Nicholas Woodeson
Acting • Born 1949-11-30
Biography
Nicholas Woodeson (born November 30, 1949) is an English film, television and theatre actor, and Drama Desk and Olivier award nominee. Woodeson was born in Sudan and lived in the Middle East as a boy. He started performing at prep school in Sussex, and Marlborough College. He read English at the University of Sussex, and became involved in student drama productions, where he met Michael Attenborough, Jim Carter, and Andy de la Tour. He took part in the 1970 National Student Drama Festival. Next was a season in rep at the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe, after deciding not to pursue an academic career. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1972–74). His first work after drama school was a season at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool (1974–75), in a company that included Jonathan Pryce (artistic director), Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy. He has worked in regional theatre in the UK and US, at the Hampstead Theatre Club, the Young Vic and the Almeida Theatre in London and at the Manhattan Theatre Club (Off-Broadway). He joined the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1982 and worked with them for seven years. On Broadway his work includes Straker in Man and Superman (1978), Piaf (1981), Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls (1995), and Burleigh in Mary Stuart (2009). In 2011, he played Mr Prince in the National Theatre revival of Odets' Rocket to the Moon. He has appeared in the West End in Funny Peculiar (1976), in Good (1982) (also Broadway), as Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls (2009), as Bonesy in Jumpers (2003) (also Broadway), as Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (2012), and as Harold Wilson in The Audience (2015). He has been in two productions of Pinter's 'The Birthday Party', playing McCann at the National Theatre in 1994, and Goldberg in the Lyric Hammersmith's 50th centenary production in 2008, and two productions of Pinter's The Homecoming, playing Lenny in the 25th Anniversary West End revival in 1991, and Max at the RSC in 2011. In 2017, following the death of Tim Pigott-Smith, he took over the role of Willy Loman in the Royal & Derngate theatre's tour of Death of a Salesman, for which he was nominated for a UK Theatre Award as Best Actor in a Leading Role. Woodeson's first film work was a role in Heaven's Gate, released in 1980. By chance, he spent more time on location in Montana than any other actor in the film. He has also appeared in, among others, The Russia House (1990), The Pelican Brief (1993), Shooting Fish (1997), The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) Titanic Town (1998), The Avengers (1998), Mad Cows (1999), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999), Amazing Grace (2006), Hannah Arendt (2012), the James Bond film Skyfall (2012), Mr. Turner (2014), The Danish Girl (2015), Race (2016), Disobedience (2017), The Death of Stalin (2017) and The Hustle (2019).
Filmography
93 credits
My Kingdom for a Horse
Movie • 1991
Robin 'Jacko' Jackman
Heaven's Gate
Movie • 1980
Small man
A Paris Proposal
Movie • 2023
Jacques
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Movie • 1997
Sergei
The Avengers
Movie • 1998
Dr. Darling
Beirut
Movie • 2018
Herzerg
Skyfall
Movie • 2012
Doctor Hall
Bad Girl
Movie • 1992
Geoff Harris
Ramona & The Chair
Movie • 2016
Priest
