Clive Russell

Towering Scottish actor Clive Russell is arguably best known to audiences as the formidable Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully in HBO's epic series Game of Thrones (2011). Due to his imposing height (6' 6"), as well as being adept on horseback, he has often been cast as warriors in historical fantasies and in period drama. In this realm, Russell has portrayed both the heroic and the villainous among a fascinating gallery of fictional and factual personae: the self-sacrificing Norse combatant Helfdane in The 13th Warrior (1999); rivals of Uther Pendragon in The Mists of Avalon (2001) (Gorlois of Tintagel) and Merlin (2008) (Bayard, King of Mercia); posseman MacQueen, a victim of The Wolfman (2010); the Asgardian god Tyr in Marvel's Thor: The Dark World (2013); Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, in the miniseries After Braveheart (2015); and the invading Viking King Harold Hardrada in the docu-drama Europe's Last Warrior Kings (2017). A more recent recurring role has seen him as Wroth, commander of the Tusks (a sub-clan of the magical Fey) in the Netflix series Cursed (2020), yet again set in the kingdom of Uther Pendragon.

Though born in England, Russell was brought up in Fife, Scotland, where his family moved after his father (a bomber pilot with RAF Coastal Command) was demobbed. Already unusually tall in his mid-teens, Russell excelled in sports and had early ambitions of becoming a golf pro or representing Scotland at rugby. First encouraged to take part in amateur plays while at school, he initially trained as a primary school teacher in English, drama and physical education. After a year's experience of teaching, he seized an opportunity to join the repertory Octagon Theatre in Bolton, and, in 1964, made his theatrical debut in London's West End. It took until 1980 for his breakthrough on the stage as the superintendent in Dario Fo's 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' (a role he reprised three years later for the screen). This led to further stage work at the Liverpool Playhouse (as Macduff, 1983), with the Royal Shakespeare Company (1984-88), the Old Vic (1989) and the Royal Court (1991-92).

Russell's first featured role on screen was as a traffic cop in the first episode of the BBC2 drama series Boys from the Blackstuff (1982). By his own recollection, he earned £150 for his performance. As an actor, Russell has become increasingly self-assured with age and his roles have grown commensurately. He has been a prolific interpreter of authority figures (aided, no doubt, by his imposing height), exemplified by his presence in The Advocates (1991), Murder Most Horrid (1991), Sherlock Holmes (2009), plus the sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) (as Captain Tanner) and Ripper Street (2012) (a particularly strong performance, as the cynical, cantankerous Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline, whose conservative style of policing contrasted sharply from the more scientific methods employed by Matthew Macfadyen's DI Edmund Reid). A self-confessed aficionado of the classics, Russell has appeared in adaptations of Dickens as the good-natured blacksmith Joe Gargery in Great Expectations (1999) and as a Scottish lawyer in Oliver Twist (1999). He also portrayed a pirate captain in an episode of Zorro (1990), a kindly, honest estate manager in Middlemarch (1994),a jovial sailor in The Mayor of Casterbridge (2003) and a prison warden in the Gothic thriller The Limehouse Golem (2016).

In 1996, Russell received a Genie Award nomination for his performance as a charismatic Nova Scotia coal miner in the British-Canadian co-production Margaret's Museum (1995), his character described by critic Roger Ebert as being a "sort of a rougher-hewn Liam Neeson, strong, gentle and poetic." Other interesting film roles have been in Oscar and Lucinda (1997) (as Ralph Fiennes' father Theophilius), Lezione 21 (2008) (the scholarly musician Hoffmeister) and The Wicker Tree (2011) (Beame, the Laird's chauffeur, butler and willing henchman).

Russell has been at his most prolific on the small screen, both in drama and in comedy. Among his higher profile recurring roles are crime family patriarch Patrick 'Tucker' Finney (1994), Fitz's estranged brother Danny Fitzgerald in Cracker (1993), the deputy head of a comprehensive school faced with closure in Hope & Glory (1999), the feral, sadistic Vandemar, inhabiting Neil Gaiman's subterranean fantasy Neverwhere (1996), the gambling addicted teacher Duggie Strachan in the BBC1 sitcom Heartburn Hotel (1998) and the leader of a Scottish mountain rescue team in Rockface (2002). Adding to this line-up are an assortment of different characters in The Bill (1984) and Coronation Street (1960) (notably, Scotch Tommy and Phil Nail). In Scotland, he has been popular for his one-off role in the cult sitcom Still Game (2002), as strong man Big Innes (who had a tendency to go berserk when pried with Midori).

Russell works out of London, but resides in Fife with his wife Shelagh, a theatre designer and pilates teacher. His favorite hobbies are reading poetry and playing golf.