Aidan McArdle
Macbeth
Richard McCabe
Colin McCormack
Alec McCowen
Ian McDiarmid
Martin McDonagh
Malcolm McDowell
John McEnery
Peter McEnery
Tom McGrath
Frank McGuinness
Jo McInnes
Ian McKellen
Peter McKintosh
Hilton McRae
Anna Madeley
Madness in Valencia
Dominic Mafham
The Maid's Tragedy
Major Barbara
The Malcontent
Michael Maloney
Malvern Festival
Man and Superman
Man is Man
Tom Mannion
The Man of Mode
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Lesley Manville
Marat/Sade
Tony Marchant
Claire Marchionne
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
Christopher Marlowe
The Marquis of Keith
The Marrying of Ann Leete
John Marston
Trevor Martin
Ashley Martin-Davis
Mary, After the Queen
Mary and Lizzie
Brewster Mason
Daniel Massey
Philip Massinger
The Master Builder
Maydays
Measure for Measure
Nancy Meckler
Joe Melia
Leonie Mellinger
Melons
Sam Mendes
Men's Beano
Mephisto
David Mercer
The Merchant of Venice
The Mermaid
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Meteor
Roger Michell
Thomas Middleton
Midnight's Children
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Midwinter
Arthur Miller
Jonathan Miller
Poppy Miller
Joseph Millson
Helen Mirren
Misalliance
A Miserable and Lonely Death
Les Misérables
Misha's Party
Miss Julie
The Mistake
Katie Mitchell
Tim Mitchell
Ariane Mnouchkine
Moby Dick
Molière
Molière (The Cabal of Saintly Hypocrites)
Money
A Month in the Country
Richard Moore
Hattie Morahan
Christopher Morley
Cherry Morris
Clive Morris
David Morrissey
Moscow Gold
Mother Courage
The Mouth Organ
Slawomir Mrozek
Much Ado About Nothing
Peter Mumford
Murder in the Cathedral
Gerard Murphy
The Mysteries
Ian McDiarmid is a fastidious exponent of character roles, able to turn the blandest subject into a caricature, while in films he has made an impression disproportionate to the screen time allotted to his many doctors and scientists. But in the 1990s there was something else: with Jonathan Kent he transformed the Almeida into the most prestigious theatre in London.
His early progress saw him play Claudius in Hamlet at the Library Theatre, Manchester (1972); the title roles in Galileo and Timon of Athens and St Juste in Danton's Death at the Glasgow Citizens' (1971); Hitler in Schweyk in the Second World War at the Edinburgh Lyceum (1973); and the title role in Peer Gynt at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1974 he spent six months at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris, and throughout his career he has been especially interested in the drama of continental Europe.
He was at the RSC from 1973 to 1986: the Judge in Toad of Toad Hall (Euan Smith, RST, 1973); Elbow in Measure for Measure (Keith Hack, RST, 1974); Trinculo in The Tempest (Hack, TOP, 1974); Roche in Afore Night Come (Ron Daniels, TOP, 1974); Goebbels/Brettschneider in Schweyk in the Second World War (Howard Davies, TOP, 1976, Warehouse, 1977); Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (John Barton, RST, 1976, Aldwych, 1977); Comic in Charles Wood's Dingo (Barry Kyle, TOP, 1976, Warehouse, 1978); the Porter in Trevor Nunn's Macbeth (TOP, 1976, Warehouse, 1977, Young Vic, 1978); Turner in David Edgar's Destiny (Daniels, TOP, 1976, Aldwych, 1977); Billy in Howard Barker's That Good Between Us (Kyle, Warehouse, 1977); The Days of the Commune (Davies, Aldwych, 1977); Lang in A Miserable and Lonely Death (Walter Donohue, Warehouse and Aldwych, 1978); an ever-present Chorus, wry and sarcastic, in the Branagh/Noble Henry V (RST, 1984, Barbican, 1985); Shylock, played with unusual levels of complexity as a repellent but hounded alien, in The Merchant of Venice (Kyle, RST, 1984); the broodingly intense Glaswegian John Tagg, a performance of mesmerising silences, in Trevor Griffiths's The Party (Davies, TOP, 1984, Pit, 1985); Monster/First Man/Officer in Edward Bond's trilogy War Plays (Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Cat People, Great Peace, Nick Hamm, Pit, 1985); Hacker/Stucley/Downchild in 'The Barker Plays' (Crimes in Hot Countries, The Castle, Downchild, Bill Alexander/Hamm, Pit, 1985); and Robespierre in Pam Gems's The Danton Affair (Daniels, Barbican, 1986).
Although he became identified with the RSC during this period he had some notable successes elsewhere: his performances as 'Einstein' in Terry Johnson's Insignificance at the Royal Court (Les Waters, 1982) and Brecht in Tales from Hollywood at the National (Peter Gill, Olivier, 1983) were particularly memorable. From 1986 to 1988 he was an associate director at the Manchester Royal Exchange, directing productions of Molière's Don Juan and Marivaux's Slave Island and playing the title role in Edward II and Phillip II in Schiller's Don Carlos (both Nicholas Hytner). His association with Howard Barker was continued at the Almeida where he directed The Possibilities (1988). In 1989 he starred in a West End production of Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince (Stuart Burge, Aldwych).
As co-Artistic Director of the Almeida (1989-02) he played leading roles in The School for Wives (Jonathan Kent, 1993), Giorgio Battistelli's Experimentum Mundi (1995), Tartuffe (Kent, 1996), Ivanov (Kent, 1997), The Government Inspector (Kent, 1997), Doctor's Dilemma (Michael Grandage, 1998), The Tempest (Kent, 2000), and Battistelli's The Embalmer (2002), and he directed productions of The Rehearsal (also Tour and Garrick, 1990), Lulu (1991), Hippolytus (1991), A Hard Heart (1992), Siren Song (1994) and Venice Preserv'd (1995). In 2004 at the Donmar Warehouse he starred in Pirandello's Henry IV (Grandage).
Film credits: Dr Richter in The Awakening (1980); Richard's Things (1981); Brother Jacobus in Dragonslayer (1981); Professor Andreev in Gorky Park (1983); Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Frank Oz, 1988); Ambrose in Restoration (Mike Hoffman, 1995); Dr Eli Eon in Annie, a Royal Adventure! (1995); Dr Thomas Lancaster in Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999); and Palpatine again in the new Star Wars (George Lucas, 1999-05).
Television: Chernobyl, the Final Warning (1991); Heart of Darkness (Nicolas Roeg, 1994); Hillsborough (ITV, 1996); Dennis Potter's Karaoke (BBC, 1996); Rebecca (Jim O'Brien, ITV, 1997); An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (ITV, 1997); Jaggers in Great Expectations (Julian Jarrold, BBC, 1999); Porfiry in Crime and Punishment (Jarrold, BBC, 2002); and Charles II: the Power and the Passion (BBC, 2003).
Education: St Andrews University; Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
RSC: Joined 1973
Seasons: 1973 (Strat.); 1974 (Strat.); 1976 (Strat.)-77/78 (Lond.); 1984 (Strat.)-85 (Lond.); 1986 (Lond.)
TOPHOME