| Iain Glen | |
| Birth Name: | Iain Alan Sutherland Glen[1] |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Years Active: | 1986–present |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 3 |
| Occupation: | Actor |
Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor.[2] He has appeared as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the Resident Evil film series (2004–2016) and as Jorah Mormont in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). Other notable film and television roles include John Hanning Speke in Mountains of the Moon (1990), Larry Winters in Silent Scream (1990) for which he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival, Manfred Powell in (2001), Brother John in Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), the title role in Jack Taylor (2010–2016), Sir Richard Carlisle in Downton Abbey (2011), James Willett in Eye in the Sky (2015), and Bruce Wayne in Titans (2019–2021).
An accomplished stage actor, Glen has acted in a wide array of theatre including playing the titular roles in Shakespeare productions like Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry V. He received three Laurence Olivier Award nominations for his performances in the original production of the musical Martin Guerre, the West End production of The Blue Room and the 2006 West End revival of The Crucible, portraying John Proctor.
Glen was born on 24 June 1961 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), followed by the University of Aberdeen. He then trained in acting at the RADA in London,[3] due to it being the only one holding auditions at that moment.[4] He graduated in 1985 with an Acting (RADA) Diploma,[3] having won the Bancroft Gold Medal. His older brother is Hamish Glen, artistic director of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry[4] and former artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.[5]
Glen's big screen debut came in the 1988 film Paris by Night, alongside Charlotte Rampling and Michael Gambon.[4] The same year, Glen appeared in Gorillas in the Mist with Sigourney Weaver.[4] In 1990, Glen won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Silent Scream.[6] That year he was cast as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in Tom Stoppard's film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.[7]
In 1998, Glen was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Blue Room starring opposite Nicole Kidman.[8]
In 2002, Glen starred with Emilia Fox in the Italian-French-British romance-drama film The Soul Keeper, directed by Roberto Faenza.[9] In 2008, Glen was Samson in the BBC Radio 3 production of Samson Agonistes directed by John Tydeman.[10]
Glen starred as John Fielding in the 2008 British TV mini-series City of Vice. Ian McDiarmid plays Henry Fielding (author of the novel Tom Jones) who along with his brother, John, started London's first professional police force. In 2009, it was announced that Glen had joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones, starring as Ser Jorah Mormont, a knight in exile from Westeros, who becomes adviser to Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) when she joins the Dothraki.[11]
In 2010, he played the role of Father Octavian, leader of a sect of clerics who were on a mission against the Weeping Angels in "The Time of Angels"[12] and "Flesh and Stone",[13] a two-episode story which formed part of the fifth season of the revived television series Doctor Who (played by Matt Smith). He appeared in the second series of Downton Abbey as Sir Richard Carlisle, a tabloid publisher who is a suitor to, and subsequently engaged to, Lady Mary.[14]
From 2010 to 2016, Glen played the title character in the Irish TV crime series Jack Taylor, adapted from the novels by Ken Bruen, and set in Galway, Ireland.[15] [16]
