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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
April 27, 1942
Died
February 14, 2020
Place of Birth
Birmingham, England, UK
Also Known As
- John Morley Shrapnel
John Shrapnel
0.9 Popularity
Biography
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Known For
0.0
Hamlet Within
2022
9.0
Narrator (voice)
The Lions Rule
2017
6.3
Archbishop of Canterbury
King Charles III
2017
7.0
Narrator (Voice)
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
2017
🎬
0.0
Narrator - (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
2016
7.7
Camilo
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
8.2
Claudius/Ghost
Hamlet
2015
🎬
0.0
Creon
OXI, an Act of Resistance
2014
0.0
Narrator
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
2014
7.0
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013
Credits
Hamlet Within
2022
0.0
The Lions Rule
as Narrator (voice)
2017
9.0
King Charles III
as Archbishop of Canterbury
2017
6.3
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
as Narrator (Voice)
2017
7.0
🎬
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
as Narrator - (Voice)
2016
0.0
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
as Camilo
2015
7.7
Hamlet
as Claudius/Ghost
2015
8.2
🎬
OXI, an Act of Resistance
as Creon
2014
0.0
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
as Narrator
2014
0.0
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
as Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
2013
7.0
Run.
as St. Peter
2013
0.0
The Awakening
as Reverend Hugh Purslow
2011
6.4
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
as Théramène
2009
7.8
An Organization of Dreams
as Father
2009
0.0
Apparitions
as Cardinal Bukovak
2008
7.2
Merlin
as The Sarrum
2008
7.8
The Duchess
as General Grey
2008
7.0
Mirrors
as Lorenzo Sapelli
2008
6.3
Chemical Wedding
as Crowley
2008
4.2
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
as Himself (Narrator)
2007
6.8
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
as Lord Howard
2007
6.7
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
as Billy Palmer
2007
0.0
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
as Pompey
2006
7.4
Alien Autopsy
as Michael Kuhn
2006
5.6
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
as Narrator (English Version)
2005
0.0
Shadow of the Sword
as Archbishop
2005
5.8
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
as Narrator
2004
0.0
Troy
as Nestor
2004
7.2
I Am Not an Animal
as Narrator (voice)
2004
8.6
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
as Narrator
2004
10.0
New Tricks
as DAC John Felsham
2004
7.4
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
as Narrator
2004
0.0
The Race for Everest
as Narrator
2003
0.0
🎬
Wild Women of Viramba
as Narrator
2003
0.0
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
as Narrator (English Version)
2002
0.0
Foyle's War
as Raymond Brooks
2002
7.9
Whistle
as Paul
2002
6.1
K-19: The Widowmaker
as Admiral Bratyeev
2002
6.5
Claim
as Lex Vandenberg
2002
4.8
Alone
as Hannah
2002
4.6
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
as Sergent Mike McCaffrey
2002
7.2
The Gentleman Thief
as Monty Sinclair
2001
0.0
Animals of the Ocean Desert
as Narrator
2001
0.0
Waking the Dead
as John Christie
2001
7.2
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
as Narrator
2001
7.0
The Body
as Moshe Cohen
2001
5.5
Supermassive Black Holes
as Narrator
2000
8.0
Gladiator
as Gaius
2000
8.2
The 10th Kingdom
as Governor of Prison
2000
7.6
Mary, Mother of Jesus
as Simon
1999
4.0
Notting Hill
as PR Chief
1999
7.3
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
as General Charette
1999
7.2
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
as Iwaszkiewicz
1999
0.0
Lion Queen
as Narrator (voice)
1998
9.0
Invasion: Earth
as Air Marshal Bentley
1998
6.1
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
as Narrator (English voice)
1997
0.0
Predators Killing for a Living
1997
0.0
Jonathan Creek
as Prof. Lance Graumann
1997
7.5
Bodyguards
as Commander Alan MacIntyre
1997
0.0
Midsomer Murders
as Max Jennings
1997
7.5
Midsomer Murders
as Leo Clarke
1997
7.5
🎬
True Tilda
as Reverand Glasson
1997
0.0
101 Dalmatians
as Skinner
1996
5.9
Two Deaths
as Cinca
1996
5.0
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
1995
10.0
Kavanagh Q.C.
as Mr. Justice Griffin
1995
7.0
England, My England
as Samuel Pepys
1995
5.0
Fatherland
as General Globus
1994
6.2
Wycliffe
as Dr. Sam Malvern
1994
6.0
Selling Hitler
as Gerd Schulte-Hillen
1993
7.0
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
as Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
1992
6.3
Between the Lines
as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
1992
5.2
Between the Lines
as D.C.C. Dunning
1992
5.2
🎬
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
as Narrator
1992
4.0
G.B.H.
as Dr Jacobs
1991
6.2
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
as BKA Police Chief
1990
6.5
🎬
Centrepoint
as Claud Wareing
1990
6.0
The Chief
as Dan Cheyney
1990
6.0
🎬
About Face
1989
6.0
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
as Psychiatrist
1989
6.2
Testimony
as Andre Zhdanov
1988
4.5
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
as Thomas Mann
1988
0.0
Vanity Fair
as Lord Steyne
1987
0.0
Partition
as General Flood
1987
5.0
Personal Services
as Lionel
1987
6.0
Theban Plays: Antigone
as Creon
1986
0.0
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
as Creon
1986
0.0
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
as Creon
1986
2.0
The Burston Rebellion
as Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
1985
0.0
🎬
Poppyland
as George Sims
1985
0.0
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
as Adrian Vyner
1984
5.0
Natural World
as Narrator
1983
7.1
King Lear
as Earl of Kent
1982
6.0
The Woman in White
as Sir Percival Glyde
1982
7.7
Troilus & Cressida
as Hector
1981
8.0
Timon of Athens
as Alcibiades
1981
7.0
🎬
The Tom Machine
1980
0.0
🎬
The Victim
as Vincent Craig
1980
0.0
Gossip from the Forest
as Matthias Erzberger
1979
0.0
Edward and Mrs Simpson
as Major Alexander Hardinge
1978
6.2
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
as Maj. Alexander Hardinge
1978
10.0
Flayed
as Robert
1978
0.0
Armchair Thriller
as Vincent Craig
1978
4.2
🎬
The Three Hostages
as Gaudian
1977
0.0
BBC2 Play of the Week
as McKendrick
1977
7.0
BBC2 Play of the Week
as Robert
1977
7.0
Professional Foul
as McKendrick
1977
6.0
🎬
Hitting Town
as Leonard Brazil (voice)
1976
0.0
Hennessy
as Tipaldi
1975
4.7
Space: 1999
as Jack Tanner
1975
7.1
King Lear
as Duke of Cornwall
1975
0.0
Pope Joan
as Father James
1972
5.9
Nicholas and Alexandra
as Petya
1971
6.9
Justice
as Roger Anderson
1971
6.0
Elizabeth R
as Earl of Sussex
1971
7.4
🎬
It's Called the Sugar Plum
as Wally Zuckerman
1969
0.0
🎬
The Ha-Ha
as Jamie
1969
0.0
Omnibus
as Zborowski
1967
7.2
BBC Play of the Month
as Duke of Cornwall
1965
5.0
BBC Play of the Month
as Viktor Myshlaevsky
1965
5.0
Hamlet
as Claudius
N/A
0.0