James Wilby

Early life and education

Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father. He was educated at Terrington Hall and Sedbergh School, then studied, for a degree in mathematics, at Grey College, Durham, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Wilby's first appearance on screen was in the Oxford Film Company production Privileged (1982) alongside Hugh Grant. He acted with Grant again in the Merchant Ivory period film Maurice (1987), which brought him to the attention of an international audience and earned Wilby and Grant the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award. He then starred in A Handful of Dust (1988), for which he won the Bari Film Festival Best Actor award. His further roles included A Tale of Two Cities (1989) for Granada Television, Howards End (1992), Regeneration (1997), Ismail Merchant's Cotton Mary (1999), Gosford Park (2001), and Alain Robbe-Grillet's C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle (2006), co-starring Arielle Dombasle, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

On stage, Wilby starred in the 1995 revival of John Osborne's A Patriot for Me by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre. He then appeared in a production of Helping Harry at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2001; and in 2004 as the title character in a run of Don Juan at the Lyric Theatre. He has also starred in On Emotion (2008) at the Soho Theatre; The Consultant (2011) by Neil Fleming and the Hydrocracker Theatre Company at Theatre503 in London; and in tours of Terence Rattigan's Less Than Kind (2012) and Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight (2019).

Personal life

Wilby is married to Shana Louise and has four children.

From 1994 to 2015, Wilby owned The Laines, an 18th-century country house in Plumpton, East Sussex, near Lewes. It was the childhood home of Queen Camilla.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. "James Wilby Biography (1958-)".
2. [http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/works/a_patriot_for_me.shtml A Patriot for Me by John Osborne, Barbican Theatre, 1995.] {{webarchive. link. (28 August 2006)
3. Ransome, Jeremy. (2019-10-22). "THEATRE REVIEW: Gaslight".
4. Wylie, Ian. [http://ianwylie.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/titanic-wylie-production-notespdf1.pdf 'Titanic' (production notes)], pp.63-64.
5. The Telegraph, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/3314587/Clarets-more-than-just-a-stage.html 'Claret's more than just a stage'], 21 August 2004.
6. (16 March 2015). "Asking price for Duchess of Cornwall's former home slashed by £100,000". The Argus.
7. Yossman, K.J.. (28 January 2022). "Elliott Hasler's 'Vindication Swim' Biopic Casts Douglas Hodge, James Wilby (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
8. (19 November 2024). "BBC unveils first glimpse of The Famous Five - Mystery at the Prospect Hotel". BBC Media Centre.