Iain Glen

Early life and education

Glen was born on 24 June 1961 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), followed by the University of Aberdeen. He then trained in acting at the RADA in London, because it was the only drama school holding auditions at that moment. He graduated in 1985 with an Acting (RADA) Diploma, having won the Bancroft Gold Medal. His older brother is Hamish Glen, artistic director of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and former artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.

Career

Glen's big screen debut came in the 1988 film Paris by Night, alongside Charlotte Rampling and Michael Gambon. The same year, Glen appeared in Gorillas in the Mist with Sigourney Weaver. In 1990, Glen won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Silent Scream. That year he was cast as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in Tom Stoppard's film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

In 1998, Glen was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Blue Room starring opposite Nicole Kidman.

In 2002, Glen starred with Emilia Fox in the Italian-French-British romance-drama film The Soul Keeper, directed by Roberto Faenza. In 2008, Glen was Samson in the BBC Radio 3 production of Samson Agonistes directed by John Tydeman.

Glen starred as John Fielding in the 2008 British TV mini-series City of Vice. Ian McDiarmid plays Henry Fielding (author of the novel Tom Jones) who along with his brother, John, started London's first professional police force.

In 2009, it was announced that Glen had joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones, starring as Ser Jorah Mormont, a knight in exile from Westeros, who becomes adviser to Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) when she joins the Dothraki.

In 2010, he played the role of Father Octavian, leader of a sect of clerics who were on a mission against the Weeping Angels in "The Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone", a two-episode story which formed part of the fifth season of the revived television series Doctor Who (played by Matt Smith). He appeared in the second series of Downton Abbey as Sir Richard Carlisle, a tabloid publisher who is a suitor to, and subsequently engaged to, Lady Mary.

From 2010 to 2016, Glen played the title character in the Irish TV crime series Jack Taylor, adapted from the novels by Ken Bruen, and set in Galway, Ireland.

In the 2012 BBC drama series Prisoners' Wives, he plays Paul, the husband of Francesca, whose comfortable life comes crashing down when he is imprisoned for drug trafficking. The same year, he starred in a new four-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, and directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Sasha Yevtushenko.

From December 2013 until early January 2014, Glen starred alongside Richard McCabe in Fortune's Fool at the Old Vic, directed by Lucy Bailey. He had been due to appear in the full run until late February 2014, but was forced to withdraw early to recover from illness, with his role taken by his understudy Patrick Cremin and then by William Houston, who joined the cast at around the same time as Glen's departure.

In 2019, it was revealed that Glen would be portraying Bruce Wayne on the DC Universe TV series Titans.

In 2023, Glen starred as Magnus MacMillan, in charge of the Kinloch Bravo oil rig in The Rig, in a cast that included Emily Hampshire, Martin Compston and Mark Addy. The same year, he starred as William Carr in Operation Napoleon, a thriller directed by Óskar Þór Axelsson and based on Arnaldur Indriðason's best selling book of the same name.

Glen plays Leonard in the upcoming Belgian film The Last Front, a story about a broken man who takes a stand during the First World War.

Glen has received numerous nominations and awards for his performance in Game of Thrones. Notably, he won the Best Actor award at the 2016 Taormina Film Fest.

Personal life

Glen lives in south London with his wife and three children.

He is a keen cricketer, and has played for the Actors XI.

Filmography

Film

Television

Selected theatre

• Edward II, Royal Exchange, Manchester 1986
• The Man Who Had All the Luck Bristol Old Vic 1990
• Hamlet, Bristol Old Vic, 1991
• Macbeth (1993)
• Henry V (1995)
• Martin Guerre (1996–1997)
• The Blue Room (1998)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (2002)
• Hedda Gabler (2005)
• The Crucible (2006)
• Scenes of a Marriage (2008)
• Wallenstein (2009, Minerva Theatre, Chichester) – title role
• Separate Tables (2009) – roles of Mr Martin and Major Pollock – Chichester Festival Theatre
• Ghosts (2010) – also directed
• Uncle Vanya, The Print Room, 2012 – title role
• Fortune's Fool, The Old Vic, 2013
• The Seagull
• Here
• King Lear
• Coriolanus
• She Stoops to Conquer
• Hapgood
• Road
• Small Engine Repair
• The Recruiting Officer
• Love From A Stranger

Awards and nominations

References

References

1. Morrison, Lennox. (28 October 2001). "Gabriel and Me". Scotland on Sunday.
2. Murphy, Mekado. (2008). "The New York Times". [[Baseline (database).
3. "RADA Student & graduate profiles - Iain Glen". rada.ac.uk.
4. Fisher, Mark. (23 April 1993). "Out, out damned spotlight". The List.
5. "10 years at the top for our Artistic Director, Hamish Glen".
6. "41st Berlin International Film Festival – Prizes & Honours 1991". Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin.
7. "Berlinale: 1990 Prize Winners". Berlinale.de.
8. (January 14, 1999). "1999 Olivier Nominees Announced; Many To Reach Broadway". playbill.com.
9. (21 January 2003). "The Soul Keeper". variety.com.
10. (20 November 2008). "John Milton season on Radio 3 - Drama On 3: Samson Agonistes". bbc.co.uk.
11. "Game of Thrones Cast and Characters". hbo.com.
12. (7 March 2014). "The Time of Angels - Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 4 of 13". bbc.co.uk.
13. (7 March 2014). "Flesh and Stone - Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 5 of 13". bbc.co.uk.
14. (18 April 2016). "The 20 most despicable characters in Downton Abbey history, ranked". sbs.com.au.
15. Robinson, Joanna. (27 March 2017). "Iain Glen's Jack Taylor Is the Perfect Fix for Your Game of Thrones Withdrawal".
16. (31 March 2017). "Game of Thrones actor plays hard-case private investigator Jack Taylor". [[The New Zealand Herald]].
17. (21 December 2012). "Prisoners' Wives returns to BBC One". bbc.co.uk.
18. "Radio 4 - Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo". bbc.co.uk.
19. (5 January 2014). "Fortune's Fool; Middlemarch – review". theguardian.com.
20. "Fortunes Fool".
21. (9 January 2014). "Game of Thrones star Iain Glen quits play with mystery illness". Evening Standard.
22. (11 April 2019). "'Game Of Thrones' Star Will Portray Bruce Wayne/Batman On 'Titans'".
23. (6 January 2023). "Meet the cast of The Rig". radiotimes.com.
24. (2 February 2023). "Beta Cinema Sells Thriller 'Operation Napoleon,' Starring Iain Glen, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, to Key Territories (Exclusive)". [[Variety (magazine).
25. De Wilde, Bas. (25 August 2022). "Kortrijk wordt decor voor oorlogsfilm "The Last Front"". [[VRT NWS]].
26. "Taormina International Film Festival (2016)".
27. Glen, Iain. (2022-04-28). "Iain Glen: 'The worst thing about being an actor? Producers think that we'll take drugs and get lost'". The Telegraph.
28. Parkinson, Justin. (26 July 2014). "Authors and actors revive cricket rivalry". BBC News Magazine.
29. (2025-04-14). "Anupam Kher's 'Tanvi the Great' set to debut at Cannes". The Hindu.
30. Ramachandran, Naman. (16 March 2025). "'Game of Thrones' Star Iain Glen Joins TBA Studios' Philippines Historical Biopic 'Quezon' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
31. (4 October 2013). "Fortune's Fool". Oldvictheatre.com.
32. Lees, Caroline. "Classic recipes for success". ''Sunday Times''. 9 February 1992
33. "Iain Glen {{!}} Actor, Producer, Soundtrack".