David Morrissey
Acting · Directing · Production
Born June 21, 1964, Everton, Liverpool, England, UK
David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. He grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. Learning to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At age 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though took other defining roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998). More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former won him a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter a Best Actor award at the Royal Television Society Awards. His film roles have not always been acclaimed; his appearance as the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006) was widely criticised, and The Reaping (2007) bombed at the box office. Since then, he has had leading roles in Sense and Sensibility (2008), Red Riding (2009) and Five Days (2010), acted in the films Nowhere Boy (2009) and Centurion (2010), and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne (2010). Returning to the stage in 2008, he did a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011. As director, Morrissey has helmed short films, and the dramas Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004) for the BBC. His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010. He is married to novelist Esther Freud, has three children, and is a patron of numerous charities. THEATRE includes Hangmen at the Royal Court; and The Lover / The Collection at Theatre Royal Bath; The End of History at The Royal Court; King John at The Barbican; The School for Scandal and Peer Gynt at The National Theatre; Twelfth Night and Three Days of Rain at the Donmar Warehouse; Macbeth at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; Much Ado About Nothing in The West End; In a Dark Dark House at The Almedia; Julius Caesar at The Bridge. TELEVISION includes Gone, Daddy Issues, Tip Toe, The Siege, The Walking Dead, Prime Target, Sherwood, Red Riding, State of Play (BAFTA nomination for Best Actor), The Missing, The City and The City, Britannia, Extant, and The Driver (also Executive Producer), The Long Shadow, Inside No.9, The Singapore Grip, Good Omens, The 7.39, Our Mutual Friend, Clocking Off, Holding On, State of Play, The Deal, Viva Blackpool, Doctor Who, Sense and Sensibility, The Hollow Crown, True Love, The Field of Blood, South Riding, Thorne: Sleepyhead/Scaredy Cat, One Summer. FILM includes the upcoming The Beatles biopics, Welcome to the Punch, Nowhere Boy, Centurion, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Woman in Cabin 10, The Colour Room, Slingshot, Dampyr, Blitz, The One’s Below, Hilary & Jackie, Some Voices, Born Romantic, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Derailed, Stoned, The Reaping, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
Filmography
- Gone — Michael Polly
- 2026The Oresteia — Christopher Middleton
- Tip Toe — Clive Goss
- Manhunt — Narrator
- Prime Target — Professor Robert Mallinder
- 2025The Woman in Cabin 10 — Thomas Heatherley
- Daddy Issues — Malcolm
- Parish — Executive Producer
- 2024Six Inches of Soil — Narrator (animated sequence)
- 2024Slingshot — Sam Napier
- 2024The Walking Dead: The Return — The Governor (archive footage)
- Britain's Notorious Prisons — Narrator
- Gods of Tennis — Narrator
- The Long Shadow — DCS George Oldfield, ACC George Oldfield
- Turkey: Empire of Erdogan — Narrator
- 2022Dampyr — Gorka
- Ellie & Natasia — Dentist
- Sherwood — DCS Ian St Clair
- 2021The Colour Room — Fred Ridgeway
- 2020A Separate Peace — John Brown
- 2020Klopp: The Inside Story — Narrator
- The Singapore Grip — Walter Blackett
- Good Omens — Captain Vincent
- Britannia — General Aulus Plautius
- 2018National Theatre Live: Julius Caesar — Mark Antony
- The City and the City — Tyador Borlú
- Lion Country: Night and Day — Narrator (voice)
- 2016National Theatre Live: Hangmen — Harry
- 2016The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: 10 Years On — Narrator (voice)
- 2016The Ones Below — Jon
- Rock 'n' Roll America — Narrator
- 2015Ronaldo — (voice)
