2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Kenneth Campbell "Ken" Stott is a Scottish stage, film and television actor. In the United Kingdom, he became famous for his many roles. In 1995 he was awarded the prestigious theatrical award, the Laurence Olivier Award as "Best Actor" for his performance in the play "Shattered Glass", which took place on the stage of the Royal National Theatre. To the modern audience, the actor is known for his role as the dwarf Balin in the trilogy of films "The Hobbit".
Biography of Ken Stott
Stott was born on October 19, 1954 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, in the family of a Scottish teacher David Stott, and a Sicilian lecturer, the daughter of a priest, Anthony, nee Sansiki. Ken received his secondary education at the George Heriot School, where his father worked. Then he graduated from the Mountview Academy of Theater Arts in London. At a young age, for three years he played in a group called Keyhole ("Keyhole"), whose members later becamefounding members of the commercially successful Scottish rock band Bay City Rollers.
Career start
After graduating, Ken Stott took a job at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, but in the early years his income from acting was minimal, and Ken was forced to support himself while also working as a double-glazed window salesman. Early in his career, Stott was theater-focused, starring in Dominic Behan's Northern Irish drama The Folksinger at the Belfast Lyric Theatre.
In 1977, Ken began acting on television, appearing in several small roles on BBC series The Secret Army, King Lear and The Singing Detective. He then acted as a firefighter in a public information film on the issue of drunk driving.
Filmography of Ken Stott
Eventually, by the mid-nineties, Stott began to get lead roles in television projects, among which the most notable were:
- hospital radio DJ, former alcoholic and double-glazed window salesman Eddie McCann in the six-episode TV drama Welcome to the Asylum starring young David Tennant;
- Red Metcalfe in BBC crime series Messiah;
- Detective Inspector Pat Chappel in the police drama "Vise";
- alcoholic Mike, who dreams of finding redemption by joining the Salvation Army in the TV movie "Promoted to Glory";
- Adolf Hitler'stelevision picture "Uncle Adolf";
- Richard Curtis' fictional Chancellor of the Exchequer in the BBC TV drama "The Girl in the Cafe";
- Inspector Rebus in the detective television series "Rebus", based on the novels of the Scottish writer Ian Rankin.
Brilliant performance as comedian Tony Hancock in Hancock & Joan, a TV biopic about his relationship with his third wife, earned actor Ken Stott a Scottish BAFTA nomination in 2008.
Ken's work on the big screen has most often been in supporting roles, such as Detective Inspector McCall in the crime thriller Shallow Grave, Principal Ted in the romantic film Heat of Passion. And also Marius Honorius in the adventure historical thriller King Arthur, Israeli arms dealer Zvi Rafia in the tragicomedy Charlie Wilson's War, a badger loyal to his prince in the fantasy action movie The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. However, Ken Stott has occasionally played leading roles in big movies, such as Gary Kelty in the 1999 thriller The Debt Collectors, and the general of thieves in the historical action movie Plunkett & McLain of the same year.
One of the actor's latest works, which received critical acclaim and the approval of the audience, is the performance of the dwarf Balin, brother of Dwalin and reliable companion of Thorin Oakenshield, in the film adaptation of The Hobbit.
Stage work
The theater has been an important part of Ken's work throughout his career. In 1997, his performance in Yasmine Reza's play Art, which alsostarred Albert Finney and Tom Courtney and received a Laurence Olivier nomination for Best Actor. In 2008, Ken appeared at London's Gielgud Theater in another Reza play, this time God of Carnage, alongside Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ralph Fiennes, playing the role of Michael, which he reprized on Broadway in New York a year later. In early 2009, at the Duke of York Theatre, Stott starred in Arthur Miller's revival of View from the Bridge. In 2016, he returned to the theater to star alongside Rhys Shearsmith in Ronald Harwood's Dresser.
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