Tom Hollander

Hollander's film and television appearances include Absolutely Fabulous, Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence, Wives and Daughters, Harry, Cambridge Spies for which he received the FIPA D'OR Grand prize for best actor, Gosford Park, The Lost Prince and Pride & Prejudice for which he received the Evening Standard Film Awards Comedy Award, and London Critics Circle Best Supporting Actor. He has worked repeatedly with Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy and is a good friend of James Purefoy. Although highly respected as a character actor and the recipient of several awards, many of his films will still play on his height (5' 5" / 165 cm). Hollander has created several memorable comedic characters that draw more on his physical energy and intensity than his height, such as the "brilliantly foul-mouthed" Leon in BBC Two's Freezing, described in The Times as a "braying swirl of ego and mania".[15]

Hollander portrayed Lord Cutler Beckett, the "heavy" in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. He also appeared in the TNT miniseries The Company as Kim Philby, having previously played Guy Burgess in the BBC's Cambridge Spies. He returned to the stage in 2007 with the premiere of Joe Penhall's play Landscape with Weapon at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008 he made a notable cameo appearance as King George III in the HBO mini-series John Adams, and ended the year as a memorable Colonel Heinz Brandt in Valkyrie.

In 2009, Hollander played a symphonic cellist in Joe Wright's movie The Soloist, his second film with Wright, who cast him to great effect as the fevered suitor Mr. Collins in 2005's Pride and Prejudice. He has worked once more with Wright, portraying a memorably flamboyant and menacing villain in Hanna (2011). Hollander appeared in a lead role in Armando Iannucci's In the Loop as Secretary of State for International Development Simon Foster MP. Hollander later made a surprise appearance (in a different role) at the end of the third series of The Thick of It, the programme on which In the Loop was based.

In 2010, Hollander and writer James Wood co-created the TV series Rev., a sensitive comedy about the all-too-human vicar of an inner-city parish. Reviews called it intelligent, realistic and very funny.[16] Hollander played the sympathetic title character, Rev. Adam Smallbone. The show won a BAFTA in 2011 for Best Situation Comedy,[17] among other awards and recognition.[18] A second series aired in the UK on BBC 2 in 2011 and a third series in 2014.[19] He has been praised for his role as the "inebriated and endearing, menacing and beguiling"[20] chemist, Dr George Cholmondeley, appearing in five episodes of the BBC / FX 2017 series Taboo with one commenter describing him as "giving a masterclass on how to create dimension and personality, even with limited screen time."[21]

Hollander played Queen's second manager Jim Beach in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released in November 2018.[22] Upon the firing of director Bryan Singer from the film in December 2017, it was reported Hollander had previously left the film due to issues with Singer; he was ultimately convinced to continue, though whether this was due to Singer's exit is unknown.[23] Also in 2018, Hollander played Tabaqui, a hyena in Andy Serkis' motion capture film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.[24]

Hollander won the 1992 Ian Charleson Award for his performance as Witwoud in The Way of the World at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.[25] He had been nominated and commended the previous year for his Celia in an all-male production of As You Like It for Cheek by Jowl[26] and was again nominated and commended for his Khlestakov in The Government Inspector at the Almeida Theatre in 1997.[27] He had also received a special commendation for his 1996 performance of the title role in Tartuffe at the Almeida Theatre.[28] In all, Hollander has been the most frequent Ian Charleson Award honoree, with four appearances at the awards: one win, two commendations and one special commendation.

In 2010, Hollander returned to the live stage in a demanding comedic dual role in Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear at the Old Vic. Playing both master and servant with "lightning physical precision and shockingly true confusion",[29] Hollander's was called "a virtuoso performance".[30] Between September and November 2016 he starred as (a "career-best"[31]) Henry Carr in Patrick Marber's "superb revival"[32] of Tom Stoppard's Travesties at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The play (with the same cast) transferred to the Apollo Theatre in February 2017[3] and was nominated for five Olivier Awards including Best Actor (Hollander) and Best Revival (Travesties).[4] Marber's revival transferred to Broadway in 2018, with Hollander reprising his leading role as Carr. The play opened on 24 April 2018 (previews 29 March) at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theater in New York. Hollander received a Tony Award nomination for the production.[33][34]

In 2022, Hollander returned to the Almeida Theatre to play the lead role of Boris Berezovsky in the inaugural run of Patriots, a play by Peter Morgan about the late Russian oligarch's life.[35]

Hollander has undertaken a number of voice roles for BBC radio including Mosca in 2004's Volpone for Radio 3, Frank Churchill in Jane Austen's Emma and as Mr Gently Benevolent in the pilot of the Dickensian parody Bleak Expectations for Radio 4, although he did not take part in the full series. He has voiced a young Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man", a disembodied head named Enzio in an urban gothic comedy[36] and Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor famous for the electronic instrument that bears his name. He provided the vocal texture for Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange recently with a "smooth, almost lyrical, crisp voice" that accomplished the task of rendering the extensive and unique slang of the book instantly understandable to readers.[37] More recent readings include The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling. In 2015 (repeated in April 2017) he played Patrick Moore in the BBC radio play Far Side of the Moore about the astronomer and his Sky at Night TV programme.[38] In May 2016 he portrayed Geoff Cathcart in Andy Mulligan's four-part play School Drama on BBC Radio 4 which was chosen by The Guardian as that week's best radio[39] and he narrated Peter Bradshaw's short story Reunion, broadcast on Radio 4 in October 2016.[40][41] He has also portrayed the Russian artist Kazimir Malevich in Margy Kinmonth's documentary Revolution: New Art for a New World which was released in the UK and Ireland in November 2016.[42]

Since 2008, he has written an occasional diary-style column for The Spectator,[44] and a lifestyle article in the Times which received very positive reader comments.[45]