Dominic West
Encyclopedia
Dominic Gerard Fe West is an English actor best known for his role as Detective Jimmy McNulty
in the HBO drama series The Wire
.
called 3 Joes. His other screen appearances include True Blue
, Chicago
and Mona Lisa Smile
. His most notable television role has been Baltimore
police detective Jimmy McNulty
on the HBO television police drama The Wire
. West was praised for the accuracy of his character's accent.
During his stint on The Wire, West directed the Season 5 episode, "Took".
In film, he portrayed the heavy metal
guitar
ist Kirk Cuddy in the 2001 film Rock Star
. In 2006 West made a guest appearance as an actor in a sketch in The Catherine Tate Show
, alongside "Frankie Howerd
impressionist". In 2007, he played the Sparta
n politician Theron in 300
. West also starred in the 1999 film version
of William Shakespeare
's A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Lysander
.
West appeared in the role of Oliver Cromwell
in the Channel 4
series The Devil's Whore
. West played the villain, Jigsaw
, in the December 2008 film Punisher: War Zone
. He also made an appearance on Eminem's
2009 album Relapse on the opening track, as a doctor
discharging Eminem from a rehab facility.
In December 2009, he starred as Hank in a radio adaptation of Eugene O'Neill
's expressionist
play The Hairy Ape
for BBC Radio 3
, was a guest presenter on the BBC show Have I Got News for You
, and ended the year alongside Joan Rivers and Sarah Jessica Parker with an appearance on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Show. West portrayed General Virilus in Neil Marshall
's adventure thriller Centurion
and stars in the UK Ghost film The Awakening.
In 2011, West filmed Appropriate Adult
, a series about serial killer Fred West
which focuses on the events between the Wests' arrests in 1994, and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day, 1995. His physical resemblance to West was noted during filming and Fred West's daughter Mae West thought he captured the "evil essence of him - his character, his mannerisms, even his gait." Janet Leach found it difficult to approach Dominic in character on set because he was so convincing that it took Leach back 17 years. The series aired on ITV on 4 and 11 September as a two part 90 minute special. Dominic West also said "I have this recurring dream where I'm perched on a wall and Fred West is trying to grab me and pull me down,".
(1996) at the Old Vic
. In 2005, he returned to the stage to play Orlando in David Lan's As You Like It at the Wyndham's Theatre
in London. He played Edward in Harley Granville Barker's The Voysey Inheritance
directed by Peter Gill
at the Royal National Theatre
in 2006. In late 2006 and early 2007, he played the lead role of Jan in Tom Stoppard
's Rock 'n' Roll
in London
's West End
.
Continuing his theatre work, he starred at London's Donmar Warehouse
as the protagonist in Pedro Calderón de la Barca
’s existential drama Life is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews.
In February 2011, it was announced that he would take on the title role in Simon Gray
's classic comedy, Butley, playing at the Duchess Theatre
in London from 1 June 2011 and in the September he returned to his native Sheffield
to play Iago
to his former Wire co-star Clarke Peters
's Othello
at the Crucible Theatre
.
". Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources. West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
; Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D. H. Lawrence
; High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby
; The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
; Life Class
by Pat Barker
; The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard; and Something Childish But Very Natural
by Katherine Mansfield
.
family in Sheffield
, Yorkshire, England, the son of George West, who owned a plastics factory, and Moya, a housewife. West attended Eton College
and Trinity College, Dublin
. Dominic West graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
, London, in 1995.
West and Catherine FitzGerald became engaged in 2007, and married in Glin, County Limerick
, Ireland on 26 June 2010. They have three children together: Dora, Senan and Francis. Catherine Fitzgerald is the daughter of Desmond FitzGerald
, the 29th Knight of Glin
and was formerly married to the Earl of Durham, then Viscount Lambton.
In November 2010, West was awarded an honorary degree
for services to the Arts by Sheffield Hallam University
.
In November 2011, West was also awarded the Honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated from with a degree in English in previous years.
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...
in the HBO drama series The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
.
Film and TV
West made his debut in 1991 in a shortShort subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
called 3 Joes. His other screen appearances include True Blue
True Blue (film)
True Blue is a 1996 British sports film based on the book True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny by Daniel Topolski and Patrick Robinson. It follows the 1987 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race and the disagreement amongst the Oxford team known as the "Oxford mutiny". For the US DVD release, the film was...