- 2015Secrets of Mexico's Drug War — Narrator
- Extant — Tobias Shepherd
- Inside No. 9 — Martin
- The 7.39 — Carl Matthews
- The Driver — Vince McKee, Executive Producer
- The Missing — Sam Webster
- 2013Too Far Gone — Philip Blake (The Govenor)
- 2013Welcome to the Punch — Thomas Geiger
- 2012Earthbound — Bill Norman
- The Hollow Crown — Earl of Northumberland
- True Love — Adrian
- 2011Blitz — Dunlop
- 2011Gee Gee — Michael
- 2011London's Burning — Borough Commander
- 2011Macbeth — Macbeth
- South Riding — Robert Carne
- The Field of Blood — Murray Devlin
- 2010Centurion — Bothos
- 2010Cooked — (voice)
- 2010Mrs Mandela — Theunis Swanepoel
- The Walking Dead — Philip Blake
- Thorne — Tom Thorne, Creator
- 2010Thorne: Scaredycat — DI Tom Thorne
- 2009Don't Worry About Me — Director
- 2009Is Anybody There? — Steve
- 2009Nowhere Boy — Bobby Dykins
- Red Riding — DS Maurice Jobson
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 — Maurice Jobson
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 — Maurice Jobson
- 2009Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983 — Maurice Jobson
- 2009U Be Dead — Dr. Jan Falkowski
- 2008Doctor Who: The Next Doctor — Jackson Lake
- Meet The Immigrants
- Sense and Sensibility — Colonel Brandon
- 2008The Other Boleyn Girl — Thomas Howard - Duke of Norfolk
- Five Days — DI Mal Craig
- Meadowlands — Danny Brogan
- 2007Taking Liberties — Narration
- 2007The Reaping — Doug
- 2007The Water Horse — Captain Thomas Hamilton
- 2006Basic Instinct 2 — Michael Glass
- 2006Viva Blackpool — Ripley Holden
- 2005Derailed — Sam Griffin
- 2005Stoned — Tom Keylock
- 2005The Year London Blew Up — Narrator (voice)
- Blackpool — Ripley Holden
- Passer By — Director
- This World
- Zero Hour — Narrator (Voice), Vocal Coach
- 2004Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High — Narrator
- 9mm: Guns and Gangs — Narrator
- State of Play — Stephen Collins
- 2003The Deal — Gordon Brown
- 2003This Little Life — Richie MacGregor
- Murder — Dave Dewston
- 2002Out of Control — Mike
- 2001Captain Corelli's Mandolin — Captain Günther Weber
- Linda Green — Pete
- Sweet Revenge — Director
- 2000Born Romantic — Fergus
- 2000Some Voices — Pete
- 2000The Suicide Club — Henry Joyce
- 1999Fanny & Elvis — Rob
- Pure Wickedness — Frank Healy
- 1998Big Cat — Leo
- 1998Hilary and Jackie — Kiffer Finzi
- Our Mutual Friend — Bradley Headstone
- 1998The Commissioner — Murray Lomax
- Holding On — Shaun
- Into the Fire — Michael Ride
- 1996The One That Got Away — Andy "Mac" McNab
- Devil's Advocate — Matthew Salt
- Out of the Blue — DS Jim 'Lew' Lewyn
- 1994Being Human — Cyprion's Man
- Finney — Stephen Finney
- The Knock — Gerry Birch
- Between the Lines
- 1992Black and Blue — DC Norman Mills
- Framed — DC Lawrence 'Larry' Jackson
- 1992Waterland — Dick Crick
- 1991Clubland — DC Judd
- 1991Robin Hood — Little John
- The Storyteller: Greek Myths — Theseus
- 1991The Storyteller: Greek Myths - Theseus & the Minotaur — Theseus
- 1990Available Light — Marcus
- 1990The Widowmaker — Rob
- Agatha Christie's Poirot — John Arbuthnot
- Screen One — DC Norman Mills
- 1988Drowning by Numbers — Bellamy
- 1988Out of Town — The Traveller
- 1987Cause Célèbre — George Bowman
- ScreenPlay — Marcus, Judd
- One Summer — Billy Rizley
- Inflicted Kindness — DS Mark Thompson
- The Siege
Appearances as themselves (17)
- Rob Beckett's Smart TV — Self - Guest
- Between the Covers — Self
- 2020Jürgen Klopp: Germany's Greatest Export — Self - Narrator (voice)
- 2019Two Tribes — Self
- The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer — Self - Guest
- 2013Doctor Who Explained — Self
- 2013The Walking Dead: A Decade of Dead — Self
- 2011Around The World In 60 Mins — Self - Narrator (voice)
- Doctor Who Greatest Moments — Self
- Would I Lie to You? — Self - Panellist
- The One Show — Self
- The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — Self
- 2004Disaster at Chernobyl — Self - Narrator (voice)
- 2004Zero Hour - Terror in Tokyo — Self-Narrator(voice)
- 2003Trust Me - I'm a Politician — Self
- Friday Night with Jonathan Ross — Self - Guest
- Soccer AM — Self