Richard Dormer

Early life

Dormer was born into a Protestant family in Portadown, Northern Ireland. He studied at the RADA school of acting in London. After living and working in London, he returned to Northern Ireland.

Career

Stage and radio

Dormer gained recognition following his performance as Northern Irish snooker star Alex Higgins in the 2003 play Hurricane, which he wrote and starred in. Dormer won The Stage award for Best Actor in 2003. In 2004, Dormer won the Irish Times Best Actor Award for his performance in Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and in 2005 completed a season with Sir Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal and starred in Bath as Angelo in William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Jean in August Strindberg's Miss Julie and in a production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Dormer has written a number of plays including The Half and Gentleman's Tea Drinking Society which were produced through Belfast's Ransom theatre company. In 2012, Dormer was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre to write a play. Set in Brooklyn in the summer of 1969, Dormer's Drum Belly gives an insight into the dark edgy underworld of New York's Irish gangsters and opened in April 2013 to mainly positive reviews and was published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Dormer has provided the voices for over twenty BBC Radio 4 plays, documentaries and advertising campaigns. In 2020, he played the Director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Sky drama series, COBRA, starring Robert Carlyle as the British Prime Minister.

Dormer has described his early career as difficult owing to his Northern Irish accent, which he said "everybody associated with terrorism". He refused to play roles he described as "terrorists or thugs", which limited his opportunities in film and television, although he felt the decision to focus on stage acting had sharpened his acting skills.

Film

Following a run of film castings playing secondary characters, he was cast as the lead in the 2012 Good Vibrations which tells the story of Northern Ireland personality and punk rock visionary Terri Hooley. The film premièred at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was awarded Best Film at the Galway film awards, best screenplay, Dinard and was nominated for the Outstanding Debut award at the 2014 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. The film was well received by critics gaining consistent reviews, most of which highlighted Dormer's performance as a strength. Dormer's portrayal of Terri Hooley saw him nominated in the Best Actor award in the 2013 Irish Film and Television Awards. He has since played roles in Yann Demange's critically acclaimed film '71 alongside Jack O'Connell. In 2019, Dormer portrayed Curtis Welch, town physician of Nome, Alaska, in the Disney film Togo.

Television

Dormer has become a well known television actor, more recently playing key roles in the Cinemax drama series Hunted and BBC One's Hidden. 2012 also saw Dormer taking over the role of Lord Beric Dondarrion, known as the "Lightning Lord", the leader of the "Brotherhood Without Banners", for the third season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. In 2016, Dormer reprised his role as Dondarrion in the sixth season of the series and returned for the seventh season, airing in 2017 as well as the eighth and final season, airing in 2019.

Dormer is the voice of the Dad on the children's animated series Lily's Driftwood Bay. The series aired in May on the Nick Jr. Channel in the UK and on Sprout in the US. It also airs on RTÉ in Ireland, ABC Australia, KiKa in Germany, MTV in Finland, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden, and HOP! in Israel. Broadcasters in Australia and the US are keeping the original voices to the series.

In 2014, Dormer began filming on Sky Atlantic's Fortitude. Described as "their most ambitious project to date", he takes the role of Sheriff Dan Anderssen and stars alongside Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston and *The Killing'''s Sofie Gråbøl. *Fortitude'' aired on 29 January 2015. The series is set in the fictional Arctic Norwegian settlement of Fortitude. On 9 April 2015, Sky Atlantic recommissioned the show for a second series consisting of 10 episodes.

Also in 2015, Dormer starred in the BBC drama We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story as TV producer David Croft. The comedy-drama retells the creation of the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army as well as the relationship between Croft and Jimmy Perry who became successful TV comedy writers.

In 2020, Dormer appeared in the lead role of Captain Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in the BBC series The Watch, based on the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. He also has played Fraser Walker, Director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, in two series of COBRA.

In 2023, Dormer appeared as Gerald 'Gerry' Cliff in the BBC1 drama, Blue Lights.

In August 2024, it was reported that Dormer had joined the cast of the crime thriller television series The Assassin.

Personal life

He lives in Belfast and is married to director Rachel O'Riordan.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. Jones, Ellen E.. (24 March 2023). "‘We lived on our nerves’: how Belfast cop show Blue Lights captured a changed Northern Ireland".
2. (29 December 2023). "Richard Dormer: 'I didn't work because I wouldn't play terrorists'". BBC News.
3. (8 January 2011). "Hurricane, the story of Alex Higgins, back in Belfast". BBC News.
4. "Richard Dormer- Playwright Dramatist". Doollee.com.
5. Fisher, Phillip. "British Theatre Guide".
6. Michael Billington. "Waiting for Godot, Theatre Royal, Bath | Stage". The Guardian.
7. "Drum Belly (Modern Plays) Richard Dormer: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama". Bloomsbury.com.
8. (2 July 2013). "Drum Belly (Theatre Review) - The Student Standard".
9. "Drum Belly". The Public Reviews.
10. Weaver, Jesse. (11 May 2013). "Irish Theatre Magazine | Reviews | Current | Drum Belly". Irishtheatremagazine.ie.
11. United Artists. "United Artists".
12. (8 January 2014). "Bafta Film Awards 2014: NI writers nominated for Good Vibrations". [[BBC News Online]].
13. Anthony Quinn. (28 March 2013). "Film review: Good Vibrations (15) - Reviews - Films". The Independent.
14. "Empire's Good Vibrations Movie Review". Empireonline.com.
15. Peter Bradshaw. "Good Vibrations – review | Film". The Guardian.
16. Andrews, Kernan. (19 July 2012). "Good Vibrations scoops Film Fleadh award". Advertiser.ie.
17. "History vs. Hollywood: Togo".
18. (14 July 2012). ["'Game of Thrones' Announces Casting and Return Date for Season 3 Comic-Con 2012] - /Film". Slashfilm.com.
19. Perry, Spencer. (6 October 2017). "Game of Thrones Season 8 Filming Will Continue Up Until Summer 2018". SuperHeroHype.
20. (3 February 2014). "Top actors set sail for Driftwood Bay". Northern Ireland Screen.
21. Lesley Goldberg. (23 January 2014). "Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston to Star in Sky's 'Fortitude'".
22. Wagmeister, Elizabeth. (19 December 2014). "Pivot Sets Jan. 29 Premiere for Stanley Tucci Drama 'Fortitude'".
23. (22 December 2015). "We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story - review".
24. "Blue Lights: Release date, cast and latest news for BBC police drama".
25. Creamer, Jon. (22 August 2024). "Two Brothers' The Assassin lands at Prime Video".