Sir Simon Russell Beale CBE (born January 12, 1961) is an English actor. He is known for his appearances in film, television and theatre, and work on radio, on audiobooks and as a narrator. For his services to drama, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2019. He has spent much of his theatre career working in productions for both the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. He has received ten Laurence Olivier Award nominations, winning three awards for his performances in Volpone (1996), Candide (2000), and Uncle Vanya (2003). For his work on the Broadway stage he has received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination for his performance as George in the Tom Stoppard play Jumpers in 2004. For his role as Henry Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and was nominated for an Olivier Award. Beale has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation". Beale made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando (1992). He continued acting in films such as Persuasion (1995), Hamlet (1996), My Week with Marilyn (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Into the Woods (2014), and Mary Queen of Scots (2018). In 2017, he starred in Armando Iannucci's dark comedy The Death of Stalin playing Lavrentiy Beria for which he received the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also appeared in the television projects The Young Visiters (2003), Dunkirk (2004), and as Falstaff in the BBC made-for-television films Henry IV, Part I and Part II (2012). He was part of the main cast of Showtime's Penny Dreadful.

Filmography

• 2026De Gaulle: Liberté — Winston Churchill
• 2026De Gaulle: Résistance — Winston Churchill
• 2026Prima Facie
• 2026The Magic Faraway Tree — Know All
• 2025Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — Sir Hector Moreland
• 2025The Choral — Sir Edward Elgar
• Douglas Is Cancelled — Bently
• 2024Firebrand — Stephen Gardiner
• 2024Home! Home! — Narrator (voice)
• Mary & George — Sir George Villiers
• House of the Dragon — Ser Simon Strong
• 2022Operation Mincemeat — Winston Churchill
• 2022The Outfit — Roy Boyle
• 2022Thor: Love and Thunder — Dionysus
• 2021Benediction — Robbie Ross
• 2020A Christmas Carol — Scrooge's voice (voice)
• 2020Radioactive — Professor Lippmann
• 2019National Theatre Live: The Lehman Trilogy — Henry Lehman
• 2019National Theatre Live: The Tragedy of King Richard the Second — Richard II
• 2018Mary Queen of Scots — Robert Beale
• 2018Museo — Frank Graves
• 2018Operation Finale — David Ben-Gurion
• Vanity Fair — John Sedley
• 2017My Cousin Rachel — Couch
• 2017RSC Live: The Tempest — Prospero
• 2017The Death of Stalin — Lavrenti Beria
• 2016Shakespeare Live! From the RSC — Richard II
• 2016The Legend of Tarzan — Mr. Frum
• 2015Monteverdi in Mantua - The Genius of the Vespers — presenter
• 2014Into the Woods — Baker's Father
• 2014National Theatre Live: King Lear — Lear, King of Britain
• Penny Dreadful — Ferdinand Lyle
• 2013Lava Land - Glowing Hawaii — Narrator
• 2013Legacy — Hookey
• 2013National Theatre Live: 50 Years on Stage — Hamlet
• 2012National Theatre Live: Timon of Athens — Timon
• 2012Shakespeare's Sonnets
• Simon Schama's Shakespeare
• The Hollow Crown — Falstaff
• 2011A Musical Nativity with John Rutter
• 2011My Week with Marilyn — Cotes-Preedy
• 2011National Theatre Live: Collaborators — Joseph Stalin
• 2011Royal Opera House: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — The Duchess / Introduced by
• 2011Sacred Music: God's Composer — Presenter
• Symphony
• 2011The Deep Blue Sea — Sir William Collyer
• 2010National Theatre Live: London Assurance — Sir Harcourt Courtly
• 2010Sacred Music: A Christmas History — Presenter
• 2008An Easter Celebration — presenter
• Sacred Music — Presenter
• 2006Deep Water — Donald Crowhurst (voice)
• Dunkirk — Winston Churchill
• 2003The Gathering — Luke Fraser
• 2003The Young Visiters — Prince of Wales
• Spooks — William Towers, Home Secretary
• 1999Alice in Wonderland — King Cedric of Hearts
• 1999An Ideal Husband — Sir Edward
• 1999Blackadder: Back & Forth — Wellington
• A Dance to the Music of Time — Widmerpool
• 1997The Temptation of Franz Schubert — Franz Schubert
• 1996Hamlet — Second Gravedigger
• 1995Persuasion — Charles Musgrove
• The Mushroom Picker — Anthony
• Downtown Lagos — Heron
• 1992Orlando — Earl of Moray
• American Experience — John Adams (voice)
• A Very Peculiar Practice — Mark Stibbs
• 1985Time and the Conways — Party Guest
• This Is Your Five Minute Call — Malcolm

Appearances as themselves (6)

• Remembers… — Self
• 2020The Hour — Himself
• 2016Cunk on Shakespeare — Self - Actor
• 2014The Mysterious Mr Webster — Self - Interviewee
• 2013Muse of Fire — Self
• 2010BBC Proms: Sondheim's 80th Birthday — Himself - Performer