Anton Lesser
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Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is a British actor. He is known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, Harold Macmillan in The Crown, Clement Attlee in A United Kingdom, Chief Superintendent Bright in Endeavour, and Major Lio Partagaz in Andor. An associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has performed numerous Shakespearean roles on stage and television.
Early life
Anton Lesser was born in Birmingham[1] on 14 February 1952,[2] the son of David Lesser and his wife Amelia Cohen.[citation needed] He is from a Jewish background.[3]
He was educated at Moseley Grammar School[4] and at the University of Liverpool, where he earned a degree in architecture in 1973.[5]
Lesser went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1974 until 1976,[1] and on graduation in 1977[6] was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year. His final performance there was as Gethin Price in Comedians by Trevor Griffiths.[1]
Career
Lesser was spotted in Comedians and offered a contract by the casting director for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[1]
As an associate artist with the RSC, Lesser played many of Shakespeare's great roles.[1] In the BBC Television Shakespeare productions, he was Troilus (Troilus and Cressida), Edgar (King Lear), and Feste (Twelfth Night). On stage, he has portrayed Romeo (a titular character in his play), Prince Hamlet (the titular character of his play), Brutus (Julius Caesar), Petruchio (The Taming of the Shrew), Richard III (the titular character of his play), and others.[7]Template:Better source
When he moved to London, the reviews were less flattering than he had become accustomed to at the RSC. However, he continued to win roles on stage, including as Stanley in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Rover in Wild Oats and Brutus in Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar in 2005.[1]
Lesser is a frequent radio contributor and played the title role in the BBC Radio adaptations of the first five Marcus Didius Falco mysteries by Lindsey Davis. He has also recorded many audiobooks, including much of the work of Charles Dickens. Lesser's recording of Great Expectations won him a Talkie Award. Other books range from John Milton's Paradise Lost, Homer and Rumi[8] to contemporary novels by Robert Harris (Fatherland) and Philip Pullman. For two months in 2013, Lesser was a regular cast member playing Robin Carrow in Ambridge Extra, a BBC Radio 4 Extra spin-off from the BBC Radio 4 drama The Archers.[9]
In 2013, during the third season of the HBO Max series Game of Thrones, Lesser began playing the recurring role of Qyburn, an enigmatic mad scientist who served as part of the retinue of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Qyburn, and Lesser's portrayal of him, were popular with fans, particularly as the series went on and the character appeared more frequently and had greater influence over the narrative.[10][11] The Ringer described him as "the last curious man in Westeros" and noted that the character "refuses to seem like a MacGuffin, despite totally being one."[12] The character returned across the remainder of the series run until the penultimate episode in 2019; Qyburn was one of the characters who perished in the episode, which led to many fans producing memes about his abrupt death.[13]
From 2013, Lesser also played Chief Superintendent Bright in the TV series Endeavour.[14]
Lesser portrayed Thomas More in the BBC mini-series Wolf Hall, and received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.[15]
In 2022, Lesser played Major Lio Partagaz, a supporting antagonist in the Star Wars spinoff Andor. His performance of Partagaz, a ranking member of the Empire's intelligence agency, the Imperial Security Bureau, was noted by critics. Digital Spy commented that Lesser delivered dialogue on Imperial bureaucracy with "powerful coolness."[16]
In July 2025, it was announced that he would play the role of Garrick Ollivander in the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.[17]
Other activities
In 2015, Lesser became a public supporter of Chapel Lane Theatre Company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon.[18]
Personal life
Lesser's daughter Lily Lesser is also an actor.[19]
Acting credits
