John Shrapnel
Acting • Born 1942-04-27 – Died 2020-02-14
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.
Filmography
127 credits
Gladiator
Movie • 2000
Gaius
Notting Hill
Movie • 1999
PR Chief
Troy
Movie • 2004
Nestor
K-19: The Widowmaker
Movie • 2002
Admiral Bratyeev
Alien Autopsy
Movie • 2006
Michael Kuhn
The Body
Movie • 2001
Moshe Cohen
Hamlet Within
Movie • 2022
Alone
Movie • 2002
Hannah
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Movie • 1989
Psychiatrist
Chemical Wedding
Movie • 2008
Crowley
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
Movie • 1999
General Charette
Claim
Movie • 2002
Lex Vandenberg
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
Movie • 1997
Narrator (English voice)
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
Movie • 2005
Narrator (English Version)
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
Movie • 2002
Narrator (English Version)
Wild Women of Viramba
Movie • 2003
Narrator
Hitting Town
Movie • 1976
Leonard Brazil (voice)
The Awakening
Movie • 2011
Reverend Hugh Purslow
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Movie • 2014
Creon
An Organization of Dreams
Movie • 2009
Father
The Ha-Ha
Movie • 1969
Jamie
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Movie • 2013
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Animals of the Ocean Desert
Movie • 2001
Narrator
Partition
Movie • 1987
General Flood
Selling Hitler
Movie • 1993
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Personal Services
Movie • 1987
Lionel
Shadow of the Sword
Movie • 2005
Archbishop
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
Movie • 2017
Narrator (Voice)
The Tom Machine
Movie • 1980
Professional Foul
Movie • 1977
McKendrick
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
Movie • 1990
BKA Police Chief
Hamlet
Movie • 2015
Claudius/Ghost
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
Movie • 2016
Narrator - (Voice)
Fatherland
Movie • 1994
General Globus
Gossip from the Forest
Movie • 1979
Matthias Erzberger
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Movie • 2004
Narrator
Timon of Athens
Movie • 1981
Alcibiades
The Three Hostages
Movie • 1977
Gaudian
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Movie • 2007
Lord Howard
Hennessy
Movie • 1975
Tipaldi
England, My England
Movie • 1995
Samuel Pepys
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Movie • 2015
Camilo
Supermassive Black Holes
Movie • 2000
Narrator
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Movie • 2007
Himself (Narrator)
King Charles III
Movie • 2017
Archbishop of Canterbury
Troilus & Cressida
Movie • 1981
Hector
Two Deaths
Movie • 1996
Cinca
Testimony
Movie • 1988
Andre Zhdanov
The Duchess
Movie • 2008
General Grey
101 Dalmatians
Movie • 1996
Skinner
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
Movie • 1986
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
Movie • 1986
Creon
Theban Plays: Antigone
Movie • 1986
Creon
Mirrors
Movie • 2008
Lorenzo Sapelli
Nicholas and Alexandra
Movie • 1971
Petya
King Lear
Movie • 1982
Earl of Kent
Whistle
Movie • 2002
Paul
Poppyland
Movie • 1985
George Sims
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
Movie • 1978
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
Movie • 1995
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Movie • 2004
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Movie • 2004
Narrator
Pope Joan
Movie • 1972
Father James
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
Movie • 2009
Théramène
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Movie • 1999
Simon
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
Movie • 2001
Narrator
The Race for Everest
Movie • 2003
Narrator
The Burston Rebellion
Movie • 1985
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Movie • 1999
Iwaszkiewicz
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
Movie • 2014
Narrator
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Movie • 1992
Narrator
Flayed
Movie • 1978
Robert
The Gentleman Thief
Movie • 2001
Monty Sinclair
King Lear
Movie • 1975
Duke of Cornwall
Run.
Movie • 2013
St. Peter
Hamlet
Movie • 1992
Claudius
The Victim
Movie • 1980
Vincent Craig
It's Called the Sugar Plum
Movie • 1969
Wally Zuckerman
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
Movie • 2007
Billy Palmer
Lion Queen
Movie • 1998
Narrator (voice)
I Am Not an Animal
TV • 2004
Narrator (voice)
Elizabeth R
TV • 1971
Earl of Sussex
Apparitions
TV • 2008
Cardinal Bukovak
Edward and Mrs Simpson
TV • 1978
Major Alexander Hardinge
Bodyguards
TV • 1997
Commander Alan MacIntyre
Natural World
TV • 1983
Narrator
Predators Killing for a Living
TV • 1997
Between the Lines
TV • 1992
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
New Tricks
TV • 2004
DAC John Felsham
Waking the Dead
TV • 2001
John Christie
About Face
TV • 1989
G.B.H.
TV • 1991
Dr Jacobs
Jonathan Creek
TV • 1997
Prof. Lance Graumann
Kavanagh Q.C.
TV • 1995
Mr. Justice Griffin
Midsomer Murders
TV • 1997
Max Jennings
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
TV • 2002
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
Justice
TV • 1971
Roger Anderson
The 10th Kingdom
TV • 2000
Governor of Prison
Invasion: Earth
TV • 1998
Air Marshal Bentley
Centrepoint
TV • 1990
Claud Wareing
The Woman in White
TV • 1982
Sir Percival Glyde
Between the Lines
TV • 1992
D.C.C. Dunning
Wycliffe
TV • 1994
Dr. Sam Malvern
Space: 1999
TV • 1975
Jack Tanner
Midsomer Murders
TV • 1997
Leo Clarke
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
TV • 1992
Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
Armchair Thriller
TV • 1978
Vincent Craig
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
TV • 1988
Thomas Mann
Merlin
TV • 2008
The Sarrum
The Lions Rule
TV • 2017
Narrator (voice)
Omnibus
TV • 1967
Zborowski
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
TV • 2006
Pompey
Foyle's War
TV • 2002
Raymond Brooks
True Tilda
TV • 1997
Reverand Glasson
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
Duke of Cornwall
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
Viktor Myshlaevsky
BBC2 Play of the Week
TV • 1977
McKendrick
BBC2 Play of the Week
TV • 1977
Robert
The Chief
TV • 1990
Dan Cheyney
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
TV • 1984
Adrian Vyner
Vanity Fair
TV • 1987
Lord Steyne
Private Schulz
TV • 1981
German Newsreel Commentator (voice, uncredited)
Screen Two
TV • 1985
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Good Girl
TV • 1974
Christopher Wimple
Screen Two
TV • 1985
Heiger
For the Greater Good
TV • 1991
Norman May-Boys MP
Blackeyes
TV • 1989
Detective Blake