James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, an International Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and one Volpi Cup as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.

Broadbent received an Academy Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the film Iris (2001), and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! (2001). His early film roles include the Terry Gilliam films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985) before a breakthrough role in Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1990). Notable film roles include Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Gangs of New York (2002), Another Year (2010), The Iron Lady (2011), Le Week-End (2013), and Brooklyn (2015).

Broadbent is also known for his roles in franchise films such as Horace Slughorn in the Harry Potter film series, Digory Kirke in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Samuel Gruber in the Paddington film series. He also acted in blockbuster and studio films such as The Borrowers (1997), Robots (2005), Hot Fuzz (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Arthur Christmas (2011), and Cloud Atlas (2012).

Broadbent's television roles include playing Roy Slater in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Desmond Morton in the HBO / BBC film The Gathering Storm (2002), and Lord Longford in the Channel 4 film Longford (2006), which won him a BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He portrayed Archmaester Ebrose in the seventh season of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones in 2017. He also acted in London Spy (2015), War & Peace (2016), King Lear (2018) and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023).

James Broadbent was born on 24 May 1949, in Holton cum Beckering, Lincolnshire, the second son of Doreen "Dee" Findlay, a sculptor, and Roy Laverick Broadbent, an artist, sculptor, interior designer and furniture maker. Broadbent's parents were both amateur actors who co-founded the Holton Players acting troupe at Holton. The two have been described by the BBC as conscientious objectors who "worked the land" rather than participate in World War II. In Wickenby, a former Methodist Chapel was purchased in 1970 by Holton Players, who converted it into a 100-seat theatre, named Broadbent Theatre in memory of Roy Broadbent, who designed the conversion.

Broadbent was educated at Leighton Park School, a Quaker school in Reading, and briefly attended art college before transferring to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1972. His early stage work included appearances as Patrick Barlow's assistant in the mock National Theatre of Brent.

Broadbent's early stagework included a number of productions for The National Theatre of Brent as the downtrodden assistant Wallace to Patrick Barlow's self-important actor-manager character Desmond Olivier Dingle. Broadbent and Barlow played many male and female character roles in comically less-than-epic tellings of historical and religious stories, such as The Complete Guide to Sex, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Revolution!!, and All The World's A Globe. These were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe, in London, and on tour. In 1978, he had two roles, first as Vroomfondel (who may, or may not be, a philosopher) and then as Shooty (a gratuitously violent policeman, who writes novel in crayon) in the Primary Phase of the groundbreaking radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Forty years later, he took the role of Marvin in the Hexagonal Phase radio series. Towards the end of the decade, Broadbent began appearing in small roles on television and films, including a Fielder in The Shout and Mackanees in the Play for Today episode Long Distance Information. He also appeared in an edition of Not the Nine O'Clock News, playing a Union Negotiator.

During that decade, his stage work included the original productions of Kafka's Dick (1986) and Our Country's Good (1988) at the Royal Court Theatre, and work for the Royal National Theatre including "The Government Inspector". Work on the stage with Mike Leigh includes Goosepimples and Ecstasy. He had worked with Stephen Frears in The Hit (1984), and Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). He starred in the National Theatre production of A Place with the Pigs in 1988, directed by the play's author Athol Fugard.