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | The Missionary | Young Man | |
| 1985 | The Assam Garden | Mr Sutton | |
| 1997 | FairyTale: A True Story | Wounded Corporal | |
| 2000 | Esther Kahn | Sean | |
| 2001 | Charlotte Gray | Monsieur Renech | |
| 2003 | Imagining Argentina | General Guzmán | |
| Y Mabinogi | Teyrnon | Voice role | |
| 2005 | River Queen | Major Baine | |
| 2006 | Miss Potter | Harold Warne | |
| 2011 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | Lord John Carteret | |
| The Lady | Professor Finnis | ||
| Flutter | Bruno | ||
| 2012 | The Scapegoat | Father McReady | |
| 2014 | Closer to the Moon | Comrade Holban | |
| 2016 | A United Kingdom | Prime Minister Attlee | |
| Allied | Emmanuel Lombard | ||
| The Exception | General Falkenberg | ||
| 2017 | On Chesil Beach | Reverend Woollett | |
| Disobedience | Rav Krushka | ||
| 2020 | The Courier | Bertrand | |
| Kindred | Dr Richards | ||
| 2021 | Benediction | Stephen Tennant (Older) | |
| 2025 | The World Will Tremble | Rabbi Schulman | |
| TBA | Santo Subito! | Father Mattew | Filming |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Trofimov | Television film |
| 1982 | Crown Court | John Peat | 3 episodes |
| 1983 | Good and Bad at Games | Cox | Television film |
| 1984 | Sakharov | Valery Chalidze | Television film |
| Freud | Wilhelm Fliess | Miniseries, 5 episodes | |
| 1985 | Anna of the Five Towns | Willie Price | Miniseries, 3 episodes |
| 1987 | Great Performances | Robber | Episode: "Monsignor Quixote" |
| 1988 | Twelfth Night, or What You Will | Feste | Television film |
| Screen Two | Stanley Spencer | Episode: "Stanley" | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Vincenzo | Episode: "Airbase" | |
| 1989 | Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story | Karl | Television film |
| 1990 | ScreenPlay | Robert Cecil | Episode: "Traitors" |
| 1991 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Gustav Levi | Miniseries, 8 episodes |
| 1994 | Guinevere | Envoy | Television film |
| Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | Leontes | Voice role, 1 episode: "The Winter's Tale" | |
| 1995 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Mark Hollister | Miniseries, 3 episodes |
| Bugs | Patrick Marcel | Episode: "Pulse" | |
| Moses | Eliav | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| 1996 | Sharman | Galilee | Episode: "Pretend We're Dead" |
| Testament: The Bible in Animation | Joseph | Voice role, 1 episode: "Joseph" | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Ezra Jennings | Television film | |
| 1997 | Bodyguards | Dusan Mesic | Episode: "A Choice of Evils" |
| 1998 | Invasion: Earth | Lt Charles Terrell | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| Vanity Fair | Mr Pitt Crawley | Miniseries, 5 episodes | |
| 2000 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | King Herod | Voice role, television film |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Antoine Picard | Episode: "Friends & Enemies" | |
| Lorna Doone | Counsellor Doone | Television film | |
| 2001 | Perfect Strangers | Stephen | Miniseries, 3 episodes |
| Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes | Milburn | Miniseries, 1 episode: "The White Knight Stratagem" | |
| Uprising | Nathan Lensky | Television film | |
| Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story | Vidas Merlinis - Research Scientist | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| 2002 | Animated Tales of the World | The Flower of Fern | Voice role, 1 episode: "Flower of Fern, a Tale from Poland" |
| Dickens | Charles Dickens | Miniseries, 3 episodes | |
| Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Bertilak - Green Knight | Voice role, television film | |
| Waking the Dead | Professor Ray Levin | Episode: "Special Relationship" | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Stanley Hall | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| Foyle's War | Austin Carmichael | Episode: "Eagle Day" | |
| 2003 | Eroica | Sukowaty | Television film |
| Midsomer Murders | Eddie Darwin | Episode: "Birds of Prey" | |
| Danielle Cable: Eyewitness | Henry Batten | Television film | |
| 2004 | Silent Witness | Marcus Gwilym | Episode: "Death by Water" |
| Dirty Filthy Love | Charles | Television film | |
| Spooks | Nicholas Ashworth | Episode: "A Prayer for My Daughter" | |
