 Robinson Crusoe Patrick 1999 Warriors Lt. Neil Loughrey Television film 2000 Life Force Kurt Glemser Television series 2000 Hearts and Bones Mark Rose Television series 2001 Band of Brothers Maj. Richard D. Winters Mini series 2002 The Forsyte Saga Soames Forsyte Mini series 2002 Jeffrey Archer: The Truth Jeffrey Archer Television special 2003 Dreamcatcher Gary "Jonesy" Jones 2003 The Forsyte Saga: To Let Soames Forsyte Mini series 2004 Keane William Keane 2004 Nyfes Norman Harris 2005 Colditz Cpl/Lt. Nicholas McGrade Television film 2005 Chromophobia Marcus Aylesbury 2005 An Unfinished Life Gary Winston Swedish/US film 2005 Friends and Crocodiles Paul Television film 2005 Much Ado About Nothing Benedick Television film 2006 The Situation Dan Murphy Post-production 2006 Stormbreaker Yassen Gregorovich 2007–2009 Life Charlie Crews Television series 2008 The Baker (AKA Assassin In Love) Milo Also produced 2008 The Escapist Rizza 2010 Have I Got News For You Himself Guest host 2011 Your Highness Boremont 2011 Will Will's father 2011 Stolen D.I. Anthony Carter Television film 2011 Homeland Nicholas Brody Television series References
- ^ Damian-Lewis.com, fansite
- ^ "An Interview with Damian Lewis". Public Broadcasting Service. 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/forsyte/ei_lewis.html. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
- ^ a b Person Page - 17574. thePeerage.com. (accessed 2009-01-14)
- ^ a b Interview. Sunday Express, 25 May 2003. accessed 22 December 2008.
- ^ Mottram, James. Damian Lewis Interview. Marie Claire, 25 February 2008. accessed 14 January 2009.
- ^ Fascinating Fact 4144. Contact Music. 21 October 2007. accessed 14 January 2009.
- ^ a b c Iannotti, Lauren. "Esquire Style". Esquire, April 2003, 139 (4):120.
- ^ "Fighting Talk". New Woman, November 1999. republished at Damian-Lewis.com. accessed 22 December 2008.
- ^ Prato, Alison. (October 2008), "Out on the Town with This Season’s Breakout Stars". Maxim. republished at Damian-Lewis.com. accessed 2008-12-15.
- ^ Kelleher, Terry (2002-10-14), "The Forsyte Saga". People. 58 (16):36
- ^ Rozen, Leah (2005-09-19), "Keane". People. 64 (12):40
- ^ Kauffmann, Stanley (2005-09-19), "Heights and Depths". New Republic. 233 (12):28-29
- ^ Travers, Peter (2005-10-06) "Keane". Rolling Stone. (984):164
- ^ "AFI Awards 2008". American Film Institute. 2008. http://www.afi.com/tvevents/afiawards. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- ^ The Misanthrope's London production
- ^ "Scene & Heard - Who We Are". sceneandheard.org. 2010. http://sceneandheard.org/about_whoweare.html. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
- ^ "Why we chose LFC and Istanbul". 2 November 2011. http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/why-we-chose-lfc-and-istanbul.
- ^ "Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory welcome a son". People. http://celebritybabies.people.com/2007/11/09/actors-damian-l/.
External links
- Damian Lewis at the Internet Movie Database
- Damian Lewis Yahoo Group
- "My philosophy: Damian Lewis" interview, Times Online, November 2005
Categories:- Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
- English film actors
- English film producers
- English radio actors
- English stage actors
- English television actors
- English voice actors
- English people of Welsh descent
- Old Etonians
- People from St John's Wood
- English Anglicans
- Royal National Theatre Company members
- Royal Shakespeare Company members
- Shakespearean actors
- 1971 births
- Living people
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