John Shrapnel
Acting
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
as General Charette
Age 56 (now 77)
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
as Psychiatrist
Age 47 (now 77)
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
as Narrator (Voice)
Age 75 (now 77)The Return of the Flying Scotsman
as Narrator - (Voice)
Age 73 (now 77)
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
as Camilo
Age 73 (now 77)
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
as Narrator
Age 71 (now 77)
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
as Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Age 71 (now 77)
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
as Himself (Narrator)
Age 65 (now 77)
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
as Billy Palmer
Age 65 (now 77)
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
as Narrator (English Version)
Age 63 (now 77)
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
as Narrator (English Version)
Age 60 (now 77)
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
as Narrator
Age 58 (now 77)
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
as Self - Narrator
Age 57 (now 77)
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
as General Charette
Age 56 (now 77)
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
as Iwaszkiewicz
Age 56 (now 77)
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
as Narrator (English voice)
Age 55 (now 77)
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
as Narrator
Age 49 (now 77)
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
as BKA Police Chief
Age 48 (now 77) How to Get Ahead in Advertising
as Psychiatrist
Age 47 (now 77)
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
as Pompey
Age 64 (now 77)
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
as Sergent Mike McCaffrey
Age 59 (now 77)
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
as Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
Age 50 (now 77)
Between the Lines
as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
Age 50 (now 77)
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
as Thomas Mann
Age 45 (now 77)
Private Schulz
as German Newsreel Commentator (voice, uncredited)
Age 39 (now 77)
Edward and Mrs Simpson
as Major Alexander Hardinge
Age 36 (now 77)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
John Morley Shrapnel
IMDB
nm0795344