Richard E. Grant

Character actor Richard E. Grant crafted a career that saw him equally at home in projects as disparate as "Game of Thrones" (HBO, 2011-) and "Downton Abbey" (ITV, 2010-15). Born in Mbabane, Eswatini, he began his acting career in Cape Town, South Africa before relocating to England. After a small role in the sitcom "Sweet Sixteen" (BBC, 1983), he quickly jumped into the deep end. Playing the frequently drunk title character in Bruce Robinson's "Withnail & I" (1987), Grant was at the center of what would quickly become a cult classic. He teamed again with Robinson for the oddball comedy "How to Get Ahead in Advertising" (1989), about a marketing executive with a boil that talks. The work caught Hollywood's attention, and he was soon acting in high-profile fare like "L.A. Story" (1991), with Steve Martin, and Robert Altman's "The Player" (1992). He also starred in the Academy Award-winning short "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life" (1995). Drawing upon his classical training, he played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn's big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night or What You Will" (1996) opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He found himself exposed to a completely different kind of audience when he joined the pop group Spice Girls in "Spice World" (1998). He worked steadily, including playing classic characters such as Bob Cratchit in "A Christmas Carol" (TNT, 1999) and the namesake hero in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (BBC, 1999-2000). He began his first brush with the sci-fi classic "Doctor Who" (BBC, 2005-) when he appeared with Rowan Atkinson in the comedy short "Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death" (BBC, 1999). He went on to voice the Doctor in an animated project "Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka" (BBC, 2003), and then later played the villainous Great Intelligence in the main series. His work in television included recurring roles on "Downton Abbey" playing art historian Simon Bricker and as Jasper in "Girls" (HBO, 2012-17). He also had a memorable appear