Andrew Havill

Andrew Havill (born 1 June 1965) is an English actor. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the late 1980s, Havill has appeared in more than 40 films and 50 plays. After training in Oxford and London, he began his career in repertory theatre in 1989 and made his screen debut in 1993. Havill has since become a character actor of British costume dramas, with recent work including several credits in Bollywood cinema.

Education

Havill attended the University of Exeter, where he read English and Drama.

He spent four years with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, with roles in London theatre productions including Christopher Short's ''For Those in Peril'' at the Shaw Theatre, ''As You Like It'' at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, and ''Reynard the Fox'' on the Drum Theatre Plymouth and south-west tour. At the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, Havill was in ''Henry V'', ''Twelfth Night'', and Ed Kemp's ''A Proper Place''. He spent a further four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

Havill is also an alumnus of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, with roles in Oxford theatre productions including ''Twelfth Night'' at the Oxford Playhouse, ''The Recruiting Officer'' at New College Cloisters, and ''As You Like It'' at Lady Margaret Hall Gardens.

Career

Theatre

Beginning his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Havill was in ''The Woman in Black'' at London's Fortune Theatre in 1989 and 1996, played Lysander in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in 1989, and Reynaldo in ''Hamlet'' the same year.

Throughout the 1990s, Havill performed in a number of plays at London's West End and elsewhere. He portrayed several characters at the Barbican Theatre in an RSC production of ''A Clockwork Orange'' and at The Pit London in ''A Woman of No Importance''. In conjunction with the RSC, Havill's focus was Shakespeare; in 1990, he portrayed George Seacoal in ''Much Ado About Nothing'', Peter Arnold in ''Two Shakespearean Actors'' and The Merchant in ''The Comedy of Errors''; from 1991 to 1992, he portrayed Sir William Bagot in an RSC production of Richard II at the Barbican Theatre in London.

In 2003, Havill played Group Captain Windbreak in Justin Butcher's production of ''The Madness of George Dubya'' at the Arts Theatre in London. Michael Billington wrote in ''The Guardian'' that "Butcher's production... has a surprising jauntiness; ... Andrew Havill as an ineffectual group captain... stand out." The following year, Havill was cast as the Reverend James Morell in George Bernard Shaw's '' Candida'', for which The Guardian's Lyn Gardner wrote "Much of the pleasure of Christopher Luscombe's well-observed period production is in watching Andrew Havill's interesting Morell move from confident self-belief to bewildered self-doubt as he starts to understand that even goodness is a form of selfishness." Havills other stage roles of the 2000s include working with Alan Ayckbourn on his play ''Virtual Reality'', a West End production of Jean Anouilh's '' Ring Around the Moon'', and roles in director Chris Luscombe's productions of ''The Comedy of Errors'' and ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' at Shakespeare's Globe. Of the latter, Gardner wrote "Havill's comic timing is a joy."

Havill also appeared as Frank Ford in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' US tour of 2010. Ben Brantley commented in ''The New York Times'', "As Ford... the excellent Mr. Havill is exactly as serious as he needs to be, reminding us that one of comedy’s main functions is to defuse bombs that in real life often explode and destroy." In 2012 and 2013, he was part of the original cast of James Graham's play '' This House'', at the National Theatre, directed by Jeremy Herrin. His work has included three roles at Hampstead Theatre in the plays ''Farewell to the Theatre'', '' Drawing the Line'', and ''Wonderland'', and a portrayal of the English physician Sir Gilbert Wedgecroft in a National Theatre production of ''Waste'', with Anne Cox writing "Havill offers excellent support... as always." In 2019, Havill portrayed Warren Lewis at the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of ''Shadowlands'', along with actors Hugh Bonneville and Liz White; Havill starred alongside Bonneville in the ''Downtown Abbey'' film of the same year.

Television

Havill made his television debut in Lucy Gannon's ''Soldier Soldier'' in 1993, followed by a portrayal of English critic John Davenport in ''The House of Elliot'' Series 3 the following year. From 1997 to 1998, Havill worked with Lynda La Plante on her drama series ''Trial & Retribution'', playing Clarence Oxley on ''Trial & Retribution I'' and Crispin Oxley on ''Trial & Retribution II''. Havill starred in two 1999 television mini series: ''Aristocrats'' and ''Wives and Daughters'' as Charles Bunbury and Sir Charles Morton respectively.

