Scottish born actor Kenneth Cranham is one of the most recognisable character actors in Britain. Having trained at the National Youth Theatre and RADA, Cranham first came to prominence as Noah Claypole in the 1968 Carol Reed musical Oliver! In the late '70s, Cranham memorably played Sapper Salt in Euston Films' Danger UXB, before taking the title role in the popular postwar set period comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon. His most famous film role from around this time was Dr. Philip Channard in Hellraiser II. In more recent years he has starred in the HBO series Rome, as well as the films Hot Fuzz, Layer Cake, Valkyrie, Made in Dagenham, Maleficent and Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool. Among many stage credits are West End productions of Entertaining Mr Sloane, Loot, An Inspector Calls (both transferring to Broadway), The Ruffian on the Stair, The Birthday Party and Gaslight (at the Old Vic). For his role as Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2016, Cranham won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Andre in Florian Zeller's The Father. The play originated at the Theatre Royal Bath's Ustinov Studio in the Autumn of 2014, before touring the country and transferring to the West End in the Summer of 2015, and returning to the Duke of York's Theatre in Spring 2016. The play received an unprecedented five star review from every leading national press publication, and Cranham's performance was described as "the performance of his life" His first wife was actress Diana Quick. He has two daughters: Nancy Cranham with actress Charlotte Cornwell, and Kathleen Cranham with his second wife, actress Fiona Victory, whom he met on the set of Shine on Harvey Moon.

