Biography

He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey. His performance on the show earned him a nomination at the Golden Globes and two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, as well as three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He reprised his role in the feature films, Downton Abbey (2019), and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022). He also appeared in the films Notting Hill (1999), Iris (2001), The Monuments Men (2014), and the Paddington films (2014-2023).

1990s

Bonneville's first professional stage appearance was at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In 1987, he joined the National Theatre where he appeared in several plays, then the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991, where he played Laertes to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1992–1993). He played Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Bergetto in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Kastril and later Surly in The Alchemist.

In 1994, Bonneville made his television debut, billed as Richard Bonneville in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Dying Detective". His debut film was 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with Robert De Niro and Kenneth Branagh. His early roles were usually good-natured bumbling characters like Bernie in Notting Hill (1999) and Mr Rushworth in Mansfield Park (1999).

2000s

In the BBC television series, Take a Girl Like You (2000) and Armadillo (2001), he played more villainous characters, leading up to the domineering Henleigh Grandcourt in Daniel Deronda (2002) and the psychopathic killer James Lampton in The Commander (2003) series. In Love Again, he played the poet Philip Larkin.

In Iris (2001), he played the young John Bayley opposite Kate Winslet, with his performance lauded by critics and receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2004, Bonneville played Sir Christopher Wren in the docudrama Wren – The Man Who Built Britain. Bonneville also works extensively in radio. He played the role of Jerry Westerby in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the John le Carré novel The Honourable Schoolboy, first broadcast in January 2010. Earlier, he appeared in the surreal parallel universe comedy Married.

2010s

From 2010 until 2015, he appeared in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey, as Robert, Earl of Grantham, a role he repeated in the 2019 film.

In early 2010, he appeared in the comedy film Burke and Hare. In 2011 and 2012, he starred as Ian Fletcher in the award-winning BBC comedy series Twenty Twelve, and reprised the role in the 2014 BBC comedy series W1A. In December 2012, he appeared on BBC Two with co-star Jessica Hynes in World's Most Dangerous Roads, travelling through Georgia. He also appeared in the much-delayed film Hippie Hippie Shake with Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller.

From 2011 until 2014, Bonneville was the narrator of the Channel 4 show The Hotel. On 18 November 2012, Bonneville appeared on stage at St Martin's Theatre in the West End for a 60th anniversary performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.

Bonneville played Mr. Brown in the 2014 film Paddington and its 2017 sequel Paddington 2. He has appeared in the singing comedic role of The Pirate King in the ABC fairy tale-themed musical comedy extravaganza series Galavant during its 2015 and 2016 seasons. He also narrated the ITV series The Cruise.

In 2017, Bonneville portrayed Lord Mountbatten in director Gurinder Chadha's film Viceroy's House, which depicted the tumult and violence surrounding the Partition of India during the final days of British rule. Also in 2017, he portrayed the voice of Merlin in the movie based on the children's TV series Thomas & Friends, Journey Beyond Sodor. Also that year, he narrated the documentary A Return to Grace: Luther's Life and Legacy and it was announced that Bonneville would play Roald Dahl in an upcoming biopic about the author.

In 2018, Bonneville succeeded Julie Andrews as host and narrator of the annual "From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration" episode of Great Performances, broadcast on New Year's Day on PBS in the United States. Also in 2018, he returned to voice Merlin in one of the episodes of the twenty-second series of Thomas & Friends.

In 2019, Bonneville portrayed C. S. Lewis at the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Shadowlands, along with actors Liz White and Andrew Havill.




Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1994	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein	Schiller
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies	Air Warfare Officer – HMS Bedford
1999	Notting Hill	Bernie
1999	Mansfield Park	Mr Rushworth
2001	Blow Dry	Louis
2001	High Heels and Low Lifes	Farmer
2001	The Emperor's New Clothes	Bertrand
2001	Iris	Young John Bayley
2003	Conspiracy of Silence	Fr. Jack Dowling
2004	Piccadilly Jim	Lord Wisbeach
2004	Stage Beauty	Samuel Pepys
2005	The Commander: Virus	James Lampton	Uncredited
2005	The Commander: Blackout	James Lampton	Uncredited
2005	Man to Man	Fraser McBride
2005	Asylum	Max Raphael
2005	Underclassman	Headmaster Felix Powers
2006	Scenes of a Sexual Nature	Gerry
2007	Four Last Songs	Sebastian Burrows
2007	Hola to the World	Painter	Short film
2008	One of Those Days	Mr Burrell	Short film
2008	French Film	Jed
2009	Knife Edge	Charles Pollock
2009	Glorious 39	Gilbert Williams
2009	From Time to Time	Captain Oldknow
2010	Critical Eye	Brian
2010	Shanghai	Ben Sanger
2010	Third Star	Beachcomber
2010	Burke & Hare	Lord Harrington
2010	Hippie Hippie Shake	John Mortimer	Unreleased
2011	Third Star	Beachcomber
2014	The Monuments Men	Lieutenant Donald Jeffries
2014	Muppets Most Wanted	Irish Journalist
2014	Paddington	Mr Henry Brown
2015	Stick Man	Santa Clause	Voice
2015	Silent Hours	Commander William Calthorpe
2017	Viceroy's House	Lord Mountbatten
2017	Paddington 2	Mr Henry Brown
2017	Journey Beyond Sodor	Merlin	Voice
2017	Breathe	Teddy Hall
2017	A Return to Grace: Luther's Life and Legacy	Narrator
2017	Secrets of the Magna Carta	Narrator	Documentary
2019	Downton Abbey	Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham
2020	Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey	Mr. Delacroix
2021	To Olivia	Roald Dahl
2022	Downton Abbey: A New Era	Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham
2022	I Came By	Sir Hector Blake
2022	The Amazing Maurice	The Mayor	Voice
TBA	Paddington in Peru	Mr Henry Brown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Bonneville