John Shrapnel

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	Acting
Most Rating	1.4607
Birthday	1942-04-27
Place of Birth	Birmingham, England, UK
Also Known As	John Morley Shrapnel,

Gladiator

Notting Hill

Troy

K-19: The Widowmaker

Alien Autopsy

The Body

Hamlet Within

Alone

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Chemical Wedding

Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters

Claim

St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral

Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic

Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty

Wild Women of Viramba

Hitting Town

The Awakening

OXI, an Act of Resistance

An Organization of Dreams

The Ha-Ha

National Theatre Live: Macbeth

Animals of the Ocean Desert

Partition

Selling Hitler

Personal Services

Shadow of the Sword

Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story

The Tom Machine

Professional Foul

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story

Hamlet

The Return of the Flying Scotsman

Fatherland

Gossip from the Forest

Timon of Athens

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt

The Three Hostages

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Hennessy

England, My England

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale

Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes

Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies

King Charles III

Troilus & Cressida

Two Deaths

Testimony

The Duchess

101 Dalmatians

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

Theban Plays: Antigone

Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus

Mirrors

Nicholas and Alexandra

King Lear

Whistle

Poppyland

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

King Arthur: His Life and Legends

Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome

Pope Joan

National Theatre Live: Phèdre

Mary, Mother of Jesus

Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2

The Race for Everest

The Burston Rebellion

The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka

Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain

SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Flayed

The Gentleman Thief

King Lear

Run.

Hamlet

The Victim

It's Called the Sugar Plum

Once Upon a Time on the Westway

Lion Queen