
John Shrapnel
Biography
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Acting (68 movies)

Gladiator
2000

Notting Hill
1999

Troy
2004

K-19: The Widowmaker
2002

Alien Autopsy
2006

The Body
2001

Hamlet Within
2022

Alone
2002

How to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989

Chemical Wedding
2008

Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
1999

Claim
2002

St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
1997

Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
2005

Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
2002

The Awakening
2011

An Organization of Dreams
2009

National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013

Animals of the Ocean Desert
2001

Partition
1987

Selling Hitler
1993

Personal Services
1987

Shadow of the Sword
2005

Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
2017

Professional Foul
1977

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
1990

Hamlet
2015

Fatherland
1994

Gossip from the Forest
1979

Timon of Athens
1981

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
2004

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007

Hennessy
1975

England, My England
1995

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015

Supermassive Black Holes
2000

Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
2007

King Charles III
2017

Troilus & Cressida
1981

Two Deaths
1996

Testimony
1988

The Duchess
2008

101 Dalmatians
1996

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
1986

Theban Plays: Antigone
1986

Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
1986

Mirrors
2008

Nicholas and Alexandra
1971

King Lear
1982

Whistle
2002

Edward & Mrs. Simpson
1978

King Arthur: His Life and Legends
1995

Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
2004

Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
2004

Pope Joan
1972

National Theatre Live: Phèdre
2009

Mary, Mother of Jesus
1999

Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
2001

The Race for Everest
2003

The Burston Rebellion
1985

The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
1999

Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
2014

Flayed
1978

The Gentleman Thief
2001

King Lear
1975

Run.
2013

Once Upon a Time on the Westway
2007

Lion Queen
1998
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