Damian Lewis

Damian Watcyn Lewis OBE (born 11 February 1971) is an English actor and producer. He played U.S. Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and also portrayed U.S. Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the Showtime series Homeland, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.[1] His performance as King Henry VIII of England in Wolf Hall earned him his third Primetime Emmy nomination and fourth Golden Globe nomination. He plays Bobby Axelrod in the Showtime series Billions and portrayed actor Steve McQueen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

This article is about the actor. For the author and filmmaker, see Damien Lewis.

Damian Lewis OBE
Lewis at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, February 2015
Born	Damian Watcyn Lewis (1971-02-11) 11 February 1971 St John's Wood, London, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Occupation	Actor, film producer
Years active	1993–present
Spouse(s)	Helen McCrory ( m. 2007)
Children	2

Early life

Lewis was born in St John's Wood, London, the elder son of Charlotte Mary (née Bowater) and John Watcyn Lewis, a City insurance broker with Lloyd's.[2][3][4][5] His paternal grandparents were Welsh.[6] His maternal grandfather was Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Ian Bowater, Lord Mayor of London, and his maternal grandmother's ancestors include The 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn (a doctor to the Royal Family) and the philanthropist Sir Alfred Yarrow, 1st Baronet, who was of partial Sephardic Jewish descent.[7][4][8] He has stated that he "went to English boarding schools and grew up around people very much like [his character] Soames and in a milieu very much like the Forsytes'".[9]

As a child, Lewis made several visits to the U.S. to visit relatives during summer breaks.[10][11] He first decided to become an actor at the age of 16.[5] He was educated at the independent Ashdown House School in Forest Row, East Sussex, and at Eton College. He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993, after which he served as a stage actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

During his time with the RSC, he played Borgheim in Adrian Noble's production of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf and Posthumus in William Shakespeare's Cymbeline. He also starred in another of Ibsen's plays, as Karsten Bernick in Pillars of the Community at the National Theatre in November 2005.[12]

Career

Lewis once worked as a telemarketer selling car alarms, a job he detested.[13] He appeared in Robinson Crusoe (1997) as Patrick Conner. He appeared in Jonathan Kent's production of Hamlet, playing Laertes. This production was seen by Steven Spielberg, who later cast Lewis as Richard Winters in Band of Brothers, the first role of several that required him to have a credible American accent.[10]

Subsequently, Lewis portrayed Soames Forsyte in the ITV series The Forsyte Saga, which earned him rave reviews.[14] He returned to the US to star in Dreamcatcher, a Lawrence Kasdan film about a man who becomes possessed by an evil alien. The character is American but when possessed he takes on a British accent.[10] On the heels of this role, he starred in Keane as a Manhattanite with a fragile mental state who is searching for his missing daughter. Despite the film's poor box-office performance, the role won Lewis rave reviews.[15][16][17]

He played Jeffrey Archer in the TV special Jeffrey Archer: The Truth. Since 2004, he has appeared in a number of films, as well as the 2005 BBC TV adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, as part of the ShakespeaRe-Told season. Lewis played the role of Yassen Gregorovich in the film Stormbreaker. In 2006, he appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC drama Friends and Crocodiles. He has appeared on BBC's Have I Got News for You as guest host several times; on 10 November 2006, 1 May 2009, 18 November 2010, 27 April 9 November 2012 and 31 October 2014.

In 2008, Lewis starred as the main character Charlie Crews in the US television series Life on NBC. The show premiered in the U.S. on 26 September 2007 and was affected by the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. Only half of the first season's shows were produced. Regardless, the show won a 2008 AFI Award for best television series.[18] Although the show received critical acclaim, when it returned the following television season, it was shuffled from night to night, and eventually cancelled by NBC to clear its time slot for the less expensive nightly programme, The Jay Leno Show.

Lewis appeared, the following year, in the lead role in The Baker, a film directed by his brother, Gareth. Damian took a supporting role of Rizza in The Escapist, which he also helped produce. He led the cast in Martin Crimp's version of Molière's comedy, The Misanthrope, which opened in December 2009 at the Comedy Theatre, London.[19] Other cast members included Tara Fitzgerald, Keira Knightley and Dominic Rowan.

Since 2010, Lewis has played Tory Prime Minister Simon Laity in two seasons of Number 10 on BBC Radio 4.[20][21]

He played Gareth, the father of an 11-year-old Liverpool F.C. fan, in the 2011 film Will.[22]

From 2011 to 2013, Lewis had a starring role as Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the Showtime series Homeland.[23] In 2013, he narrated poetry for The Love Book App, an "interactive anthology of love literature developed by Allie Byrne Esiri".[24]

Since 2016, he stars as billionaire Bobby Axelrod in the Showtime series Billions.[25]

Lewis was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to drama.[26]

Personal life

On 4 July 2007, Lewis married actress Helen McCrory. They have a daughter, Manon (born 8 September 2006), and a son, Gulliver (born 2 November 2007).[27]

Lewis and his family left the UK in the latter half of 2007 to live in Los Angeles, California, while he worked on the NBC-TV crime drama Life. However, after the completion of that series' final episode in early 2009, he, his wife and their children returned to the UK to reside in a Victorian townhouse located in Tufnell Park, in north London.[28] They also have a house near Sudbury in Suffolk.[29]

In March 2010, Lewis became a trade justice ambassador for the charity Christian Aid.[30] In May 2006 and June 2018, he played for England in Soccer Aid, and played golf for Europe in the All*Star Cup in August 2006, both shown on ITV.

