
John Shrapnel
Born April 27, 1942 · Birmingham, England, UK
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.
Notable Appearances
Movies

Gladiator

Troy

Notting Hill

101 Dalmatians

The Duchess

K-19: The Widowmaker

The Awakening

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Mirrors

Fatherland

Nicholas and Alexandra

The Body

King Charles III

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Mary, Mother of Jesus

Alien Autopsy

Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters

Two Deaths

Personal Services

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale

National Theatre Live: Macbeth

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story

King Lear

Hennessy

National Theatre Live: Phèdre

Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

Pope Joan

Shadow of the Sword

Timon of Athens

The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka

Once Upon a Time on the Westway

Selling Hitler

Gossip from the Forest

Flayed

Theban Plays: Antigone

Testimony

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

Chemical Wedding

Troilus & Cressida

Professional Foul
TV Shows

New Tricks

Waking the Dead

Natural World

ITV Playhouse

Merlin

Omnibus

Foyle's War

Space: 1999

Wycliffe

BBC2 Play of the Week

Jonathan Creek

Justice

Between the Lines

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

The Chief

Kavanagh Q.C.

The Modern World: Ten Great Writers

Shakespeare: The Animated Tales

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

The 10th Kingdom

Elizabeth R

Mr. Palfrey of Westminster

Edward and Mrs Simpson

G.B.H.

Plays for Britain

For the Greater Good

I Am Not an Animal

Vanity Fair

Coogan's Run

Screenplay

Apparitions

Armchair Thriller

Selling Hitler

Invasion: Earth

Blackeyes

The Woman in White

Bodyguards

Predators Killing for a Living

The Lions Rule

Sorrell and Son

Alien Empire
More Movies

King Arthur: His Life and Legends

Whistle

The Burston Rebellion

The Misfit and the Matterhorn

Hamlet Within

Alone

The Race for Everest

England, My England

Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies

An Organization of Dreams

Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes

Run.

Hamlet

Claim

Partition

King Lear

The Gentleman Thief

Animals of the Ocean Desert

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt

Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome

Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2

Lion Queen

Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain

Hamlet

Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story




