Clive Standen

Clive James Standen (born 22 July 1981) is an English actor best known for playing Bryan Mills in the NBC series Taken, based on the film trilogy of the same name, as well as Rollo in the History Channel series Vikings, Sir Gawain in the Starz series Camelot, Archer in the BBC One series Robin Hood, and Private Carl Harris in the British sci-fi show Doctor Who.

Clive Standen
Standen in 2015
Born	(1981-07-22) 22 July 1981 Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2004–present
Spouse(s)	Francesca De Takats ( m. 2007)
Children	3

Early life and education

Clive James Standen was born on a British Army base in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland,[1] and grew up in Leicestershire, East Midlands, England.[2] He went to school at the King Edward VII School,[2] Melton Mowbray followed by a performing arts course at Melton Mowbray College.[2] Standen then went on to earn a place on the 3 year diploma course in Acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[2] Away from acting, in his late teens Standen was a former international Muay Thai boxer[1] and later Fencing gold medalist.[3]. He can disassemble and reassemble an M4 rifle in just under a minute.

Career

Standen's first experience of stunts, horse riding and sword fighting was at age 12 when he got his first job working in a professional stunt team in Nottingham.[2] At the age of 15 Standen was a member of both the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre performing in productions at many well known venues.[2] Later Standen won a place on the three-year acting course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[4]

In 2004, Standen appeared in Waking the Dead,[2] the Second World War documentary drama Ten Days to D-Day,[2] and took the lead role of Major Alan Marshall in the Zero Hour[2] TV dramatisation of the SAS mission, operation Barras, in Sierra Leone. The next year he appeared in three episodes of the British soap Doctors and Tom Brown's Schooldays, the acclaimed[5] ITV adaptation of the book by Thomas Hughes. Standen played Private Carl Harris in three episodes of the fourth series of the relaunched British sci-fi show Doctor Who.[2] The following year he played Archer, the half-brother of Robin Hood in the BBC One series Robin Hood.[6] Standen was part of the main cast of the TV series Camelot for Starz in which he portrayed the famous Arthurian knight Sir Gawain.[2]

On film, Standen took a supporting role in the mainstream Bollywood film Namastey London, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. In 2012, Standen completed filming on the Vertigo Films feature film Hammer of the Gods. He is a series lead on the History Channel's Vikings in the role of Rollo.[7][8] He portrays Bryan Mills in the television adaption of Taken.[1][8] He is set to star in the upcoming Screen Gems thriller film Patient Zero.[9]

In addition to his screen roles, Standen has done voice overs for video games such as Aliens vs. Predator[10] and Inversion.

On 27 February 2017 Standen played Bryan Mills based on Liam Neeson's film trilogy in Taken, which serves as a prequel to the Taken film series. On 26 February 2019 Standen was cast in the main role of Anthony Lavelle for the upcoming Council of Dads[11] and the series was ordered on 7 May 2019.

Activism

Standen is a spokesman for Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.[12]

Personal life

He married his wife Francesca de Takats in 2007 at Babington House. They have three children.[4]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Ten Days to D-Day	Canadian Commanding Officer
2005	Tom Brown's Schooldays	Brooke	TV film
2006	Heroes and Villains	Pete
2007	Namastey London	Charlie Brown
2010	Eating Dust	Spence
2012	Hammer of the Gods	Hagen
2015	Everest	Ed Viesturs
2018	Patient Zero	Colonel Knox
	In Like Flynn	Charlie
2019	Vault	Chucky

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Waking the Dead	Martin Raynor	2-part episode
2005	Doctors	Charlie Halliday	3 episodes
2007	Zero Hour	Major Alan Marshall	1 episode
2008	Doctor Who	Private Harris	3 episodes
2009	Robin Hood	Archer	3 episodes
2010	Camelot	Sir Gawain	Series regular, 10 episodes
2011	Banged Up Abroad	David Scott	1 episode
2013–2018	Vikings	Rollo	Series regular (season 1-4) Recurring role (season 5)
2014	Atlantis	Telemon	2 episodes
2017–2018	Taken	Bryan Mills	Series regular, 26 episodes
2020	Mirage	Gabriel Taylor	Series regular, 6 episodes
2020	Council of Dads	Anthony Lavelle	Series regular, 10 episodes

Video game

Year	Title	Role
2010	Aliens vs. Predator	Various lead Marine/civilian characters
2012	Inversion	Leo/Gulthar
2012	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier	Kosak

Theatre

• The Invention of Love, Salisbury Playhouse (2006) – Moses Jackson[13][14][15]
• West Side Story, The Royal Albert Hall (2000) – Diesel
• The Ballad of Salmon Pavey, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (1999–2000) – Nathanial Giles

References

1. "Taken's Clive Standen: My Very Particular Set of Skills? Tickle Fights and American Girl Trivia". PEOPLE.com. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
2. "My kingdom for a Norse: Vikings actor Clive Standen on fame, film roles and family life". Leicester Mercury. 27 July 2015. Archived from the original on 16 April 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
3. "Interview with Clive Standen (Rollo)". History. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
4. "BBC – Press Office – Robin Hood returns to BBC One: Clive Standen". Bbc.co.uk.
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. Hodgkinson, Will. Robin Hood: easily replaced by another archer, The Guardian, 16 June 2009. Accessed 25 April 2015.
7. "EXCLUSIVE: 'Vikings' Star Clive Standen Talks Rollo's Absence, Teases 'Fiery' Reunion Between Rollo and Bjorn". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
8. "'Vikings' Star Clive Standen: Why It's Not Enough to Just WANT to Be an Actor (or Entrepreneur)". Inc.com. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
9. "Patient Zero Begins Filming". Dreadcentral.com.
10. "Vikings star Clive Standen discusses Dying Light, gaming, TV show". Gamecrate.com. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
11. Andreeva, Nellie (26 February 2019). "'Taken's Clive Standen To Co-Star In NBC Drama Pilot 'Council Of Dads'". Deadline.com.
12. "Real Men Don't Whale". YouTube. 29 August 2013.
13. "The Stage Reviews The Invention of Love". Thestage.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
14. "The Independent Reviews The Invention of Love". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
15. "The Telegraph Reviews The Invention of Love". Telegrpah.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2020.

External links

• Clive Standen on IMDb