John Rhys-Davies

Early life

John Rhys-Davies was born in Salisbury on 5 May 1944, the son of Welsh parents. His mother, Phyllis Jones, was a nurse, while his father, Rhys Davies, was a mechanical engineer and colonial officer.

Due to his father's work as a colonial police officer, Rhys-Davies was raised in Tanganyika (today part of Tanzania) before his family moved to the Welsh town of Ammanford. While in Tanganyika, his family lived in places such as Dar es Salaam, Kongwa, Moshi, and Mwanza. Rhys-Davies was educated at independent Truro School in Cornwall and then at the University of East Anglia, where he was one of the first 105 students admitted and became a co-founder of its drama club. After a stint teaching at a secondary school in Watton, Norfolk, Rhys-Davies won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Career

Rhys-Davies appeared sporadically on UK television in the early 1970s, including his role as the gangster "Laughing Spam Fritter" opposite Adam Faith in Budgie. Later, Rhys-Davies played Praetorian officer Naevius Sutorius Macro in I, Claudius. He then began to appear more frequently, and not just in the UK, with roles as a Portuguese navigator Rodrigues in the 1980 television miniseries Shōgun, based on the novel by James Clavell.

In 1989, Rhys-Davies played Marvel Comics character Kingpin in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. He also starred in another Clavell adaption, Noble House, set in Hong Kong, where Rhys-Davies plays Ian Dunross' corporate enemy, Quillan Gornt. He has since appeared in numerous television shows and miniseries, including Agent Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of the 1950s television series The Untouchables as well as a leading role in the television series Sliders as Professor Maximillian Arturo from 1995 to 1997.

Rhys-Davies also appeared in Reilly, Ace of Spies in 1983, made several appearances in Star Trek: Voyager as a holodeck version of Leonardo da Vinci, starred as an ally of James Bond in The Living Daylights, and appeared in the film One Night with the King. Rhys-Davies has played the character Porthos in two separate projects; a two-part episode of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, and the Hallmark Channel film La Femme Musketeer. He appears in the full-motion video cut scenes of computer games including Ripper (as Vigo Haman) (1996), Dune 2000 (as Noree Moneo) (1998), and the Wing Commander series (as James Taggart, doubling as the voice of Thrakhath nar Kiranka in the third game of the series).

In 2004, Rhys-Davies narrated The Privileged Planet, a documentary that makes the case for intelligent design. He also provided narration in the MTV series Wildboyz around this time. In 2013, Rhys-Davies appeared in the family history programme Coming Home, in which he discovered information about his grandfather's life in the Carmarthenshire coal mines.

In 2014, Rhys-Davies joined the cast of the television show Métal Hurlant Chronicles to play Holgarth, an immortal alchemist. In October 2015, it was announced that he had a role in the single-player module Squadron 42, of the planned PC game franchise Star Citizen; the work consisted of full body motion capture, including facial expressions and his voice. In October 2024, with Squadron 42 in its 10th year of development, the developer suggested that it might be released in 2026.

''Indiana Jones movies''

Rhys-Davies played Sallah in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark. He reprised the role of Sallah in two subsequent Indiana Jones films.

''The Lord of the Rings'' movies

Rhys-Davies appeared as the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The cinematography of the films was aided in that Rhys-Davies is tall – 6 ft, compared to the actors playing hobbits at around 5 ft. Therefore, although his character was supposed to be short, Rhys-Davies was properly in proportion compared to the hobbit actors. Had he been of more similar height, shots of the entire fellowship would have required three camera passes rather than two.

Rhys-Davies is the only one of the nine Fellowship of the Ring actors who did not receive a tattoo of the word "nine" written in the Tengwar script; his stunt double, Brett Beattie, was offered the tattoo instead as Rhys-Davies was disinclined to get one himself and Beattie had spent so much time as his double that he almost received co-credit.

Rhys-Davies suffered severe reactions to the prosthetics used during filming, and his eyes sometimes swelled shut. When asked whether Rhys-Davies would consider returning to the role for the film version of The Hobbit, he said, "I have already completely ruled it out. There's a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment any more." Rhys-Davies added that this time around, "[t]hey've got a different set of problems... because you've got 13 dwarves, a whole band of them... You're trying to represent a whole race... You're trying to do for dwarves what The Lord of the Rings did for hobbits." He offered help as a dwarf advisor in 2011, but ruled out returning as Gimli in The Hobbit because of the punishing makeup required.