In the 2012 BBC drama series Prisoners' Wives, he plays Paul, the husband of Francesca, whose comfortable life comes crashing down when he is imprisoned for drug trafficking.[17] The same year, he starred in a new four-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, and directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Sasha Yevtushenko.[18]
From December 2013 until early January 2014, Glen starred alongside Richard McCabe in Fortune's Fool at the Old Vic, directed by Lucy Bailey.[19] He had been due to appear in the full run until late February 2014,[20] but was forced to withdraw early to recover from illness, with his role taken by his understudy Patrick Cremin and then by William Houston, who joined the cast at around the same time as Glen's departure.[21]
In 2019, it was revealed that Glen would be portraying Bruce Wayne on the DC Universe TV series Titans.[22]
In 2023, Glen starred as Magnus MacMillan, in charge of the Kinloch Bravo oil rig in The Rig, in a cast that included Emily Hampshire, Martin Compston and Mark Addy.[23] The same year, he starred as William Carr in Operation Napoleon, a thriller directed by Óskar Þór Axelsson and based on Arnaldur Indriðason's best selling book of the same name.[24]
Glen plays Leonard in the upcoming Belgian film The Last Front, a story about a broken man who takes a stand during the First World War.[25]
Glen has received numerous nominations and awards for his performance in Game of Thrones. Notably, he won the Best Actor award at the 2016 Taormina Film Fest.[26]
Glen lives in south London with his wife and three children.[27]
He is a keen cricketer, and has played for the Actors XI.[28]
| Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Paris by Night | Wallace Sharp | |
| Gorillas in the Mist | Brendan | ||
| 1990 | Mountains of the Moon | John Hanning Speke | |
| Silent Scream | Larry Winters | ||
| Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | Hamlet | ||
| Fools of Fortune | William Quinton | ||
| 1991 | 30 Door Key | Joey | |
| 1993 | The Young Americans | Edward Foster | |
| 1998 | Mararía | Bertrand | |
| 2000 | Beautiful Creatures | Tony | |
| Paranoid | Stan | ||
| 2001 | Manfred Powell | ||
| Gabriel & Me | Dad | ||
| 2002 | Darkness | Mark | |
| The Soul Keeper | Dr. Carl Gustav Jung | ||
| 2003 | Song for a Raggy Boy | Brother John | |
| Spy Sorge | Richard Sorge | ||
| 2004 | Dr. Alexander Isaacs | ||
| 2005 | Man to Man | Alexander Auchinleck | |
| Vagabond Shoes | Alec Murray | Short film | |
| Tara Road | Danny | ||
| Kingdom of Heaven | Richard Cœur de Lion | ||
| 2006 | Small Engine Repair | Doug | |
| 2007 | The Last Legion | Orestes | |
| Dr. Alexander Isaacs / Tyrant | |||
| Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution | Frank Ratcliffe | ||
| 2008 | Slapper | Red / Michael Simmons | Short film |
| 2009 | Pope Joan | Village Priest | |
| Harry Brown | S.I. Childs | ||
| The Case of Unfaithful Klara | Denis | ||
| 2011 | The Iron Lady | Alfred Roberts | |
| 2013 | Kick-Ass 2 | Uncle Ralph | |
| 2014 | Guy Martin's Spitfire | Narrator (voice) | Documentary |
| Monsters Behind the Iron Curtain | Narrator (voice) | Documentary | |
| 2015 | The Bad Education Movie | Pasco | |
| Eye in the Sky | James Willett | ||
| 2016 | Dr. Alexander Isaacs | ||
| Dusty and Me | Mickey the Bubble | ||
| 2017 | My Cousin Rachel | Nick Kendall | |
| 2019 | The Flood | Philip | |
| The Fabric of You | Isaac (voice) | Short film | |
| Isabel | Colin | Short film | |
| 2020 | The Windermere Children | Jock Lawrence | |
| The Racer | Sonny | ||
| Black Beauty | John Manly | ||
| 2021 | Tides | Gibson | |
| 2022 | The Lost Girls | Hook | |
| 2023 | Operation Napoleon | William Carr | |
| 2024 | The Last Front | Leonard | Released in Belgium |
| What About Love | American Ambassador | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Taggart | Scott Adair | Episode: "Knife Edge" |
