Jonathan Pryce

Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television.

He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a knighthood for services to drama.

Pryce was born John Price on 1 June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, the son of Margaret Ellen (née Williams) and Isaac Price, a former coal miner who ran a small general grocery shop with his wife.

He has two older sisters and was raised a Welsh Presbyterian.

He was educated at Holywell Grammar School, and at the age of 16, went to art college before he started training to be a teacher at Edge Hill College (now Edge Hill University) in Ormskirk, Lancashire.

While studying, he took part in a college theatre production and applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career as a stage actor in the early 1970s.

Pryce was subsequently awarded a scholarship to RADA, graduating in 1971, with Acting (RADA Diploma).

He joined Equity, and took "Jonathan Pryce" as his stage name because his birth name was too similar to that of a performer already represented by Equity.

While at RADA, he worked as a door-to-door salesman of velvet paintings.

Despite finding RADA "strait-laced" and being told by his tutor that he could never aspire to do more than playing villains on Z-Cars, Pryce joined the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool upon graduation and eventually became its artistic director.

He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Nottingham Playhouse.

To gain his Equity card, he made his first screen appearance in a minor role in "Fire & Brimstone", a 1972 episode of the science fiction drama series Doomwatch.

He then starred in two television films directed by Stephen Frears: Daft as a Brush and Playthings.

After leaving Everyman, Pryce joined Sir Richard Eyre at the Nottingham Playhouse and starred in Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians, in a role specially written for him.

The production moved to the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Pryce reprised the role on Broadway in 1976, this time directed by Mike Nichols, and for which Pryce won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

It was around this time that he appeared in his first film role, playing the character Joseph Manasse in the drama Voyage of the Damned, starring Faye Dunaway.

On the Broadway stage he earned Tony Awards—the first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut role in Comedians (1977), the second for Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway transfer of the musical Miss Saigon (1991).

Pryce's theatre work led to several supporting roles in film and television.

He did not, however, abandon the stage, appearing from 1978 to 1979 in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of The Taming of the Shrew as Petruchio, and Antony and Cleopatra as Octavius Caesar.

His work in theatre includes an Olivier Award-winning performance in the title role of the Royal Court Theatre's Hamlet in 1980 and as The Engineer in the stage musical Miss Saigon in 1990.

In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him an Olivier Award, and was acclaimed by some critics as the definitive Hamlet of his generation.

Around the same time, in 1980, he also appeared in the film Breaking Glass.

In 1983, Pryce played the role of the sinister Mr Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes, based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same title.

After appearing mostly in films, such as the Ian McEwan-scripted The Ploughman's Lunch, and Martin Luther, Heretic (both also 1983).

His breakthrough screen performance was in Terry Gilliam's satirical dystopian black comedy film Brazil (1985).

He achieved a breakthrough with his role as the subdued protagonist Sam Lowry in the Terry Gilliam science fiction dystopian dark comedy, Brazil (1985).

After Brazil, Pryce appeared in the historical thriller The Doctor and the Devils (also 1985) and then in the Gene Wilder-directed film Haunted Honeymoon (1986).

During this period of his life, Pryce continued to perform on stage, and gained particular notice as the successful but self-doubting writer Trigorin in a London production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in late 1985.

From 1986 to 1987 Pryce played the lead part in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth, which also starred Sinéad Cusack as Lady Macbeth.

Pryce worked once again with Gilliam in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), playing "The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson".

The film was a notorious financial fiasco, with production costing more than $40 million, when the original budget was $23.5 million.

For his work on television, he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performances in Barbarians at the Gate (1993) and Return to Cranford (2010).

Critically lauded for his versatility, Pryce has appeared in big-budget films including Evita (1996), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003–2007), as well as independent films such as the film adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Martin Scorsese's period drama The Age of Innocence (1993), Christopher Hampton's Carrington (1995), Terrence Malick's historical film The New World (2005) and the drama The Wife (2017) opposite Glenn Close.

That year, Pryce had a small but pivotal role as Zarniwoop in the 12th episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, one that he reprised for the Quintessential Phase which was broadcast in 2005.

In his original role as Zarniwoop, Pryce's character questions the "ruler of the Universe", a solipsist who has been chosen to rule arguably because of either his inherent manipulability, or immunity therefrom, on his philosophical opinions.

Pryce has gained acclaim for his roles as Thomas Wolsey in the BBC limited series Wolf Hall (2015), the High Sparrow in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2015–2016) and Sir Stuart Strange in the series Taboo (2017).

In 2022, he succeeded Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in the final two seasons of the award-winning Netflix historical drama series The Crown, gaining a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2019, he earned his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Pope Francis in The Two Popes alongside Anthony Hopkins playing Pope Benedict XVI.