Alun Armstrong

Alan Armstrong (born 17 July 1946), known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English character actor. He grew up in County Durham in North East England, and first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic".

His credits include several Charles Dickens adaptations, and the eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in New Tricks. He is also an accomplished stage actor who spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Monsieur Thénardier in the West End production of Les Misérables, and won an Olivier Award in the title role of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Born Alan Armstrong in Annfield Plain, County Durham, his father was a coal miner and both his parents were Methodist lay preachers. He attended Annfield Plain Junior School, then Consett Grammar School, where a teacher inspired him to try acting. In the lower sixth, he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, a role he later played with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Armstrong took part in the National Youth Theatre summer school in 1964, but his background and northern accent made him feel out of place. He studied fine art at Newcastle University. He found the course pretentious and felt that he did not fit in, and he was sent down after two years when he stopped attending classes.

Armstrong had jobs with a bricklayer and as a gravedigger before he decided to try acting again. He started out as an assistant stage manager at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, then went on to a Theatre in Education company affiliated with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre. He also performed in several Radio 4 dramas.

Armstrong made his screen debut in Get Carter (1971). On learning that the film was being made in Newcastle, Armstrong wrote a letter to MGM, the studio making the film, and was invited to meet director Mike Hodges, who was keen to cast local actors.

Armstrong has appeared in a number of films, although usually in supporting roles. In A Bridge Too Far (1977), he had a small role as one of the British troops at the Battle of Arnhem. He played a French soldier, Lieutenant Lecourbe, in Ridley Scott's 1977 film The Duellists. He had a supporting role as the bandit leader Torquil in the 1983 fantasy film Krull.

His first cinematic lead role was as Maxwell Randall, the titular vampire in Alan Clarke's snooker musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987). Armstrong sang "I Bite Back".