, Chicago
Chicago (2002 film)
Chicago is a 2002 musical film adapted from the satirical stage musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz-age Chicago....
and Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...
. His most notable television role has been Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
police detective Jimmy McNulty
Jimmy McNulty
Detective James "Jimmy" McNulty is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by British actor Dominic West. McNulty is an Irish American detective in the Baltimore Police Department...
on the HBO television police drama The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
. West was praised for the accuracy of his character's accent.
During his stint on The Wire, West directed the Season 5 episode, "Took".
In film, he portrayed the heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Kirk Cuddy in the 2001 film Rock Star
Rock Star (2001 film)
Rock Star is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. It tells the story of Chris "Izzy" Cole, a tribute band singer whose ascendance to the position of lead vocalist of his favorite band was inspired by the real-life story of Tim...
. In 2006 West made a guest appearance as an actor in a sketch in The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...
, alongside "Frankie Howerd
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...
impressionist". In 2007, he played the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
n politician Theron in 300
300 (film)
300 is a 2007 American fantasy action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film was directed by Zack Snyder, while Miller served as executive producer and consultant...
. West also starred in the 1999 film version
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Michael Hoffman. The ensemble cast features Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel,...
of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
as Lysander
Lysander (Shakespeare)
Lysander is one of the iconic lovers in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. A handsome young man of Athens, Lysander is in love with Hermia and plans to run away from her father with her to escape Athenian law and wed. But his plans are disrupted when Oberon decides to have some...
.
West appeared in the role of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
series The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore
The Devil's Whore is a four-part television series set during the English Civil War, produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4 in 2008. It centres on the adventures of the fictional Angelica Fanshawe, and the historical Leveller soldier Edward Sexby...
. West played the villain, Jigsaw
Jigsaw (Marvel Comics)
Jigsaw is a fictional character, a supervillain in the . Throughout his many appearances, he has served as one of the Punisher's few recurring villains...
, in the December 2008 film Punisher: War Zone
Punisher: War Zone
Punisher: War Zone is a 2008 comic book action film directed by Lexi Alexander; based on the fictional Marvel Comics vigilante/anti-hero the Punisher. It is the third film to depict the Marvel character Frank Castle...
. He also made an appearance on Eminem's
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
2009 album Relapse on the opening track, as a doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
discharging Eminem from a rehab facility.
In December 2009, he starred as Hank in a radio adaptation of Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
play The Hairy Ape
The Hairy Ape
-Plot :The play tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer known as Yank, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich...
for BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, was a guest presenter on the BBC show Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, and ended the year alongside Joan Rivers and Sarah Jessica Parker with an appearance on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Show. West portrayed General Virilus in Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall
Neil Marshall is an English film director, editor and screenwriter. Marshall began his career in editing and in 2002 directed his first feature film Dog Soldiers, which became a cult film. He followed up with the critically acclaimed horror film The Descent in 2005...
's adventure thriller Centurion
Centurion (film)
Centurion is a 2010 British action thriller film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the supposed disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the second century CE. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Olga Kurylenko and Dominic West....
and stars in the UK Ghost film The Awakening.
In 2011, West filmed Appropriate Adult
Appropriate Adult
Appropriate Adult is a 2011 British television film, first shown on ITV in two 90-minute parts on 4 and 11 September 2011. It starred Dominic West, Emily Watson and Monica Dolan...
, a series about serial killer Fred West
Fred West
Frederick Walter Stephen West , was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at...
which focuses on the events between the Wests' arrests in 1994, and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day, 1995. His physical resemblance to West was noted during filming and Fred West's daughter Mae West thought he captured the "evil essence of him - his character, his mannerisms, even his gait." Janet Leach found it difficult to approach Dominic in character on set because he was so convincing that it took Leach back 17 years. The series aired on ITV on 4 and 11 September as a two part 90 minute special. Dominic West also said "I have this recurring dream where I'm perched on a wall and Fred West is trying to grab me and pull me down,".
Theatre
As a theatre actor, West has appeared as Konstantin in the Peter Hall-directed The SeagullThe Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
(1996) at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
. In 2005, he returned to the stage to play Orlando in David Lan's As You Like It at the Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
in London. He played Edward in Harley Granville Barker's The Voysey Inheritance
The Voysey Inheritance
The Voysey Inheritance is a play written by the English dramatist Harley Granville-Barker. Originally written in 1905, it was revived at the National Theatre in 2006.It is currently in the public domain.- See also :*...
directed by Peter Gill
Peter Gill (playwright)
Peter Gill, theatre director, playwright and former actor, was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 7 September 1939, son of George John Gill and his wife Margaret Mary .He was educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff.-Career:...
at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in 2006. In late 2006 and early 2007, he played the lead role of Jan in 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 Rock 'n' Roll
Rock 'n' Roll (play)
Rock 'n' Roll is a play by British playwright Tom Stoppard that premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006.-Plot summary:The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
.
