Alun Armstrong

Alun Armstrong

Birth : 1946-07-17, Annfield Plain, County Durham, England, UK

History

Alun Armstrong is a prolific English character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic." His numerous credits include six different Dickens adaptations and seven series as eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in New Tricks. Armstrong is also an accomplished stage actor who spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Thénardier in the London production of Les Misérables and he won an Olivier Award for playing the title role in Sweeney Todd.

Profile

Alun Armstrong

Movies

The Nicky Nack
A man walking home from his local pub one night is tormented by a terrifying sound: The Nicky Nack.
Out of Innocence
Detective Callaghan
After a police investigation, a young mother, confused and scared, confesses to a crime she did not commit and is charged with murder.
Possum
Maurice
A disgraced children’s puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured him his entire life.
Funny Cow
Lenny
A comedian uses her troubled past as material for her stand-up routine, trying to rise up through the comedy circuit by playing Northern England's working men's clubs.
Golden Years
Sid
Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime.
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Ernest Whitehouse
The story of the rise of morals crusader Mary Whitehouse in the UK in the 1960's.
The Dinner Party
Jim
Young couple Jackie and Leo move from North London to a suburban home in the green belt paradise of Southern England. At the birthday party of a neighbor, they soon discover the strict social hierarchies of village life.
Eragon
Uncle Garrow
In his homeland of Alagaesia, a farm boy happens upon a dragon's egg -- a discovery that leads him on a predestined journey where he realized he's the one person who can defend his home against an evil king.
The Girls Who Came to Stay
Bob Jenkins
The story of a couple who take in two girls from Belarus, a country that has been affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
Oliver Twist
Magistrate Fang
Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
When I'm Sixty-Four
Jim
When widowed cabbie Ray and retired teacher Jim meet by chance, they discover they long for the same things from life: adventure, challenge and love. Together Ray and Jim discover that being 64 means a new beginning: it's time to try the things they never dared in their youth.
Van Helsing: The London Assignment
Cardinal Jinetta (voice)
It tells of the events before the film, in which monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing travels to London to investigate a series of horrific, and decidedly supernatural murders, being committed by the mad scientist Dr. Jekyll, in the form of his evil alter-ego, Mr. Hyde.
Van Helsing
Cardinal Jinette
Famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing is dispatched to Transylvania to assist the last of the Valerious bloodline in defeating Count Dracula. Anna Valerious reveals that Dracula has formed an unholy alliance with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and is hell-bent on exacting a centuries-old curse on her family.
Millions
Saint Peter
Two boys, still grieving the death of their mother, find themselves the unwitting benefactors of a bag of bank robbery loot in the week before the United Kingdom switches its official currency to the Euro. What's a kid to do?
Carrie's War
Mr. Samuel Evans
Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.
It's All About Love
David
The story of two lovers and their attempts to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse. John, and world-famous ice skating star, Elena, are about to sign divorce papers when they realise that, in spite of everything happening around them, their love is worth fighting for. It's All About Love is a fresh take on modern love and future life as two lovers struggle in a conspiracy of epic proportions.
Paradise Found
Camille Pissarro
Paradise Found is a biography about the painter Paul Gauguin. Focusing on his personal conflict between citizen life and his family life and the art scene in Frane. In an incredible imagery montage Gauguin manages to make a successful living in the South Pacific, while being in opposition to France.
Inquisition
Martin
Set in the Spain of 1680, a time of torture and interrogation by the Grand Inquisitor. A young man appears that is healing the sick and raising the dead. There are rumours that he might be the second coming of the Messiah. He is brought before the Grand Inquisitor. Though questioned and tortured, he chooses to remain silent.
Strictly Sinatra
Bill
In Glasgow, Toni Cocozza, age 28, aspires to be a lounge singer; his repertoire is strictly Sinatra, backed by Bill, an aging piano player and his only friend. Toni dreams big and enters a local television talent show. About that time, a local Mob boss decides Toni is great entertainment and invites him to be his guest at a casino. Toni chats up Irene, a cigarette girl, he gets an odd job or two from Chisolm, the mobster's number two, the audition goes bust, and Toni's future is uncertain. One thing leads to another with the Mob. Is Toni at a crossroads, or is there in reality no turning or going back?
Score
George
Comedy about a Sunday League football team who win the Lottery.
The Mummy Returns
Baltus Hafez
Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.
Proof of Life
Wyatt
Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.
Harrison's Flowers
Samuel Brubeck
1991. Harrison Lloyd, a renowned photojournalist covering the war in Yugoslavia, is reported missing. Sarah, his wife, convinced that he is not dead, decides to go to Bosnia to find him.