Voice work

In addition to voicing the Ent Treebeard in Lord of the Rings, Rhys-Davies has lent his distinctive voice to many video games and animated television series, including the role of Hades in Justice League, the original voice of Man Ray in SpongeBob SquarePants (until both roles were recast with Bob Joles), and numerous times in Gargoyles (1994–1996), as the character Macbeth. He also lent his vocal talents to the games Freelancer (as Richard Winston Tobias) and Lords of Everquest (both in 2003) and the game Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, which was released with his narration on a CD-ROM version in 1995. Rhys-Davies also had a voice role on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance as the character Jherek, and narrated a documentary called The Glory of Macedonia. Next Generation magazine gave its Dune 2000 review "an automatic one-star deduction for featuring John "Multimedia Whore" Rhys-Davies in the FMV."

Rhys-Davies' voice can be heard on the 2009 documentary Reclaiming the Blade. In the narration, he explores swords, historical European swordsmanship and fight choreography on film, a topic very familiar to Rhys-Davies from his experiences in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where his character wielded an axe in many scenes.

In 2004, Rhys-Davies was the unknowing subject of an internet prank that spread false rumours in several mainstream media sources that he was scheduled to play the role of General Grievous in Star Wars Episode III.

Rhys-Davies is the narrator of The Truth & Life Dramatized audio New Testament Bible, a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, fully dramatised audiobook version of the New Testament which uses the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition translation. In 2011, he presented KJB: The Book That Changed The World, which features Rhys-Davies reading diverse snippets from the King James Version.

Rhys-Davies' voice work also includes voice-over work with Breathe Bible. In 2016, he provided spoken words for Voices of Fire, the sixth album by a cappella power metal band van Canto.

A resident of the Isle of Man since 1988, John Rhys-Davies provides the introductory voice-over to the Island's Castle Rushen, one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in the British Isles. In 2018, he lent his voice to the Isle of Man's tourism commercial.

Rhys-Davies voice was recorded for some of the callouts in the 1993 Williams SuperPin Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure.

In the 2023 video game The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Rhys-Davies reprises the role of Gimli and narrates the opening scene.

Personal life

Relationships

Rhys-Davies married Suzanne Wilkinson in December 1966, and they had two sons together. Although they legally separated in 1985, they remained married until her death from Alzheimer's disease in 2010. They remained friends, and Rhys-Davies took care of Wilkinson in her final years.

In 2004, Rhys-Davies began dating Lisa Manning. They have a daughter together, and split their time between homes in the New Zealand region of Waikato and the village of Kirk Michael on the Isle of Man.

Religious views

While Rhys-Davies identifies as irreligious, he holds Christianity in high regard and has stated that "Christian civilisation has made the world a better place than it ever was."

In February 2020, Rhys-Davies stated, "All the things that we value, the right of free speech, the right of the individual conscience, these evolved in first and second century Roman Christendom, where the individual Christian said, 'I have a right to believe, what I believe and not what the Emperor tells me.' From that our whole idea of democracy and the equality that we have has developed. We owe Christianity the greatest debt of thanks that a generation can ever have, and to slight it and to dismiss it as being irrelevant is the detritus of rather ill-read minds, I think."

Political views

Rhys-Davies is not a member of any political party. He was a radical leftist as a university student in the 1960s, but changed his views after heckling Margaret Thatcher, who he said "shot down the first two hecklers in such brilliant fashion that [he] decided [he] ought for once to shut up and listen".

In 2004, Rhys-Davies said in an interview with World magazine: "There is a demographic catastrophe happening in Europe that nobody wants to talk about, that we daren't bring up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well. By 2020, 50% of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim descent." In an interview with the conservative journal National Review, he said that he is opposed to Islamic extremism because he believes that it violates the Western values of equality, democracy, tolerance, and the abolition of slavery.

Rhys-Davies was vocal in his support for Brexit.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Audio work

Audiobooks

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989 Buena Vista Records)
• Rescued (2006)
• Affabel: Window of Eternity (2007 John Bevere, 2009 Bethany House)
• Sir Malcolm and the Missing Prince (2009)
• The Extraordinary Adventures of G. A. Henty: In the Reign of Terror (2016)
• The Trials of Saint Patrick (2017)

Podcasts

• Batman Unburied (2022, as Hugo Strange)
• Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum (2024, as guest star)

Awards and nominations

References

References

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