Hannah Arendt
Movie • 2012
William Shawn
Dreaming of Joseph Lees
Movie • 1999
Mr. Dian
Maria's Child
Movie • 1993
Roland
Men of the Month
Movie • 1994
Keith
Hedda Gabler
Movie • 1993
Jorgen Tesman
A Fatal Inversion
Movie • 1992
Inspector Winder
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
Movie • 2009
Michael Warren
The Eichmann Show
Movie • 2015
Yaakov Jonilowicz
Piaf
Movie • 1984
Emil / Jacko
The Blackheath Poisonings
Movie • 1992
Bertie Williams
Max and Helen
Movie • 1990
Martin Greenbaum
The Russia House
Movie • 1990
Niki Landau
Conspiracy
Movie • 2001
Otto Hofmann
Pope Joan
Movie • 2009
Arighis
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Movie • 2008
Harman Grisewood
The Danish Girl
Movie • 2015
Dr. Buson
Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare
Movie • 2025
Steven
Race
Movie • 2016
Fred Rubien
Great Expectations
Movie • 1999
Wemmick
Savage House
Movie • 2026
Mr. Brimsby
John Carter
Movie • 2012
Dalton
Loving Miss Hatto
Movie • 2012
Erich
Poppy Shakespeare
Movie • 2008
Professor
Mr. Turner
Movie • 2014
Gentleman Critic
Shooting Fish
Movie • 1997
Mr Collyns
Topsy-Turvy
Movie • 1999
Mr. Seymour
Amazing Grace
Movie • 2006
Harrison
The Limehouse Golem
Movie • 2016
Toby Dosett
Hysteria
Movie • 2011
Dr. Richardson
Paddington 2
Movie • 2017
Insurance Company CEO
The Death of Stalin
Movie • 2017
Boris Bresnavich, Conductor #2
Disobedience
Movie • 2018
Rabbi Goldfarb
Titanic Town
Movie • 1998
Jeremy Immonger
Mad Cows
Movie • 1999
Detective Slynne
The Woman In White
Movie • 1997
Asylum Proprietor
The Hustle
Movie • 2019
Albert
The Pelican Brief
Movie • 1993
Stump
One of the Hollywood Ten
Movie • 2002
Bill
On the Beaches
Movie • 2019
Albert Einstein
Firebird
Movie • 2021
Polkovnik Kuznetsov
Christine
Movie • 2004
Gerald Leyman
Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble
Movie
Steven
Untitled Tinkerbell Movie
Movie
Steven
Rome
TV • 2005
Posca
The Wolvis Family
TV • 1991
Bonjour la Classe
TV • 1993
Delicious
TV • 2016
Allen Billington
Red Riding
TV • 2009
Cracker
TV • 1993
Hennessy
Waking the Dead
TV • 2001
Reese Dickson, Solicitor
New Tricks
TV • 2004
Viktor Proust
For the Greater Good
TV • 1991
Michael Parke-Walsh MP
Eleventh Hour
TV • 2006
Mapp and Lucia
TV • 2014
Algernon Wyse
Ripper Street
TV • 2012
Dr. William Corcoran
Pie in the Sky
TV • 1994
Maurice Plummer
Secret State
TV • 2012
Lord Justice Holbeck
The Living and the Dead
TV • 2016
Reverend Matthew Denning
The Hound of the Baskervilles
TV • 1982
Sir Henry Baskerville
A Rumor of War
TV • 1980
Cpl. Kazmarak
Helen West
TV • 2002
Brian Redwood
Mr. Wroe's Virgins
TV • 1993
Brother Moses
Beyond Paradise
TV • 2023
Father Brian
Silent Witness
TV • 1996
Derek Galton
Quiz
TV • 2020
Nicholas Hilliard QC
Casualty
TV • 1986
Jack Clayton
The Blackheath Poisonings
TV • 1993
Bertie Williams
Miami Vice
TV • 1984
Artie Cross
Agatha Christie's Poirot
TV • 1989
Detective Sergeant Hoskins
The Escape Artist
TV • 2013
George Balfour QC
Taboo
TV • 2017
Robert Thoyt
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
TV • 2022
Diarmid
Borgen
TV • 2010
Alexander Grozin
Friday Night Dinner
TV • 2011
Rabbi
It's Kevin
TV • 2013
Various
Foyle's War
TV • 2002
Josef Novak
Great Expectations
TV • 1999
Wemmick
Performance
TV • 1991
Jorgen Tesman
The Chief
TV • 1990
Milverton
Shameless
TV • 2004
Isaac
Death by Lightning
TV • 2025
Loeffler
Will
TV • 2017
Phillip Henslowe
Silk
TV • 2011
Professor Stephen Nyman
Blackeyes
TV • 1989
Stilk