David Morrissey
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- June 21, 1964
- Place of birth
- Everton, Liverpool, England, UK
Biography
David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. He grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. Learning to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At age 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though took other defining roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998). More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former won him a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter a Best Actor award at the Royal Television Society Awards. His film roles have not always been acclaimed; his appearance as the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006) was widely criticised, and The Reaping (2007) bombed at the box office. Since then, he has had leading roles in Sense and Sensibility (2008), Red Riding (2009) and Five Days (2010), acted in the films Nowhere Boy (2009) and Centurion (2010), and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne (2010). Returning to the stage in 2008, he did a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011.
As director, Morrissey has helmed short films, and the dramas Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004) for the BBC. His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010. He is married to novelist Esther Freud, has three children, and is a patron of numerous charities.
THEATRE includes Hangmen at the Royal Court; and The Lover / The Collection at Theatre Royal Bath; The End of History at The Royal Court; King John at The Barbican; The School for Scandal and Peer Gynt at The National Theatre; Twelfth Night and Three Days of Rain at the Donmar Warehouse; Macbeth at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; Much Ado About Nothing in The West End; In a Dark Dark House at The Almedia; Julius Caesar at The Bridge. TELEVISION includes Gone, Daddy Issues, Tip Toe, The Siege, The Walking Dead, Prime Target, Sherwood, Red Riding, State of Play (BAFTA nomination for Best Actor), The Missing, The City and The City, Britannia, Extant, and The Driver (also Executive Producer), The Long Shadow, Inside No.9, The Singapore Grip, Good Omens, The 7.39, Our Mutual Friend, Clocking Off, Holding On, State of Play, The Deal, Viva Blackpool, Doctor Who, Sense and Sensibility, The Hollow Crown, True Love, The Field of Blood, South Riding, Thorne: Sleepyhead/Scaredy Cat, One Summer.
FILM includes the upcoming The Beatles biopics, Welcome to the Punch, Nowhere Boy, Centurion, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Woman in Cabin 10, The Colour Room, Slingshot, Dampyr, Blitz, The One’s Below, Hilary & Jackie, Some Voices, Born Romantic, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Derailed, Stoned, The Reaping, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
Movies with David Morrissey
- The Other Boleyn Girl 2008 · ★ 6.7
- Blitz 2011 · ★ 6.2
- Centurion 2010 · ★ 6.2
- The Water Horse 2007 · ★ 6.6
- Derailed 2005 · ★ 6.4
- The Woman in Cabin 10 2025 · ★ 6.2
- The Reaping 2007 · ★ 5.8
- Nowhere Boy 2009 · ★ 7.2
- Basic Instinct 2 2006 · ★ 5.0
- Welcome to the Punch 2013 · ★ 5.9
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin 2001 · ★ 5.9
- Ronaldo 2015 · ★ 7.0
- The Ones Below 2016 · ★ 6.0
- Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 2009 · ★ 6.6
- Slingshot 2024 · ★ 6.1
- Doctor Who: The Next Doctor 2008 · ★ 7.4
- Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 2009 · ★ 6.9
- Drowning by Numbers 1988 · ★ 7.0
- Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983 2009 · ★ 6.9
- Robin Hood 1991 · ★ 5.7
- Dampyr 2022 · ★ 6.2
- The Walking Dead: The Return 2024 · ★ 7.4
- Hilary and Jackie 1998 · ★ 6.6
- Is Anybody There? 2009 · ★ 6.3
- Being Human 1994 · ★ 5.1
- Stoned 2005 · ★ 5.2
- The Colour Room 2021 · ★ 6.1
- Waterland 1992 · ★ 6.3
- Some Voices 2000 · ★ 6.1
- Born Romantic 2000 · ★ 6.0
- The Deal 2003 · ★ 6.7
- Thorne: Scaredycat 2010 · ★ 6.2
- Earthbound 2012 · ★ 4.4
- The Walking Dead: A Decade of Dead 2013 · ★ 7.6
- Disaster at Chernobyl 2004 · ★ 7.5
- The Commissioner 1998 · ★ 6.0
- The Suicide Club 2000 · ★ 6.0
- Taking Liberties 2007 · ★ 6.1
- Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High 2004 · ★ 8.1
- The One That Got Away 1996 · ★ 6.4
Movies directed by David Morrissey
- Don't Worry About Me 2009 · ★ 4.8