Anthony May Trained at R.A.D.A. from 1965 to 1967.
He played Wick in David Halliwell's Little Malcolm at the Royal Court
Theatre for the National Youth Theatre. Then Zigger in Zigger Zagger,
which transferred to the Strand Theatre, for which he was nominated for
a Variety Award for most promising newcomer.
In his first film, he played the Young Poet in Karel Reisz's Isadora.
Roles in TV, including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for the BBC and
the Wednesday play No Trams to Lime Street (musical version), followed.
Then a film in Czechoslovakia, Micheal Kohlaas, with David Warner and
Anna Karina, directed by the Oscar-winning director Volker Shloendorff.
A play at the Royal Court, Trixie and Baba by John Antrobus and Richard
Cromwell in Cromwell with Richard Harris and Alec Guinness.
He starred in the short film Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, directed by
Doug Hickox. The Soldier in Brendan Behan's The Hostage, directed by
Richard Eyre, was followed by a tour of the Far East playing Prince Hal
in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. He starred as 'Pirie' in Cornel Wilde's No
Blade of Grass, and a guest star role in the children's hit series, The
Double Deckers'. He was a director of Senta Productions who produced the
film The Triple Echo, which starred Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed,
directed by Michael Apted.
Playing Sloane in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Kings Head
Theatre preceded tours with the London Shakespeare Group's Macbeth of
Iraq, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and Africa, where they played to Maasai
warriors in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. He played Macduff at Frank
Dunlop's Young Vic Theatre, where a long association over the years
developed. This production was toured around Mexico, finishing at the
Guanahato Festival. Other plays at the Young Vic included King Lear,
The Real Inspector Hound, A Man for all Seasons, Richard II, Gloo Joo
and Caesar in Anthony and Cleopatra. At the Bristol Old Vic Leonidik in
Arbuzov's The Promise, and another production of 'Macbeth', this time
playing Banquo, directed by Richard Cottrell. A film of Chekov's
Zinotchka. An Australian film They Ran Before the Wind, filmed in the
South Seas, in which Anthony played Fletcher Christian in a story of
what happened after the mutiny on the Bounty. He then played Bobby in
American Buffalo at the National Theatre, directed by Bill Bryden, and
starred in an American drama documentary about Jack the Ripper. Anthony
was also in the Jack the Ripper film Murder by Decree with James Mason
and Christopher Plummer. He played Hamlet at the Northcott Theatre.
Other roles there included Captain Plume in The Recruiting Officer and
Sir Thomas Overbury in a new play Favours. Anthony worked with Mike
Hodges on the Tom Stoppard written film Squaring the Circle, and was
also in the film McVicar.
There have been many TV appearances, including Z-Cars, Casualty, Juliet
Bravo, Dickens of London, The Bill, London's Burning, Anna Lee, The
Paradise Club, El Cid, Bulman, Between the Lines, Softly, Softly,
Rockliffe's Babies, Minder, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Chandler
and Co, Boon, Coronation Street, The Dream Team, The Hutton Enquiry,
The Ice House and Messiah, working with directors Adrian Shergold,
Anthony Minghella, Martin Campbell, Stephen Poliakoff and Tim Fywell.
Other stage plays include Richard II, Gloo Joo, Withdrawal Symptoms, A
Chorus of Disapproval, Marino Faliero, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead, The Launderette, A Last Belch for the Great Auk and The Nuns,
which he also directed at the Roundhouse.
He was the voice of the King of the Dead in 'The Lord of the Rings'
movie. In 2011 He played 'Bootstrap Bill' in the Pirates of the
Caribbean video game and 'Thompson' in Tin Tin video game and
'Dickson' in The Xenoblade Chronicles. He recently played the Queen
Elizabeth Hall, reading the poetry of Rumi.