7 Up 2000
Himself - Narrator
A new generation of British children feature in a follow-up to the original 7 Up series
This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper
Asst. Chief Const. George Oldfield
This is a dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murders of the late 1970s, showing the effect that it had on the health and career of Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield who led the enquiry.
Onegin
In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat - a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him
Sleepy Hollow
High Constable
New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. Locals believe the culprit to be none other than the legendary Headless Horseman.
G:MT Greenwich Mean Time
Uncle Henry
Six London school-leavers attempt to make it in the world, balancing the challenge of trying to make a name for themselves in the music industry against the pressures and tragedies of everyday life.
With or Without You
Sammy
Rosie and Vincent know each other for ten years, and are married for five. She doesn't like her job, he isn't too pleased working with her dad. They're trying to have a baby. One morning Benoit, a Frenchman and former pen pal of Rosie, whom she never met, comes to visit. Did Rosie love him? Does she love him now?
Aristocrats
Lord Holland
18th-century England and Ireland viewed through the eyes of four beautiful high-born sisters - Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians and peers.
The Saint
Inspector Teal
Simon Templar (The Saint), is a thief for hire, whose latest job to steal the secret process for cold fusion puts him at odds with a traitor bent on toppling the Russian government, as well as the woman who holds its secret.
Brazen Hussies
Jimmy Hardcastle
After meeting her old school friend Sandra Delaney, who now works as a stripper, pub owner Maureen Hardcastle decides to spice up her flagging business by turning it into a male stripper club, with the help of untrustworthy businessman Billy Bowman.
Breaking the Code
Mick Ross
A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when this was illegal, besides being a security risk.
Sorry About Last Night
Mickey
A romantic comedy written by and starring Alexei Sayle. A couple on a first date in London are determined to find a drink after closing time, to prove to themselves that they are not careworn and middle-aged. What follows is a series of misadventures
Les Misérables: 10th Anniversary Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Thenardier
The top stars from the original London and Broadway productions join together with a 150-voice chorus and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's venerated Royal Albert Hall for a truly magical gala performance of Les Misérables. You'll watch and listen time and again to the magnificent Tony Award-winning score as sung by stars forever linked to these roles.
An Awfully Big Adventure
Uncle Vernon
Liverpool. 1947. Right after World War II, a star struck naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue and learns about the grown-up world of the theater.
Braveheart
Mornay
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.
MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday
Capshaw
A close friend of MacGyver is murdered. In searching for a reason for this assassination MacGyver discovers a secret nuclear weapons plant right in the center of Britain.
Doggin' Around
Charlie Foster
The past catches up with an ageing American jazz pianist when he returns to the clubs of Lancashire and Yorkshire that he last visited 10 years previously.
Black Beauty
Reuben Smith
The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.
Blue Ice
Osgood
An ex-British spy (Michael Caine) helps a U.S. diplomat's wife (Sean Young) and blows the lid off a deadly government cover-up.
Patriot Games
Owens
When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.
Split Second
Thrasher
In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since — but he soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.
London Kills Me
John Stone
For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe... a young man's life is almost lost, which is exactly what this film is all about: a man barely twenty who wants desperately to pull out of London's drug world by taking a job as a waiter in a 'normal' restaurant. But to do this he must come up with a "sensible" pair of shoes, an item that his homeless meanderings hasn't provided him.
American Friends
Dr. Weeks
Francis Ashby, a senior Oxford don on holiday alone in the Alps, meets holidaying American Caroline and her companion Elinor, the blossoming Irish-American girl she adopted many years before. Ashby finds he enjoys their company, particularly that of Elinor, and both the women are drawn to him. Back at Oxford he is nevertheless taken aback when they arrive unannounced. Women are not allowed in the College grounds, let alone the rooms. Indeed any liaison, however innocent, is frowned on by the upstanding Fellows.
Sticky Wickets
Evans
It's a big night at the New Dragon Inn when a coach of distinguished Germans arrives. But disaster looms - it's the local cricket team's annual fancy dress bash and the theme is the Second World War.
White Hunter, Black Heart
Ralph Lockhart
Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.
The Widowmaker
Dad
The Widowmaker is a 1990 made for television film starring Annabelle Apsion, Alun Armstrong, David Morrissey and Kenneth Welsh. The film deals with a woman whose husband has been arrested after going on a killing rampage and the reaction of her local community. It was produced In the United Kingdom by Central Independent Television for the ITV Network and aired on 29 December 1990. It received a nomination for Best Single Drama at the 1991 BAFTA Awards.