Continuing his theatre work, he starred at London's 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...
as the protagonist in Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
’s existential drama Life is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews.
In February 2011, it was announced that he would take on the title role in Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
's classic comedy, Butley, playing at the Duchess Theatre
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
in London from 1 June 2011 and in the September he returned to his native Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
to play Iago
Iago
Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
to his former Wire co-star Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
's Othello
Othello (character)
Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
at the Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
.
Advertising
In 2009, West starred in a series of online films known as "The Carte Noire ReadersThe Carte Noire Readers
Released in July 2009, The Carte Noire Readers is a series of online Jackanory style films for French coffee brand, Carte Noire. It stars British actors Dominic West, Greg Wise and Dan Stevens reading love scenes from a variety of classic and modern Penguin novels.In March 2010 a new series was...
". Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources. West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
by Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
; Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...
by D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
; High Fidelity
High Fidelity (novel)
High Fidelity is a 1995 British novel by Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. It also served as the basis for a 2006 Broadway musical of the same name.-Plot summary:...
by Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
; The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1920, which won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s. In 1920, The Age of Innocence was serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine, and later released by D...
by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
; Life Class
Life Class
Life Class is a novel by Pat Barker released in 2007. The novel is about students at the Slade School of Art in the first years of the twentieth century, one of whom volunteers to serve in a front line hospital during the First World War....
by Pat Barker
Pat Barker
Pat Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.-Personal life:...
; The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard; and Something Childish But Very Natural
Something Childish But Very Natural
Something Childish But Very Natural is a 1914 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published posthumously in the Adelphi, though it was written in 1914.-Plot summary:...
by Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
.
Films
- 3 Joes (1991)
- Richard IIIRichard III (1995 film)Richard III is a 1995 drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's play of the same name, starring Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood and Dominic West....
(1995) - True BlueTrue Blue (film)True Blue is a 1996 British sports film based on the book True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny by Daniel Topolski and Patrick Robinson. It follows the 1987 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race and the disagreement amongst the Oxford team known as the "Oxford mutiny". For the US DVD release, the film was...
(1996) - Surviving PicassoSurviving PicassoSurviving Picasso is a 1996 Merchant Ivory Film starring Anthony Hopkins as the painter Pablo Picasso. It was shot in Paris and southern France.It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper...
(1996) - The GamblerThe Gambler (1997 film)The Gambler is a 1997 drama film directed by Károly Makk and starring Michael Gambon, Jodhi May and Polly Walker. It is set around the writing of the novel The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.-Cast:* Michael Gambon ... Fyodor Dostoyevsky...
(1997) - Diana & MeDiana & MeDiana & Me is a 1997 Australian romantic comedy film directed by David Parker and starring Toni Collette, Dominic West and John Simm.-Plot:...
(1997) - Spice World (1997)
- A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film)A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 1999 American film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Michael Hoffman. The ensemble cast features Kevin Kline as Bottom, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Everett as Titania and Oberon, and Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel,...
(1999) - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom MenaceStar Wars Episode I: The Phantom MenaceStar Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the fourth film to be released in the Star Wars saga, as the first of a three-part prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as the first film in the saga in terms...
(1999) - A Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol (1999 film)A Christmas Carol is a 1999 television film adaptation of Charles Dickens's famous novel A Christmas Carol. It was directed by David Hugh Jones and stars Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit...
(1999) - 28 Days (2000)
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas NicklebyThe Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001 film)The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a British movie released for TV in 2001, directed by Stephen Whittaker, based on the novel by Charles Dickens.-Cast:-Awards:...
(2001) - Rock StarRock Star (2001 film)Rock Star is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. It tells the story of Chris "Izzy" Cole, a tribute band singer whose ascendance to the position of lead vocalist of his favorite band was inspired by the real-life story of Tim...
(2001) - Ten Minutes OlderTen Minutes OlderTen Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films titled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. Fifteen celebrated film-makers were invited to...
(2002) - ChicagoChicago (2002 film)Chicago is a 2002 musical film adapted from the satirical stage musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz-age Chicago....