In the 2000s, his television roles included portraying Manet on '' The Impressionists'', ''Elizabeth David'' (in which he featured as the husband of cookery writer Elizabeth David in the docudrama about whom it was named),'' Daphne'' and ''The Tudors''. He played the Chief Steward in the Christmas ''Doctor Who'' episode ''Voyage of the Damned'' and was in the BBC drama '' Spooks'' Series 8.

In 2011, Havill portrayed the Reverend Conrad Walker on ITV's ''Midsomer Murders'' (''The Night of the Stag''). In 2012, he played the Royal Equerry, Harry, in '' Sherlock'' (''A Scandal in Belgravia''), with ''WhatCulture's'' Christian Bone saying he was "known for playing well-spoken upper-class types." His work of the 2010s includes playing Victor McKinley on the BBC's ''Father Brown'', Edward Sidwell on ''The Coroner'' Series 1, episode 8 (''Napoleon's Violin''), and Gareth Anderson on ''Vera'' (''Natural Selection'') in 2017.

Havill played factory owner, Douglas Broome in the 2021 series, ''The Nevers'', and Professor Lucius Stamfield in '' Endeavour'' the same year. In the fifth season of ''The Crown'' (2022), he played Robert Fellowes, the Queen's private secretary and brother-in-law of Princess Diana.

Film

Havill made his film debut in 1995, portraying Galant on Michael Hoffman's '' Restoration''. Following this, he played Algernon in Brian Gilbert's 1997 film ''Wilde'' and Piers in Clare Kilner's 1999 film '' Janice Beard''.

In the 2000s, Havill's film work included roles in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's 2002 period drama ''The Heart of Me'' as Charles (the fiancé of Helena Bonham Carter's Dinah), Douglas McGrath's 2002 period comedy-drama ''Nicholas Nickleby'', Christine Jeffs' 2003 biographical drama '' Sylvia'', and Sean Ellis' 2008 horror film '' The Broken'' as Doctor Myers.

Beginning with ''The King's Speech'' in 2010, in which he portrayed the royal sound engineer Robert Wood, Havill has starred in a number of historical dramas in Britain and elsewhere. In 2011, he played the cabinet secretary to Meryl Streep's Margaret Thatcher in '' The Iron Lady''; in 2012, he played Cameron, welcoming Olivia Colman's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Samuel West's King George VI to the United States in ''Hyde Park on Hudson''; in 2014, he played Turing's professor in ''The Imitation Game''; he portrayed the Archbishop of Canterbury in David Michôd's 2019 film '' The King'' and the 6th Earl of Harewood, Henry Lascelles, in the 2019 Downtown Abbey film. In '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' of the same year, Havill played a First Order Officer warning Richard E. Grant's Allegiant General Pryde "they’re targeting the navigation tower, so the fleet can’t deploy". His work of the 2010s includes roles in '' The Awakening'' as George Vandermeer, '' Cloud Atlas'' as Mr. Hotchkiss, ''Dad's Army'' as Captain Meeks, ''My Cousin Rachel'' as Parson Pascoe, ''Gold'' as Sir James Benson, and ''Lyrebird'' as Maarten Wooning.

Havill portrayed Sir Philip Hendy in Roger Michell's 2020 film '' The Duke'', along with actors Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. In 2021, he played Enid Baines' father George in '' Censor'', delivering "sterling work" as a "button-down" parent. He played General Reginald Dyer in Bollywood's ''Sardar Udham'' of the same year.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Havill, Andrew
1965 births
Living people
Havill family
People from Oxford
People from Oxfordshire
British actors
English male stage actors
Shakespearean actors
British male Shakespearean actors
English male television actors
English male film actors
21st-century English male actors
20th-century English male actors
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Alumni of the University of Exeter
National Youth Theatre members
Royal Shakespeare Company members