Kenneth Cranham

Scottish born actor Kenneth Cranham is one of the most recognisable character actors in Britain Having trained at the National Youth Theatre and RADA Cranham first came to prominence as Noah Claypole in the 1968 Carol Reed musical Oliver In the late 70s Cranham memorably played Sapper Salt in Euston Films Danger UXB before taking the title role in the popular postwar set period comedy drama Shine on Harvey Moon His most famous film role from around this time was Dr Philip Channard in Hellraiser II In more recent years he has starred in the HBO series Rome as well as the films Hot Fuzz Layer Cake Valkyrie Made in Dagenham Maleficent and Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool Among many stage credits are West End productions of Entertaining Mr Sloane Loot An Inspector Calls both transferring to Broadway The Ruffian on the Stair The Birthday Party and Gaslight at the Old Vic For his role as Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award In 2016 Cranham won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Andre in Florian Zellers The Father The play originated at the Theatre Royal Baths Ustinov Studio in the Autumn of 2014 before touring the country and transferring to the West End in the Summer of 2015 and returning to the Duke of Yorks Theatre in Spring 2016 The play received an unprecedented five star review from every leading national press publication and Cranhams performance was described as the performance of his life His first wife was actress Diana Quick He has two daughters Nancy Cranham with actress Charlotte Cornwell and Kathleen Cranham with his second wife actress Fiona Victory whom he met on the set of Shine on Harvey Moon