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David Threlfall
David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2024 he played Paul Peveril in the six-part BBC drama Nightsleeper.
For his role in Nicholas Nickleby, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1980, which was followed by a second nomination in the Best Actor category in 2006 for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. His role in Paradise Postponed (1986) earned Threlfall a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.
The son of Joyce Foulds and her husband, Tom Threlfall, a plumber, Threlfall was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, Lancashire. The family lived in Blackley, then moved to the Bradford area of Manchester and then Burnage when he was 8/9. His introduction to drama came from school and two English teachers, Alan Johnson and Frank Casey, at Wilbraham High School, where he was a contemporary of the younger Lorraine Ashbourne.
Threlfall studied at art college in Sheffield (now Sheffield Hallam University), but only stayed for a year. A few months of labouring and thinking followed. Having consulted a magazine in a public library which listed drama colleges, Threlfall successfully applied to the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. By graduation, he had an audition with Mike Leigh.
Threlfall has been a supporter of Manchester City since childhood and was the voice over for the film played before every home game during the 2017–18 season.
Threlfall graduated from the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. He has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his 1977 acting debut in "The Kiss of Death" (Mike Leigh). He was in the original Play for Today version of the film Scum as the eloquent Archer. His television appearances include Trevor in Mike Leigh's 1977 made-for-TV film Kiss of Death, Leslie Titmuss in Paradise Postponed, and Edgar in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983) opposite Laurence Olivier in the title role. He also had regular roles in the situation comedies Nightingales, and Men of the World, and guest appearances in dramas such as Cutting It, The Knock, CI5: The New Professionals and Spooks. He played Prince Charles in Diana: Her True Story (1993) and his father Prince Philip in The Queen's Sister (2005). Threlfall played the central character of Frank Gallagher in Paul Abbott's Shameless, shown on Channel 4 for 11 series between 2004 and 2013.
Threlfall also played the role of Friedrich Kritzinger in the BBC/HBO drama Conspiracy (2001), a dramatisation of the infamous Wannsee Conference. In 2006, he played the domineering husband of wartime diarist Nella Last, in the TV drama Housewife, 49. His film credits include John le Carré's The Russia House, Patriot Games, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Elizabeth: The Golden Age alongside Cate Blanchett, and as John Lennon's Uncle George in Nowhere Boy.
Threlfall was in Gregory J. Read's 2006 film Like Minds and played John Colbie. He was also in Alien Autopsy and played the character Martin Blower acting alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the British comedy film Hot Fuzz (2007).
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David Threlfall
David John Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2024 he played Paul Peveril in the six-part BBC drama Nightsleeper.
For his role in Nicholas Nickleby, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1980, which was followed by a second nomination in the Best Actor category in 2006 for Someone Who'll Watch Over Me. His role in Paradise Postponed (1986) earned Threlfall a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.
The son of Joyce Foulds and her husband, Tom Threlfall, a plumber, Threlfall was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, Lancashire. The family lived in Blackley, then moved to the Bradford area of Manchester and then Burnage when he was 8/9. His introduction to drama came from school and two English teachers, Alan Johnson and Frank Casey, at Wilbraham High School, where he was a contemporary of the younger Lorraine Ashbourne.
Threlfall studied at art college in Sheffield (now Sheffield Hallam University), but only stayed for a year. A few months of labouring and thinking followed. Having consulted a magazine in a public library which listed drama colleges, Threlfall successfully applied to the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. By graduation, he had an audition with Mike Leigh.
Threlfall has been a supporter of Manchester City since childhood and was the voice over for the film played before every home game during the 2017–18 season.
Threlfall graduated from the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. He has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his 1977 acting debut in "The Kiss of Death" (Mike Leigh). He was in the original Play for Today version of the film Scum as the eloquent Archer. His television appearances include Trevor in Mike Leigh's 1977 made-for-TV film Kiss of Death, Leslie Titmuss in Paradise Postponed, and Edgar in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983) opposite Laurence Olivier in the title role. He also had regular roles in the situation comedies Nightingales, and Men of the World, and guest appearances in dramas such as Cutting It, The Knock, CI5: The New Professionals and Spooks. He played Prince Charles in Diana: Her True Story (1993) and his father Prince Philip in The Queen's Sister (2005). Threlfall played the central character of Frank Gallagher in Paul Abbott's Shameless, shown on Channel 4 for 11 series between 2004 and 2013.
Threlfall also played the role of Friedrich Kritzinger in the BBC/HBO drama Conspiracy (2001), a dramatisation of the infamous Wannsee Conference. In 2006, he played the domineering husband of wartime diarist Nella Last, in the TV drama Housewife, 49. His film credits include John le Carré's The Russia House, Patriot Games, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Elizabeth: The Golden Age alongside Cate Blanchett, and as John Lennon's Uncle George in Nowhere Boy.
Threlfall was in Gregory J. Read's 2006 film Like Minds and played John Colbie. He was also in Alien Autopsy and played the character Martin Blower acting alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the British comedy film Hot Fuzz (2007).