| 2005 | Ahead of the Class | Graham Ranger | Television film |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | George | Television film | |
| Class of '76 | Martin Gibson | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| Nova | Voltaire | Episode: "E=mc²: Einstein's Big Idea" | |
| 2006 | Dalziel and Pascoe | Paul Goodman | Episode: "Guardian Angel" |
| Vital Signs | Dr. Lindsay | 4 episodes | |
| New Tricks | Pete Mackintyre | Episode: "Bank Robbery" | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Dennis Prior | Episode: "Endangered Species" | |
| 2008 | Midsomer Murders | Reverend Wallace Stone | Episode: "Talking to the Dead" |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Archbishop of Canterbury | 2 episodes | |
| Agatha Christie's Poirot | Inspector Kelsey | Episode: "Cat Among the Pigeons" | |
| Einstein and Eddington | Fritz Haber | Television film | |
| Little Dorrit | Mr. Merdle | 9 episodes | |
| 2009 | Casualty 1909 | Dr. Henry Head | 4 episodes |
| 2010 | Holby City | Sol Caplin | Episode: "Faith No More" |
| Five Daughters | Dr. Nat Cary | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| Garrow's Law | John Farmer | 4 episodes | |
| 2011 | Primeval | Gideon | Recurring role, 6 episodes |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Clarence Fendley | Main role, 5 episodes | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Rudolf Olden | Television film | |
| 2012 | Secret State | Sir Michael Rix | Miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 2012–2016 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Duke of Exeter | 4 episodes |
| 2013 | Spies of Warsaw | Doctor Lapp | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| Mad Dogs | Alex | 1 episode | |
| Ripper Street | Dr. Karl Crabbe | 2 episodes | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Richard Mayfield, QC | Miniseries, 3 episodes | |
| Atlantis | Kyros | Episode: "Pandora's Box" | |
| 2013–2019 | Game of Thrones | Qyburn | Recurring role, 22 episodes |
| 2013–2023 | Endeavour | Chief Superintendent / ACC Reginald Bright | Main role, 35 episodes |
| 2014 | Father Brown | Father Ignatius | Episode: "The Mysteries of the Rosary" |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Émile De Mauvoisin | Episode: "The Homecoming" | |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | C | Miniseries, 1 episode | |
| 2015 | Wolf Hall | Thomas More | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
| Life in Squares | Dr. Hyslop | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| 2015–2016 | Dickensian | Fagin | Main role, 15 episodes |
| 2016 | Hooten & the Lady | Hercules | Miniseries, 1 episode: "Moscow" |
| 2017 | Will | Walsingham | Episode: "The Play's the Thing" |
| Script error: No such module "Sort". | Harold Macmillan | Main role (season 2), 8 episodes | |
| 2019–2020 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Michael Eddowes | Miniseries, 6 episodes |
| 2021 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Rabbi Loew | 1 episode |
| 2021 - Present | Dalgliesh | Father John | 2 episodes |
| 2022 | Killing Eve | Robert | Episode: "Making Dead Things Look Nice" |
| 1899 | Henry Singleton | 8 episodes | |
| 2022–2025 | Andor | Major Lio Partagaz | 14 episodes |
| 2023 | Better | Vernon Marley | 4 episodes |
| 2024 | Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light | Thomas More | 2 episodes |
| 2026–present | Harry Potter | Garrick Ollivander | Upcoming series |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | South of the Circle | Professor Hargreaves | Voice role |
Audio
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | The Ruby in the Smoke | Narrator | |
| 2008 | The Shadow in the North | Narrator | |
| 2008 | The Tiger in the Well | Narrator | |
| 2018 | Falco: The Complete BBC Radio Collection | Marcus Didius Falco | |
| 2020 | The Sandman | Dr. John Hathaway | Voice role, 20 episodes |
Theatre
- Romeo, Romeo and Juliet, 1980, RSC
- Hamlet, Hamlet, 1982, Donmar Warehouse, London
- Troilus, Troilus and Cressida, 1981, RSC
- Richard III, The Plantagenets (Henry VI, part 1–3 and Richard III), 1988, RSC
- Edwin Forrest, Two Shakespearean Actors, 1990, RSC
- Henry Bullingbrook, Richard II,[20] 1990, RSC
- Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew, 1992, RSC
- Frank Ford, The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1992, RSC