(2002) - Mona Lisa SmileMona Lisa SmileMona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...
(2003) - The Forgotten (2004)
- Hannibal Rising (2007)
- 300300 (film)300 is a 2007 American fantasy action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film was directed by Zack Snyder, while Miller served as executive producer and consultant...
(2007) - Punisher: War ZonePunisher: War ZonePunisher: War Zone is a 2008 comic book action film directed by Lexi Alexander; based on the fictional Marvel Comics vigilante/anti-hero the Punisher. It is the third film to depict the Marvel character Frank Castle...
(2008) - CenturionCenturion (film)Centurion is a 2010 British action thriller film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the supposed disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the second century CE. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Olga Kurylenko and Dominic West....
(2010) - Jackboots on WhitehallJackboots on WhitehallJackboots on Whitehall is a satirical film portraying an alternate history of the Second World War, in which Nazi Germany has seized London, causing the British to band together at Hadrian's Wall if they are to thwart the German invasion...
(2010) - From Time to TimeFrom Time to Time (film)From Time to Time is a 2009 British adventure film directed by Julian Fellowes and starring Maggie Smith, Carice van Houten, Alex Etel, Eliza Bennett, Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, Dominic West, Hugh Bonneville, Kwayedza Kureya and Pauline Collins. It was adapted from the children's novel The Chimneys of...
(2010) - Johnny English RebornJohnny English RebornJohnny English Reborn is a 2011 British spy comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre and film franchise reboots. The film is the sequel to Johnny English , and stars Rowan Atkinson reprising his role as the title character and directed by Oliver Parker. The film has a slightly...
(2011) - Arthur ChristmasArthur ChristmasArthur Christmas is a 2011 British/American 3-D computer animated fantasy comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was released on November 11, 2011, in the UK, and on November 23, 2011, in the USA...
(2011) - John Carter (2012)
- The AwakeningThe Awakening (2011 film)The Awakening is an upcoming 2011 British horror thriller film directed by Nick Murphy, starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton.-Plot:1921 England is overwhelmed by the loss and grief of World War I...
(2011)
Television
- The WireThe Wire (TV series)The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
(2002–2008) - The Catherine Tate ShowThe Catherine Tate ShowThe Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...
(Guest Appearance as the Actor) (2006) - The Devil's WhoreThe Devil's WhoreThe Devil's Whore is a four-part television series set during the English Civil War, produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4 in 2008. It centres on the adventures of the fictional Angelica Fanshawe, and the historical Leveller soldier Edward Sexby...
(2008) - Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin (2009)
- Have I Got News For You (Guest Host) (2009)
- The Hour (2011)
- Appropriate AdultAppropriate AdultAppropriate Adult is a 2011 British television film, first shown on ITV in two 90-minute parts on 4 and 11 September 2011. It starred Dominic West, Emily Watson and Monica Dolan...
(2011)
Personal
West was born into an Irish CatholicIrish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
family in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Yorkshire, England, the son of George West, who owned a plastics factory, and Moya, a housewife. West attended Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
. Dominic West graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, London, in 1995.
West and Catherine FitzGerald became engaged in 2007, and married in Glin, County Limerick
Glin, County Limerick
Glin is a village in the northwest of County Limerick, Ireland. It is on the south shore of the River Shannon's estuary, on the N69 road between Foynes and Tarbert. The population of the village in 2006 was 566.- History :...
, Ireland on 26 June 2010. They have three children together: Dora, Senan and Francis. Catherine Fitzgerald is the daughter of Desmond FitzGerald
Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin
Desmond John Villiers FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin , was an Irish hereditary knight and president of the Irish Georgian Society.-Career:...
, the 29th Knight of Glin
Knight of Glin
The Knight of Glin, also called the Black Knight, was a hereditary title in the Fitzgeralds of Limerick, Ireland since the early 14th century. The family was a branch of the FitzGerald dynasty or Geraldines, related to the Earls of Desmond , who were granted extensive lands in County Limerick by...
and was formerly married to the Earl of Durham, then Viscount Lambton.
In November 2010, West was awarded an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
for services to the Arts by Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield Hallam University is a higher education institution in South Yorkshire, England, based on two sites in Sheffield. City Campus is located in the city centre, close to Sheffield railway station, and Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away, adjacent to Ecclesall Road in...
.
In November 2011, West was also awarded the Honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated from with a degree in English in previous years.