Nineteen96
Det. Supt. Frank Burroughs
Britain in the mid-1990s: a divided, violent nation where civil disorder and urban terrorism are on the increase. Scotland Yard detective Commander Jack Bentham is seconded to Wales to look into a series of shootings by police officers, and uncovers a complex web of deceit and corruption
A Night on the Tyne
Willy
When four shipbuilders are made redundant they decide that as a protest they will launch the ship they have been working on.
That Summer of White Roses
World War II finally reaches a Yugoslavian lake, where a lifeguard shelters a refugee and her son.
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire
Maxwell Randall, The Green Baize Vampire
Cocky cockney snooker player Billy Kid accepts the challenge of a grudge match from Maxwell Randall (the Green Baize Vampire), six times world champion; the loser will never play professional snooker again.
Number One
Blackpool Police Sergeant
A down on his luck Irishman in London decides to play snooker for money.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Singer
The hardships faced by a woman trying to survive a bloody civil war while caring for the abandoned child of the deposed former ruler.
The House
Mr. Smeth
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
Krull
Torquil
A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.
Mr Moon's Last Case
Narrator
Play based on Brian Patten's book. Local children and retired detective Moon band together to protect a leprechaun from the investigations of the local police.
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Grimes
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
Fear of God
Trahearne
A journalist finds his life is in danger when he investigates the death of a woman who was involved with a religious cult.
All Day on the Sands
Mr and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister's sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father's now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.
Measure for Measure
Provost
When the Duke of Vienna takes a mysterious leave of absence and leaves the strict Angelo in charge, things couldn't be worse for Claudio, who is sentenced to death for premarital sex. His sister, Isabella (a nun-in-training), however, is a very persuasive pleader. She goes to Angelo, but instead of freeing her brother, she gets an offer from Angelo to save Claudio's life if Isabella sleeps with him. The only sympathetic friend Isabella has is a priest who, in actuality, is the Duke in disguise...and he has a plan.
Our Day Out
Mr. Briggs
When a teacher takes a group of troubled school children on a school trip to Conwy in Wales, the children understand life outside of Liverpool.
Shooting the Chandelier
Brodovich
During the closing days of the Second World War, a young Czechoslovakian woman, Blanka, is caught between ideologies of the Soviet regime. Part of BBC2 Play of the Week.
The Duellists
Lacourbe
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
A Bridge Too Far
Cpl. Davies
Operation Market Garden, September 1944. The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
The Likely Lads
Tommy
With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair them off for good via planning first a dinner party and then that mainstay of 70s comedy, a camping expedition. Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and before you can say ‘I can see the way this is going’ we are set up for japes, larks and embarrassing incidents aplenty, which culminate in the lads getting rather fed up with their partners’ attempts to inflict the rugged outdoor lifestyle upon them and trying to hitch up and drive off with the girls still asleep in the caravan.
Easy Go
First docker
A hot day by the Thames - very hot for some Deptford children. When they and some dockers spot a 'prize' in the river, the race is on between the rival factions to win it.
The 14
Tommy
Set in London’s East End, The 14 (aka The Wild Little Bunch aka Existence) is based on the true story of fourteen children who struggle against overwhelming pressures to stay together after the death of their single mother.
The Eyes Have It
Mike
A group of terrorists posing as plumbers set up base at a school for the blind. The students remain blissfully unaware while the terrorists plan the assassination of a politician who will soon be passing the school on a parade route. Only one student, Sally, suspects that the men upstairs may be dangerous...
The Sex Victims
George
A lone truck driver who is lured into the woods by a nubile Lady Godiva discovers after he’s slept with her that all is not as it seems. The Sex Victims (1973) is very much part of the Britsploitation fold, featuring gratuitous nudity, working-class vernacular and rough sex. Yet director Derek Robbins also veers into some of the same uncanny territory directors like José Larraz would later explore at feature length, making it a unique hybrid. In fact, The Sex Victims would make a perfect bill cousin for Larraz’s Vampyres (1974) for the way in which it combines ample nudity with supernatural elements. (BFI)
Only Make Believe
Michael Biddle
Playwright Christopher Hudson finds his medical problem hinders his writing. He employs secretary Sandra George and dictates his new play to her, but tensions soon develop between the two. As Hudson creates, scenes from his play are dramatized and interpolated. The play being created is Dennis Potter's Angels Are So Few, seen with a totally different cast from the 1970 BBC production.
Get Carter
Keith
Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why.