Ronan Vibert

The name may not be familiar but the face surely would be. Ronan Vibert will be remembered as an incisive character actor who was noted for his television appearances on both sides of the Atlantic. The son of artists David Vibert and his wife Dilys (née Jackson), he was born in Cambridgeshire, but lived in Penarth, South Wales, until the age of 18. He was at one time the lead singer in a band. Graduating from RADA in 1985, Vibert moved to London where he made his theatrical debut that year. His appearances on the stage included The Snow Queen, Peer Gynt, Uncle Vanya and War and Peace, with various stints at the Manchester Royal Exchange, the Bristol Old Vic and the National Theatre.

Strong facial features and an excellent speaking voice enabled this thespian to specialise in intense, dramatic roles, somewhat reminiscent of the late great Alan Rickman. Vibert was chillingly convincing at portraying snarling, malevolent upper crust villains: the demon Mephistopheles in Hex (2004), the boorish misogynist Giovanni Sforza in The Borgias (2011), the vicious landlord Sir Geoffrey Hawkes in Penny Dreadful (2014). His perpetual mean streak often resulted in his character receiving an appropriate comeuppance by the end. Vibert said in an interview "I always like to do projects that are different from the one before. Going from Renaissance Italy to 19th century West Virginia, within a few days, was a wild one". The latter referred to his role as Perry Cline, a secondary antagonist with a penchant for underage girls, in Hatfields & McCoys (2012).

Thus very much at home in period settings, Vibert essayed a rich gallery of colourful characters, from the timid mother's boy Wilmot (Jeeves and Wooster (1990)) to the 'Iron Duke' Lord Wellington (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015)), from Simion the Wise (Dracula Untold (2014)) to the ill-fated politician Ritter Longbane (Carnival Row (2019)). After residing in London for most of his life, Vibert latterly relocated to Florida where he passed away 'after a brief illness' at the age of 58 on December 22 2022.