David Ryall
Encyclopedia
David Ryall is an English
actor
who has appeared on British television
since the 1970s. He has had leading roles in Lytton's Diary and Goodnight Sweetheart
, as well as memorable roles in Dennis Potter
's The Singing Detective
and Andrew Davies
's adaptation of To Play the King
and The Final Cut
, the final two parts in the House of Cards
trilogy.
and The Master Builder
) and then into Laurence Olivier
's company with the National Theatre at The Old Vic from 1965-73. During this time he was involved with many new and influential plays, including Tom Stoppard
's Jumpers
and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Royal Hunt of the Sun
and Tyger.
Other, particularly notable, work at the National Theatre includes Guys and Dolls
, The Beggar's Opera
, Coriolanus
and Animal Farm (for which he won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1985), The School for Wives
, Wild Oats, Democracy
and The UN Inspector. In 1983 he worked on 'A Matter of the Officers' and Jean Seberg
with Julian Barry
who, despite Ryall missing the press night of the latter due to misjudging a step from a lift onto the stage and breaking his ankle during a blackout, remains a life-long friend. In 1984 Ryall performed a one man show of stories and poems by Edward Bond
at the NT, entitled A Leap in the Light.
Ryall portrayed discredited scientist Frank Skuse
in the March 1990 docudrama
Who Bombed Birmingham?
In 1994 he played Feste in Sir Peter Hall's production of Twelfth Night - a performance which was praised highly by Sir Alec Guinness
in his autobiography. In 1996-97, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he played God in The Mysteries
, and Polonius in Hamlet
, for which he was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award during its tour of the United States.
He worked with Sir Peter Hall again in the 1999 production of Lenny in the West End, and after that in the 2000 epic Tantalus, in Colorado and the UK. David continues to be a regular face in the theatre, with more recent appearances including in Patrick Marber
's Don Juan in Soho at the Donmar Warehouse
in 2007.
His television and film career has been equally expansive, and includes The Knowledge, The Singing Detective
, Shelley
, Inspector Morse
, State of Play, The Elephant Man
, Empire of the Sun
, Truly, Madly, Deeply
and Two Men Went to War
. He appeared as Max, an antique collector, in episode 4 of BBC
drama Bonekickers
.
In 2005, Ryall played the role of Winston Churchill
in the french TV-drama Le Grand Charles
on the life of Charles de Gaulle
.
Ryall has appeared in the BBC One sitcom Outnumbered
since 2007, in which he plays Frank (known as "Granddad"), a character who suffers from dementia
. He also appeared as Elphias Doge in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who has appeared on British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
since the 1970s. He has had leading roles in Lytton's Diary and Goodnight Sweetheart
Goodnight Sweetheart
Goodnight Sweetheart is a sitcom that ran for six series on BBC1 from 1993 to 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life after discovering a time portal allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the...
, as well as memorable roles in Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
's The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
and Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies may refer to:*Andrew Davies *Andrew Davies , Welsh Labour politician*Andrew R. T. Davies, Welsh Conservative politician*Andrew Davies , Welsh darts player*Andrew Davies , English defender...
's adaptation of To Play the King
To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
and The Final Cut
The Final Cut
The Final Cut may refer to:*The Final Cut , a 1983 album by Pink Floyd*"The Final Cut" , a song by Pink Floyd*The Final Cut , a 1983 "video EP" by Pink Floyd*The Final Cut , an industrial music group...
, the final two parts in the House of Cards
House of Cards
House of Cards is a 1990 political thriller television drama serial by the BBC in four parts, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim...
trilogy.
Career
He received a scholarship to RADA in 1962, during which time he won the Caryl Brahams Award for a Musical. On leaving RADA, he went into repertory work in Salisbury, Bristol, Leicester and Birmingham (including King LearKing Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
and The Master Builder
The Master Builder
The Master Builder is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was first published in December 1892 and is regarded as one of Ibsen's most significant and revealing works.-Performance:...
) and then into Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
's company with the National Theatre at The Old Vic from 1965-73. During this time he was involved with many new and influential plays, including Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's Jumpers
Jumpers
Jumpers is a 1972 play by Tom Stoppard. It explores and satirises the field of academic philosophy, likening it to a less-than skilful competitive gymnastics display...
and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Royal Hunt of the Sun
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that portrays the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro.-Premiere:...
and Tyger.
