Baal
Babies Grow Old
Back to Methuselah
Bad Weather
George Baker
Sean Baker
The Balcony
Bandits
Teresa Banham
Barbarians
Frances Barber
The Barbican
Howard Barker
Peter Barnes
Desmond Barrit
Bartholomew Fair
John Barton
Linda Bassett
Bastard Angel
Alan Bates
Simon Russell Beale
Sean Bean
The Beast
Maureen Beattie
Francis Beaumont
Beauty and the Beast
The Beaux' Stratagem
Becket
Samuel Beckett
Beckett Shorts
The Beggar's Opera
Brendan Behan
Katy Behean
Aphra Behn
Belcher's Luck
Believe What You Will
Christopher Benjamin
Paul Bentall
John Berger
Sarah Berger
Cicely Berry
Suzanne Bertish
Kirsty Besterman
Paul Bettany
The Bewitched
Bingo
Birdsong
The Birthday Party
The Bite of the Night
Colin Blakely
Claudie Blakley
Marjorie Bland
Brian Blessed
The Blue Angel
The Body
Michael Bogdanov
Robert Bolt
Edward Bond
Samantha Bond
Ken Bones
Hugh Bonneville
Laurence Boswell
John Bott
Dion Boucicault
John Bowe
Raymond Bowers
Robert Bowman
Stephen Boxer
Michael Boyd
Danny Boyle
David Bradley
John Bradley
Cathryn Bradshaw
Kenneth Branagh
Brand
Breaking the Silence
Bertolt Brecht
Howard Brenton
David Brierley
The Bright and Bold Design
Stephen Brimson Lewis
Jasper Britton
Brixton Stories
Jim Broadbent
The Broken Heart
Richard Brome
Peter Brook
Siân Brooke
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Bille Brown
Susan Brown
Brenda Bruce
Emily Bruni
Giordano Bruno
Robert Bryan
Georg Büchner
Mikhail Afanaseyev Bulgakov
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Bundle
Anthony Burgess
Alfred Burke
Alan Burrett
John Bury
Judy Buxton
Patsy Byrne
Lord Byron
David Bradley worked as an engineer before winning a place at RADA, aged twenty-four. He made his debut playing Dr Pinch in The Comedy of Errors at the Sheffield Crucible, and his early progress included the NT's 1971 season (Old Vic) and The Mystery Plays at York.
In his first ten years at the RSC he played supporting roles, gradually gaining in prominence: Antonio in The Merchant of Venice (John Barton, TOP, 1978); Hardeness in Peter Whelan's Captain Swing (Bill Alexander, TOP, 1978); Peter Reese in The Churchill Play (Barry Kyle, TOP, 1978); Soothsayer in Peter Brook's production of Antony and Cleopatra (RST, 1978); Second Shepherd in The Shepherd's Play (Barton, TOP, 1978); Andy in Tom McGrath's The Innocent (Davies, Warehouse, 1979); Oliver Fulton/Policeman in Once in a Lifetime (Trevor Nunn, Aldwych, 1979); Shakebag in Arden of Faversham (Terry Hands, TOP, 1982, Pit, 1983); Albany in King Lear (Adrian Noble, RST, 1982, Barbican, 1983); the Prison Doctor in Bond's Lear (Kyle, TOP, 1982, Pit, 1983); Charron in Molière (Alexander, TOP, 1982, Pit, 1983); Openwork in The Roaring Girl (Kyle, Barbican, 1983); Cleante in Tartuffe (Alexander, Pit, 1983); Dr Jameson in The Custom of the Country (Pit, 1983); Camillo in The Winter's Tale (Noble, Small-scale Tour, 1984); Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Alexander, RST, 1985, Barbican, 1986); Bartolomeo in Il Candelaio (Clifford Williams and Paul Marcus, Pit, 1986); Humpage in John Whiting's A Penny for a Song (Howard Davies, Barbican, 1986); Fistula in Temptation (Roger Michell, TOP, 1987, Pit, 1988); Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night (Alexander, RST, 1987, Barbican, 1988); the title role in Cymbeline (Alexander, TOP, 1987, Pit, 1988); Kulygin in Three Sisters (Barton, Barbican, 1988); Morose in The Silent Woman (Danny Boyle, Swan, 1989); and Mephistopheles in Dr Faustus (Kyle, Swan, 1989, Pit, 1989).
He was a leading member of Adrian Noble's first ensemble, 1991-93, playing Shallow in Henry IV Part Two (Noble, RST, Barbican); Polonius in the Branagh Hamlet (Noble, Barbican, RST); and Subtle in The Alchemist (Sam Mendes, Swan, Barbican). He made Shallow vain and manipulative, while delivering the comedy, and looked for good motives in Polonius, a highly original reading. In 1993/94 his skill was showcased by the improbable double of Trinculo in The Tempest (Mendes) and Gloucester in the Robert Stephens King Lear (Noble, RST, Barbican).
At the National in 1997 he gave a performance of menace and bile as the father, Max, in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (Roger Michell, Lyttelton). In 1998 he played Thèramène in Phèdre and Burrus in Britannicus (Jonathan Kent, Almeida at Malvern and the Albery); in 1999, God in The Mysteries (Bill Bryden, NT Cottesloe). Following several years of concentrated screen work—including Filch in the Harry Potter films—he returned to the stage: the title role in Titus Andronicus at the RSC (Alexander, RST, 2003); the title role in both parts of Henry IV at the National (Nicholas Hytner, Olivier, 2005); and Davies in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Sheffield Crucible (Jamie Lloyd, 2006, also Tricycle, 2007).
Television: The Buddha of Suburbia (Roger Michell, BBC, 1993); Martin Chuzzlewit (BBC, 1995); Eddie Wells in Our Friends in the North (BBC, 1996); Kiss and Tell (1997); In Your Dreams (1997); The Moth (ITV, 1997); Reckless (ITV, 1997); Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend (Julian Farino, BBC, 1998); Sir Pitt Crawley in Vanity Fair (1998); The Wilsons (Channel Four, 1999); The Way We Live Now (BBC, 2001); Blackpool (BBC, 2004); Mr Harvey Lights a Candle (BBC, 2005); Sweeney Todd (BBC, 2006); Thieves Like Us (BBC, 2007); True Dare Kiss (2007).
Films: The King is Alive (2000); Blow Dry (2001); Nicholas Nickleby (2002); Hot Fuzz (2007).
Education: RADA
RSC: Joined 1978; Associate Artist (since 1992)
Seasons: 1978 (Strat.)-79 (Lond.); 1982 (Strat.)-83 (Lond.); 1984 (Tour); 1985 (Strat.)-85/86 (Lond.); 1987 (Strat.)-88 (Lond.); 1989 (Strat.)-89/90 (Lond.); 1991 (Strat.)-92 (Lond.); 1993 (Strat.)-94 (Lond.); 2003 (Strat.)
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