| 1986–1989 | Screen Two | Allan Innes / Sailor / Ray | 3 episodes |
| 1988 | The Fear | Carl Galton | 5 episodes |
| 1991 | Adam Bede | Adam Bede | Television film |
| 1992 | Frankie's House | Tim Page | 4 episodes |
| Screen One | Cmdr Powell | Episode: "Black and Blue" | |
| 1993 | Missus | Father Pietro Salviati, Missus | Television film |
| 1996 | Death of a Salesman | Biff | Television film |
| 1997 | Painted Lady | Sebastian Stafford | 2 episodes |
| 1998 | Trial & Retribution | Damon Morton | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | Wives and Daughters | Mr. Preston | 4 episodes |
| 2000 | Glasgow Kiss | Stuart Morrison | 6 episodes |
| The Wyvern Mystery | Charles Fairfield | Television film | |
| Anchor Me | Nathan Carter | Television film | |
| 2002 | Impact | Marcus Hodge | Television film |
| 2003 | Carla | Daniel | Television film |
| 2005 | Kidnapped | Alan Breck | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | Starting Over | Gregor Dewhurst | Television film |
| The Relief of Belsen | James Johnston | Television film | |
| 2008 | City of Vice | John Fielding | 5 episodes |
| 2009 | The Diary of Anne Frank | Otto Frank | 5 episodes |
| Law & Order: UK | Luke Slade | Episode: "Unsafe" | |
| Into the Storm | King George VI | Television film | |
| 2010 | Doctor Who | Father Octavian | 2 episodes |
| Spooks | Vaughn Edwards | 8 episodes | |
| 2010–2016 | Jack Taylor | Jack Taylor | Series of television films |
| 2011 | Crawford | 2 episodes | |
| Downton Abbey | Sir Richard Carlisle | 6 episodes | |
| 2011–2019 | Game of Thrones | Ser Jorah Mormont | 52 episodes |
| 2012 | Haven | Roland Holloway | Episode: "Real Estate" |
| Henry IV, Part II | Earl of Warwick | Episode of The Hollow Crown | |
| 2012–2013 | Prisoners' Wives | Paul | 10 episodes |
| 2013 | Borgia | Girolamo Savonarola | 2 episodes |
| Ripper Street | Colonel Madoc Faulkner | Episode: "The Weight of One Man's Heart" | |
| Agatha Christie's Poirot | Dr. David Willoughby | Episode: "Elephants Can Remember" | |
| Breathless | Inspector Ronald Mulligan | 6 episodes | |
| 2014 | The Red Tent | Jacob | 2 episodes |
| 2014–2017 | Narrator (voice) | 10 episodes | |
| 2016–2017 | Cleverman | Jarrod Slade | 12 episodes |
| 2016–2019 | Delicious | Leo | 12 episodes |
| 2018 | The Sidemen Show | Narrator (voice) | 7 episodes |
| Mrs Wilson | Alexander "Alec" Wilson | 3 episodes | |
| 2019 | Ice Age: Return of the Mammoth | Narrator (voice) | Television documentary |
| 2019–2021 | Titans | Bruce Wayne | 11 episodes |
| 2021–present | Reyka | Angus Speelman | 8 episodes |
| 2023 | The Rig | Magnus MacMillan | 6 episodes |
| Silo | Dr. Pete Nichols | 6 episodes | |
| Juste Belmont (voice) | 2 episodes |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Silver Bear | Best Actor | Silent Scream | ||
| 1991 | Evening Standard British Film Award | Best Actor | Mountains of the Moon, Fools of Fortune, Silent Scream | ||
| Ian Charleson Award | Special commendation[30] | Hamlet | |||
| 1994 | Evening Standard Theatre Award | Best Actor | Henry V | ||
| 1997 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actor in a Musical | Martin Guerre | ||
| 1999 | Best Actor | The Blue Room | |||
| Drama League Award | Best Actor | ||||
| 2007 | Whatsonstage.com Award | Best Actor | The Crucible | ||
| Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actor | ||||
| 2012 | Screen Actors Guild Award | Game of Thrones | |||
| 2013 | |||||
| Downton Abbey | |||||
| 2014 | Game of Thrones | ||||
| 2015 | |||||
| 2016 | |||||
| 2018 | |||||
| 2020 | |||||
| 2016 | Taormina Film Fest | Best Actor | Game of Thrones | ||
| 2019 | IGN Summer Movie Awards | Best TV Ensemble[31] | Game of Thrones | ||
| 2021 | Almeria Film Festival | Land of Cinema Award | N/A (Lifetime Award) |