1. Walter Charles Dance was born on 10 October 1946 and is an English actor.
28 Facts About Charles Dance
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Charles Dance is known for playing intimidating, authoritarian characters and villains.
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Charles Dance made his feature film debut in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
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Charles Dance since acted in a string of critically acclaimed period films such as Michael Collins, Gosford Park, The Imitation Game, Mank, and The King's Man.
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Charles Dance has appeared in the films The Golden Child, Alien 3, Last Action Hero, Dracula Untold, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
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Charles Dance made his directorial film debut with the drama film Ladies in Lavender, which he wrote and executive produced.
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On television, Charles Dance played Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown, Mr Tulkinghorn in Bleak House, Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, and Lord Mountbatten in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown.
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Walter Charles Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, on 10 October 1946, the younger son of Eleanor Marion, a cook, and Walter Dance, an electrical engineer who served as a sergeant in the 2nd Regular Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers during the Second Boer War and who was in his 70s when his younger son was born.
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Charles Dance later attended the Plymouth Drawing School and Leicester College of Arts, where he studied graphic design and photography.
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Charles Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid-to-late 1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon.
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Charles Dance made his screen debut in 1974, in the ITV series Father Brown as Commandant Neil O'Brien in "The Secret Garden".
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Charles Dance made one of his earliest big-screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus.
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Charles Dance has starred in many other British television dramas such as Edward the Seventh, Murder Rooms, Randall and Hopkirk, Rebecca, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith and Bleak House.
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Charles Dance was name-checked in the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, as being slated to play the title character in The Life of Jesus Christ 2, which was filming in Morocco at the same time as the main characters of the series were there for a photo shoot.
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Charles Dance played Guy Spencer, the pro-Hitler propagandist, in the second instalment of Foyle's War, and had an ongoing role as Dr Maltravers in the ITV drama Trinity.
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Charles Dance played Lord Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, and the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski in Paris Connections.
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Charles Dance was wooed for the role by the producers while filming Your Highness in Belfast.
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Charles Dance played Conrad Knox on the British television series Strike Back: Vengeance as the primary villain in the series.
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Since 2012, Charles Dance has had a recurring role in The Big Fat Quiz of the Year reading excerpts from books, such as Fifty Shades of Grey or the autobiographies of English media personalities, in a deadpan manner.
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On 30 June 2013, Charles Dance appeared with other celebrities in an episode of the BBC's Top Gear as a "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" for the debut of the Vauxhall Astra.
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In summer 2018, Charles Dance narrated a documentary entitled Spitfire, which featured the legendary Supermarine Spitfire and recounted the efforts of the RAF pilots who flew them during the Second World War.
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In 2020, Charles Dance portrayed William Randolph Hearst in David Fincher's Mank, co-starring alongside Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried.
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In January 2021, Charles Dance was cast in the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman.
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In 2024 Charles Dance starred as Michelangelo in the BBC docu-drama Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty.
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Charles Dance is in a relationship with Italian production manager and former actress Alessandra Masi, whom he met in Italy in 2018.
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Charles Dance has described his political views as "very left-of-centre" and "a bit left of centre-left".
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Charles Dance supported the UK remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, and expressed his wish for the country to be closer to Europe to avoid "being a little satellite of America".
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Charles Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 17 June 2006.