Clive Russell

Biography: Scottish-born Clive Russell is six and a half feet of bone and sinew. Add to his imposing stage presence his impressive acting skill and you have a colossal acting machine that can cry, bend steel, and recite Shakespeare. Russell has used his attributes to play Helfdane the Large in The Thirteenth Warrior, Ajax the Great in Troilus and Cressida, and blacksmith Joe Gargery in Great Expectations. For his portrayal of a gigantic but gentle ex-coal miner in the acclaimed Margaret's Museum, Russell earned a Canadian Academy Award nomination for best actor. Russell's appetite for acting is as big as he is. Between 1997 and 2001, he completed 24 films in addition to TV and other projects, including such high-profile productions as The Mists of Avalon (TV miniseries), Oliver Twist (TV miniseries), and Oscar and Lucinda. No, he probably won't replace Sean Connery as Scotland's most famous actor. But he certainly deserves recognition as one of Scotland's best actors -- right up thereScottish-born Clive Russell is six and a half feet of bone and sinew. Add to his imposing stage presence his impressive acting skill and you have a colossal acting machine that can cry, bend steel, and recite Shakespeare. Russell has used his attributes to play Helfdane the Large in The Thirteenth Warrior, Ajax the Great in Troilus and Cressida, and blacksmith Joe Gargery in Great Expectations. For his portrayal of a gigantic but gentle ex-coal miner in the acclaimed Margaret's Museum, Russell earned a Canadian Academy Award nomination for best actor. Russell's appetite for acting is as big as he is. Between 1997 and 2001, he completed 24 films in addition to TV and other projects, including such high-profile productions as The Mists of Avalon (TV miniseries), Oliver Twist (TV miniseries), and Oscar and Lucinda. No, he probably won't replace Sean Connery as Scotland's most famous actor. But he certainly deserves recognition as one of Scotland's best actors -- right up there among Connery, Ewan McGregor, Dougray Scott, and Robert Carlyle. Russell first performed before an audience in 1960 on the Shari Lewis Show. But it was not until 1980 that he got his first real acting job -- performing on the London stage as the superintendent in Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's satire The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, about police corruption in Italy. The reviews were good, and he reprised that role for television in 1983. After further honing his skills in various British TV productions and a handful of films -- including Jute City, The Power of One, The Hawk, and Seconds Out -- Russell received exposure before international audiences as Caleb Garth in the celebrated BBC miniseries Middlemarch, based on the George Eliot novel of the same name. A year later, he fell in love on the movie screen with Helena Bonham Carter in Margaret's Museum, earning laudatory reviews worldwide. Clive Russell had arrived. After more TV roles and another film, Russell played Ralph Fiennes' father in another critically acclaimed film, Oscar and Lucinda. Growing recognition of his acting skills then brought him plum roles in four major TV miniseries: Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Railway Children, and The Mists of Avalon. In the same year that he made Mists, Russell also performed in The Emperor's New Clothes, starring Ian Holm as Napoleon. In 2002, his career reached new heights when he took on a role in a BBC/Columbia Tristar production about a mountain-rescue team in Scotland. Expand

Clive Russell's Scores

Average career score: 67
Highest Metascore: 91 Game of Thrones: Season 3
Lowest Metascore: 51 Rellik: Season 1
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Negative: 0 out of 6
6 tv reviews
Title: Year: Credit: User score:
51 Rellik: Season 1 Sep 11, 2017 Henry 5.4
tbd Back: Season 1 Sep 6, 2017 Clive Russell tbd
tbd Ripper Street: Season 5 Oct 12, 2016 Fred Abberline / Fred Abberline tbd
73 Game of Thrones: Season 6 Apr 24, 2016 Brynden Tully 8.3
tbd Ripper Street: Season 4 Jan 15, 2016 Fred Abberline 8.6
tbd Ripper Street: Season 2 Oct 28, 2013 Chief Inspector Fred Abberline / David Abaline / Fred Abberline 8.0
tbd Waterloo Road: Season 9 Sep 5, 2013 Actor tbd
91 Game of Thrones: Season 3 Mar 31, 2013 Brynden Tully Aka "The Blackfish" / Brynden Tully 9.1
72 Ripper Street: Season 1 Dec 30, 2012 Chief Inspector Fred Abberline 8.0
tbd New Tricks: Season 8 Jul 4, 2011 Clive Russell tbd
56 Merlin: Season 1 Jun 21, 2009 Clive Russell 8.1
tbd Midsomer Murders: Season 12 Mar 19, 2009 Actor tbd
60 Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season 2 Sep 11, 2008 Clive Russell 6.1
tbd Coronation Street: Season 47 Jan 1, 2006 Phil Nail tbd
tbd Monarch of the Glen: Season 7 Sep 18, 2005 Peter Finlay tbd
tbd According to Bex: Season 1 Jan 7, 2005 Jack tbd
tbd Coronation Street: Season 46 Jan 2, 2005 Phil Nail tbd
tbd Shameless (UK): Season 1 Jan 13, 2004 Clive Russell 8.6
tbd Silent Witness: Season 7 Oct 11, 2003 Nikki Alexander tbd
tbd Lovejoy: Season 6 Oct 2, 1994 Mark Tabor tbd