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Name: Jonathan Pryce
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Date of Birth:
June 01, 1947
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Place of Birth:
Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, UK
Mini-bio:
Welsh native Jonathan Pryce switched from art studies to acting after winning a RADA scholarship, and quickly became both a critically viable and immediately recognizable screen presence. In numerous ... read morescreen assignments, Pryce's subtle intensity and mania - deftly but not deeply buried beneath a placid exterior - could be parlayed with equal aplomb into roles as an angst-ridden everyman or a manipulative sociopath. In the majority of Pryce's characterizations, he projected a frightening degree of intelligence and sophistication almost by default.After a few seasons with the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Pryce scored a London theatrical success in Comedians, winning a Tony award when the play moved to Broadway in 1976. Thereafter, he starred in the Broadway musicals Miss Saigon and Oliver!. Pryce's subsequent effectiveness in villainous roles threatened to typecast him as Machiavellian heavies, such as his icewater-veined personification of "reason and logic" in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989). As time rolled on, however, Pryce began to demonstrate his ability to add layers of offbeat and intriguing eccentricity to roles that, in other hands, could easily become caricatures or stock parts - a gift apparent as early as Pryce's leading turn in Gilliam's Brazil (1985), as a beleaguered everyman enmeshed in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. The actor was particularly arresting, for example, as James Lingk, a bar patron with not-so-subtle homosexual inclinations, who falls prey to the machinations of hotshot salesman Ricky Roma (Al Pacino), in James Foley's 1992 screen adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross. He commanded equally powerful screen presence as Henry Kravis, a cunning entrepreneur and the "master of the leveraged buyout" (who bilks corporate giant F. Ross Johnson for a fortune) in the Glenn Jordan-directed, Larry Gelbart-scripted boardroom comedy Barbarians at the Gate (1993). In 1995, Jonathan Pryce won a Cannes Film Festival best actor award for his portrayal of homosexual writer Lytton Strachey in Carrington, opposite Emma Thompson. In subsequent years, Pryce's screen activity crescendoed meteorically; he remained extremely active, often tackling an average of three to five films a year, and demonstrated a laudable intuition in selecting projects. Some of his more prestigious assignments included roles in Evita (1996), Ronin (1998), De-Lovely (2004) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). The Brothers Grimm (2005) re-united the Welsh actor with Brazil and Baron Munchausen collaborator Terry Gilliam. In 2008, Pryce teamed up with George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski for a supporting role in the Clooney-directed sports comedy Leatherheads (2008); Pryce plays C.C. Frazier, the manager of a 1920s collegiate football player (Krasinski). Many American viewers may continue to associate Pryce with his television commercial appearances as the spokesman of Infiniti automobiles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Jonathan Pryce mini-bio: Jonathan Pryce was born on June 1, 1947, in Holywell, Wales. His father, named Isaac Price, was a coal miner, who died in 1976. His mother, named Margaret Ellen (nee Williams), was a retail cashier. He left the home of his parents at age 16 to attend an art school, where he became interested in drama. At some point he changed the spelling of his last name from Price to Pryce. He studied acting on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After graduation from RADA, he joined the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and eventually became its Artistic Director. In the 1970s Pryce established himself on the London stage with appearances in 'The Taming of the Shrew', 'Hamlet', and 'Measure for Measure' among other plays. He won the 1977 Tony Award for his Broadway debut in 'Comedians', for which he also earned the 1977 Theatre World Award and the 1977 nomination for Drama Desk Outstanding Actor Award. Pryce earned his second Tony Award 15 years later for the role as "The Engineer", a half-Vietnamese/half French pimp in 'Miss Saigon'. Pryce created the role in the original London production and agreed to reprise the role on Broadway in a transplant of the same production. He gave a brilliant performance amidst the controversy and temporary cancellation of the play because of racially charged pressure from unionized actors against him playing an Asian character.