Other, particularly notable, work at the National Theatre includes Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, most notably...
, The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
, Coriolanus
Coriolanus
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...
and Animal Farm (for which he won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1985), The School for Wives
The School for Wives
The School for Wives is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662 for the brother of the King...
, Wild Oats, Democracy
Democracy (play)
Democracy is a play by Michael Frayn which premiered at the Royal National Theatre on September 9, 2003, directed by Michael Blakemore, starring Roger Allam as Willy Brandt and Conleth Hill as Günter Guillaume...
and The UN Inspector. In 1983 he worked on 'A Matter of the Officers' and Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg (musical)
Jean Seberg is a musical biography with a book by Julian Barry, lyrics by Christopher Adler, and music by Marvin Hamlisch. It is based on the life of the late American actress....
with Julian Barry
Julian Barry
Julian Barry is an American screenwriter and playwright best known for his Oscar-nominated script for the film Lenny about comedian Lenny Bruce, which Barry adapted from his successful Broadway play of the same name...
who, despite Ryall missing the press night of the latter due to misjudging a step from a lift onto the stage and breaking his ankle during a blackout, remains a life-long friend. In 1984 Ryall performed a one man show of stories and poems by Edward Bond
Edward Bond
Edward Bond is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them Saved , the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK...
at the NT, entitled A Leap in the Light.
Ryall portrayed discredited scientist Frank Skuse
Frank Skuse
Doctor Frank Skuse was a forensic scientist for the North West Forensic Laboratories based in Chorley in Lancashire, England. His flawed conclusions, eventually discredited, contributed to the convictions of Judith Ward and the Birmingham Six...
in the March 1990 docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Who Bombed Birmingham?
In 1994 he played Feste in Sir Peter Hall's production of Twelfth Night - a performance which was praised highly by Sir Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
in his autobiography. In 1996-97, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he played God in The Mysteries
The Mysteries
The Mysteries is a version of the medieval English mystery plays presented at London's National Theatre in 1977. The cycle of three plays tells the story of the Bible from the creation to the last judgement....
, and Polonius in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, for which he was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award during its tour of the United States.
He worked with Sir Peter Hall again in the 1999 production of Lenny in the West End, and after that in the 2000 epic Tantalus, in Colorado and the UK. David continues to be a regular face in the theatre, with more recent appearances including in Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
's Don Juan in Soho at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
in 2007.
His television and film career has been equally expansive, and includes The Knowledge, The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
, Shelley
Shelley (TV series)
Shelley is a British sitcom made by Thames Television and originally broadcast on ITV from 1979 to 1984 and from 1988 to 1992, with occasional hiatuses. Hywel Bennett starred as James Shelley, a sardonic, 28-year-old, anti-establishment postgraduate and career income tax dodger...
, Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
, State of Play, The Elephant Man
The Elephant Man (film)
The Elephant Man is a 1980 American drama film based on the true story of Joseph Merrick , a severely deformed man in 19th century London...
, Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun (film)
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers...
, Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply is a 1990 film made for the BBC's Screen Two series.-Overview:The film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. Minghella said he wrote the script specifically as “a vehicle for [Stevenson] to express all her talents...
and Two Men Went to War
Two Men Went to War
Two Men Went to War is a 2002 British film based on a true World War II story, from Raymond Foxall's book Amateur Commandos which describes the adventures of two army dentists who sneak off on their own personal invasion of France...
. He appeared as Max, an antique collector, in episode 4 of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
drama Bonekickers
Bonekickers
Bonekickers was a BBC drama about a team of archaeologists, set at the fictional Wessex University. It debuted on 8 July 2008 and ran for one series....
.
In 2005, Ryall played the role of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in the french TV-drama Le Grand Charles
Le Grand Charles
Le Grand Charles was a 2006 French TV-drama on the life of Charles de Gaulle from 1939 to 1959, written and directed by Bernard Stora. De Gaulle was played by Bernard Farcy, Winston Churchill by David Ryall, and Franklin D. Roosevelt by Robert Hardy....
on the life of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
.
Ryall has appeared in the BBC One sitcom Outnumbered
Outnumbered
Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...
since 2007, in which he plays Frank (known as "Granddad"), a character who suffers from dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
. He also appeared as Elphias Doge in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.