- Serge, 'Art', 1997, Wyndham's Theatre, London
- Elyot, Private Lives, 1999, Lyttelton Theatre, London
- Iachimo, Cymbeline, 2003, RSC
- Marcus Brutus, Julius Caesar, 2005, Barbican, London
- Leontes, The Winter's Tale, 2006, RSC
- Oliver Lucas, The Vertical Hour, 2008, Royal Court Theatre, London
- Dr. Rank, A Doll's House, 2009, Donmar Warehouse, London
- Laurie Lee, Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words and Music, 2023–present, Hambletts Productions, Stratford-upon-Avon
- Thomas Hardy, A Beautiful Thread: Thomas Hardy in Words and Music, 2024–present, Hambletts Productions, Stratford-upon-Avon
- Ghost, Hamlet, 2025, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | BAFTA TV Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Wolf Hall | Nominated | [21] |
| 2018 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | The Crown | Nominated | [22][23] |
| Game of Thrones | Nominated |
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Smurthwaite, Nick (28 May 2019). "Actor Anton Lesser: 'I'd much rather be here than stuck halfway up a mountain'". The Stage. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gullen, Zoë; Sefton, Daniel, eds. (2006). Debrett's People of Today 2006. London: Debrett's. p. 969. ISBN 9781870520324. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Jews in the News: Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and David H. Steinberg | Tampa JCCS and Federation".
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Moseley's Hall Of Fame". The Moseleians Association. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Alumni Profile: Anton Lesser" (PDF). University of Liverpool Alumni. 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Anton Lesser - RADA". Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Anton Lesser". IMDb. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Arnold, Sue (1 December 2007). "Verse yourself in Rumi's words". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Delaney, Zoe (20 September 2021). "Endeavour star Anton Lesser's secretly famous daughter who appears alongside him". mirror. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Shepherd, Jack (13 June 2016). "Game of Thrones season 6 episode 8: What rumour does Qyburn confirm for Cersei?". The Independent. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Han, Karen (7 May 2019). "Qyburn is playing the long game (of thrones)". Polygon. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Siquig, Alex (19 April 2019). "In Praise of Qyburn, Westeros's Resident Freak". The Ringer. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Taylor, Jordyn (13 May 2019). "How Fans Reacted to Qyburn's Death on Game of Thrones". Men’s Health. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gilbert, Jan (5 June 2014). "Anton Lesser talks Qyburn, Jaime Lannister's Gold Hand, & The Mountain". flicksandthecity.com. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Fabrique. "BAFTA TV awards for RADA alumni — RADA". www.rada.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Griffiths, Al (29 September 2022). "What Andor gets right that the Star Wars prequel trilogy got wrong". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Harry Potter | Production kicks off for Harry Potter television series - including new casting updates & a first-look at Harry | Wizarding World". Harry Potter. 13 July 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Harvey-Ball, Thom. "New Supporter - Anton Lesser!". Chapel Lane Theatre Company. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Delaney, Zoe (20 September 2021). "Endeavour star Anton Lesser's secretly famous daughter who appears alongside him". Mirror.
- ^ as spelled in The life and death of Richard II programme by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 1990
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."BAFTA Television Awards 2016 – winners in full". RadioTimes. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Nominations Announced for the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards" (PDF). Screen Actors Guild. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Rubin, Rebecca (13 December 2017). "SAG Award Nominations: Complete List". Variety. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
External links
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