Filmography

• Finding Alice — Gerry Walsh
• Trying — Barry
• 2019Born a King — Lord Curzon
• Hatton Garden — Brian Reader
• 2019Mr. Jones — Lloyd George
• 2019Official Secrets — Judge Hyam
• The Spanish Princess — John Morton
• 2018Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires — Leopold Czihaczek
• Bancroft — Charlie Haverstock
• 2017Dark Ditties Presents: The Offer — The Host
• 2017Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool — Joe Turner
• Strike — Dennis Creed
• The White Princess — John Morton
• Neil Gaiman's Likely Stories — Dean Smith
• War and Peace — Uncle Mikhail
• 37 Days — John Burns
• Inside No. 9 — Rupert
• 2014Maleficent — King Henry
• 2014The Legend of Hercules — Lucius
• 2013Closed Circuit — Cameron Fischer
• 2013Flying Blind — Victor
• In the Flesh — Vicar Oddie
• 2012Panto! — Jerry
• 2012Suspension of Disbelief — Bullock
• 20115 Days of War — Michael Stilton
• Death in Paradise — Father John
• 2011Graffiti Wars — Narrator (Voice)
• 2011National Theatre Live: The Cherry Orchard — Firs
• 2011The Night Watch — Horace Mundy
• 2010Made in Dagenham — Monty Taylor
• Upstairs Downstairs — Sgt Ashworth
• Moving On — Mike
• 2009Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen — MJ O'Loughlin
• The Addictions of Sin: WH Auden in His Own Words — W H Auden
• Merlin — Aulfric
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles — Mr Clare
• 2008Valkyrie — Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
• 2007Heroes & Villains: Napoleon — General Carteaux
• Heroes and Villains
• 2007Hot Fuzz — James Reaper
• Lilies — Health Inspector
• 2007Sinking of the Lusitania: Terror at Sea — Captain Turner
• 2007The Man from Montevideo — Gary Solway
• 2006A Good Year — Sir Nigel
• 2006Hannibal: Rome's Worst Nightmare — Narrator
• 2006The Chatterley Affair — Older Keith
• 2006The Lavender List — Harold Wilson
• The Line of Beauty — Sir Maurice Tipper
• 2005Mangal Pandey - The Rising — Mr. Kent
• Rome — Gnaeus Pompey Magnus
• Agatha Christie's Marple — Rex Fortescue
• 2004Hannibal: The Man Who Hated Rome — Narrator
• Hustle — Francis Owen
• 2004Layer Cake — Jimmy Price
• 2004Man Dancin' — D.I. Walter 'Pancho' Villers
• New Tricks
• The Genius of Mozart — Leopold Mozart
• 2004Trauma — DC Jackson
• 2003Blackball — Chairman Collins
• 2003Killing Hitler — Brigadier Sir Stewart Menzies
• Murder Investigation Team — Ray Morgan
• 2003Pollyanna — Mr. Pendleton
• 2003Sparkling Cyanide — George Barton
• Believe Nothing — DI Aldiss
• Dickens — John Forster
• 2002Night Flight — Ted Atwell
• 2002The Voynich Mystery — Narrator
• 2002Two Men Went To War — Sgt. Peter King
• 2001Women Talking Dirty — George
• 2000Born Romantic — Barney
• 2000Gangster No. 1 — Tommy
• 2000Justice in Wonderland — George Carman
• 2000Kevin & Perry Go Large — Vicar
• 2000Lady Audley's Secret — Sir Michael Audley
• 2000Shiner — Gibson
• 2000The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Espionage Escapades — Colonel Schmidt
• 2000The Most Fertile Man in Ireland — Da
• Without Motive — DCS Derek Henderson
• 1999The Last Yellow — Len
• 1999The Murder of Stephen Lawrence — Michael Mansfield QC
• Our Mutual Friend — Silas Wegg
• 1998RPM — Biggerman
• 1998Vigo — The Producer
• 1997Midnight Man — Brigadier Charles Ferguson
• Midsomer Murders — Jude Langham
• 1997The Boxer — Matt MaGuire
• 1996Bed of Roses — Simon
• Dalziel and Pascoe — Tommy Collingwood
• 1996Deep in the Heart — Robert Flaherty
• 1996On Dangerous Ground — Brigadier Charles Ferguson
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — Reverend Michael Millward
• Kavanagh Q.C. — Roy Lawrence
• 1994Requiem Apache — Tony
• He-Play She-Play — Detective Inspector
• 1993Royal Celebration — Douglas
• 1993Tale of a Vampire — Edgar
• 1993The Vision Thing — Dick Naughton
• 1992A Little Bit of Lippy — Reggie Titherington
• Between the Lines — DCI Stubbs
• Heartbeat — Charlie Wallace
• 1992Monkey Boy — Hennessey
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles — Colonel Schmidt
• Chimera — Hennessey
• Murder Most Horrid — Insp Salford
• 1991Prospero's Books — Sebastian
• 1991Under Suspicion — Frank Vance
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit — Pastor Finch
• 1989A Master of the Marionettes — Teddy
• 1989Just Another Secret — Brosch
• Rules of Engagement — Martin Goodman
• 1988Chocolat — Jonathan Boothby
• 1988Hellbound: Hellraiser II — Dr. Philip Channard / Channard Cenobite
• 1988Normal Service — Peter
• 1988Stealing Heaven — Vice Chancellor Suger
• 1988The Black and Blue Lamp — Supt. Cherry
• 1988The Party — Joe Shawcross
• The Play on One — Peter, Joe Shawcross, Teddy Rose
• Inspector Morse — Cedric Downes
• 1987Making Waves — Joe Nash
• 1987The Birthday Party — Stanley Webber
• A Sort of Innocence
• Casualty — James Lawrence
• 1986Dead Man's Folly — Insp. Bland
• Lovejoy — Litvak
• ScreenPlay — Supt. Cherry, Reggie Titherington, Dick Naughton
• 1985Lady Windermere's Fan — Lord Darlington
• 1985The Dumb Waiter — Gus
• Theatre Night — Stanley
• Natural World
• Reilly: Ace of Spies — Lenin
• Shine on Harvey Moon — Harvey Moon
• The Bell — Nick Fawley
• Brideshead Revisited — Sergeant Block
• 1981The Caretaker — Aston
• 1981The Sin Bin — Alan Grieves
• 1980'Tis Pity She's a Whore — Giovanni
• Cribb — Francis Mostyn-Smith
• 1980Donkeys' Years — Bill Taylor
• 1980The Merchant of Venice — Gratiano
• Therese Raquin — Camille Raquin
• Danger UXB — Sapper Salt, L / Corporal Salt
• Minder — Walter
• 1978Butterflies Don't Count — Tom
• Enemy at the Door — Jack Foster
• Strangers — Willie Bruce, DCI Jim Lennard
• 1977Joseph Andrews — The Wicked Squire
• 1976Robin and Marian — Jack's Apprentice
• Against the Crowd — Geoff Smailes
• 1974The Changeling — Antonio
• 1974Vampira — Paddy
• Village Hall — Lop
• 1973Achilles Heel — Gordon
• 1972Brother Sun, Sister Moon — Paolo
• Crown Court — John Tucker
• New Scotland Yard — David Collins
• Van der Valk — Dirk Boutsen
• Budgie — Inky Ballantine
• 1971Up Pompeii — Christian
• 1970All the Way Up — Tom Midway
• 1970Fragment of Fear — Joe
• From a Bird's Eye View — Tim O'Donovan
• Play for Today — Alan Grieves, Tom
• ITV Saturday Night Theatre — Terry
• 1969Otley — Kid
• 1969Sling Your Hook — Roland
• 1968Oliver! — Noah Claypole
• Boy Meets Girl — Tom Last
• 1967Death of a Private — Young intellectual
• ITV Playhouse — Private Seaton
• BBC Play of the Month — Antonio
• Thirty-Minute Theatre — Charlie, Barry
• Coronation Street — Roy

Appearances as themselves (5)

• 2017Joe Orton Laid Bare — Himself
• 2015Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II — Self
• 2010Harold Pinter: A Celebration — Self
• Neanderthal — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 1982A Genius Like Us: A Portrait of Joe Orton — Self