Timothy Spall

Timothy Leonard Spall (/ˈspɔːl/ SPAWL; born 27 February 1957) is an English actor. He gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.

Spall is known for his collaborations with director Mike Leigh, acting in six of his films: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). He received nominations for the BAFTA Award for his roles in Secrets and Lies and Topsy-Turvy as well as received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his portrayal of J. M. W. Turner in Mr. Turner.

Spall has acted in films such as Hamlet (1996), Still Crazy (1998), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Enchanted (2007), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Damned United (2009), The King's Speech (2010), Ginger and Rosa (2012), Denial (2016), The Party (2017), and Spencer (2021). He voiced Nick the rat in Chicken Run (2000), and portrayed Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) in five Harry Potter films, from Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) to Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010).

On television, Spall played Barry Spencer Taylor in the ITV comedy drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983–2004) and Lord Arthur Wallington in the BBC Cold War drama Summer of Rockets (2019). He won the 2024 International Emmy Awards and BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for his performance as Peter Farquhar in The Sixth Commandment. He currently plays the leading role in BBC murder mystery series Death Valley.

From 2010 to 2012 the BBC broadcast three documentary series Timothy Spall: ...at Sea about Spall's voyage around Britain in his barge.

Spall, the third of four sons, was born on 27 February 1957 in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. (née Leonard), was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker. Spall attended Battersea County Comprehensive School. At that time, he was planning on going to art school or joining the army. Spall's ambitions turned towards acting when he was 16, after appearing in a school play as the lion in the Wizard of Oz: "I was up there on stage being funny, and people laughed. I wanted to do it again and again." He trained at the National Youth Theatre, and at RADA, graduating in 1978, after being awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor in his year.

Spall initially made his mark in theatre performing in productions for Birmingham Rep, including the UK premier of Arnold Wesker's The Merchant, and, later, the Royal Shakespeare Company, including The Merry Wives of Windsor, Three Sisters, Nicholas Nickleby and The Knight of the Burning Pestle. At The National Theatre Spall played the Dauphin in George Bernard Shaw's St Joan.

Following a film debut in Quadrophenia and wider TV exposure playing, as Wayne says, "the gormless radish" [awkward] Barry Taylor in all four series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Kevin in Outside Edge and Aubrey the appalling chef in Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet, Spall has since appeared in the films Crusoe, Secrets & Lies, Shooting the Past, Topsy-Turvy, Vanilla Sky, Rock Star, All or Nothing, The Last Samurai, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and The King's Speech. He performed as Peter Pettigrew ("Wormtail") in the Harry Potter film series. In 1991 he guest starred in the series 5 Red Dwarf episode "Back to Reality". In 1993, Spall was a guest in the Scottish comedy series Rab C. Nesbitt. He played Inspector Truscott in a 1997 Radio 3 broadcast of Loot by Orton, repeated in 2017.