Lewis is an avid supporter of Liverpool Football Club.[31] He has previously dated Katie Razzall, Kristin Davis and Sophia Myles.[32]

During the COVID-19 pandemic Lewis and McCrory supported Feed NHS, a scheme to give food from high street restaurants to NHS staff. By early April 2020, they had raised £1m for the charity. The initiative started in London, but following its success plans were announced to roll it out to other cities in the UK.[33]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Robinson Crusoe	Patrick
2003	Dreamcatcher	Gary "Jonesy" Jones
2004	Keane	William Keane
	Brides	Norman Harris	Original Greek Title: Νύφες
2005	Chromophobia	Marcus Aylesbury
	An Unfinished Life	Gary Winston
2006	The Situation	Dan Murphy
	Stormbreaker	Yasha "Yassen" Gregorovich	Released in the US as Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
2008	The Baker	Milo "The Baker" Shakespeare	Also producer; also known as Assassin In Love
	The Escapist	Rizza
2011	Your Highness	Boremont
	Will	Gareth
2012	The Sweeney	Detective Chief Inspector Frank Haskins
2013	Romeo & Juliet	Lord Capulet
2014	The Silent Storm	Balor McNeil
2015	Queen of the Desert	Lt. Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie, VC
	Bill	Sir Richard Hawkins
2016	Our Kind of Traitor	Hector
2019	Run This Town[34]	Rob Ford
	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	Steve McQueen
2020	Dream Horse	Howard Davies

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Micky Love	Clive	Television movie
1995	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Leonard Bateson	Episode: "Hickory Dickory Dock"
1996	A Touch of Frost	Adam Weston	Episode: "Deep Waters"
1999	Warriors	Lt. Neil Loughrey	Television movie
2000	Life Force	Kurt Glemser	2 episodes
2000	Hearts and Bones	Mark Rose	8 episodes
2001	Band of Brothers	Maj. Richard D. Winters	Miniseries
2002–2003	The Forsyte Saga	Soames Forsyte	10 episodes
2002	Jeffrey Archer: The Truth	Jeffrey Archer	Television movie
2003	The Forsyte Saga: To Let	Soames Forsyte	Television movie
2005	Colditz	Cpl / Lt. Nicholas McGrade	2 episodes
2005	Friends and Crocodiles	Paul	Television movie
2005	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick	Television movie
2006–2014	Have I Got News for You	Himself	6 episodes
2007–2009	Life	Charlie Crews	32 episodes
2011	Stolen	D.I. Anthony Carter	Television movie
2011–2014	Homeland	Nicholas Brody	31 episodes
2015	Wolf Hall	Henry VIII of England	Miniseries
2016–present	Billions	Bobby Axelrod	48 episodes
2020	Spy Wars	Host	Current

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Theatre
1995	Hamlet	Laertes	Belasco Theatre
2009	The Misanthrope	Alceste	Comedy Theatre
2015	American Buffalo	Teach	Wyndham's Theatre
2017	The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Martin Gray	Theatre Royal Haymarket

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Damian Lewis

References

1. "Winners at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards". USA Today. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
2. "Damian Lewis's Transformations".
3. Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 1990, ed. Charles Kidd, pg 759
4. Profile at thePeerage.com; accessed 14 January 2009.
5. Interview with The Sunday Express, 25 May 2003; accessed 22 December 2008.
6. Mottram, James. Damian Lewis interview with Marie Claire, 25 February 2008. accessed 14 January 2009.
7. "Yarrow, Sir Alfred, First Baronet". HighBeam Research. 5 November 2012. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2020.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
8. Fascinating Fact 4144. Contact Music, 21 October 2007; accessed 14 January 2009.
9. "An Interview with Damian Lewis". Public Broadcasting Service. 2002. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
10. Iannotti, Lauren. "Esquire Style". Esquire, April 2003, 139 (4):120.
11. "Fighting Talk". New Woman, November 1999. republished at Damian-Lewis.com. accessed 22 December 2008.
12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
13. Prato, Alison. "Out on the Town with This Season’s Breakout Stars", Maxim (October 2008); accessed 15 December 2008.
14. Kelleher, Terry (14 October 2002), "The Forsyte Saga". People. 58 (16):36
15. Rozen, Leah (19 September 2005), "Keane". People. 64 (12):40
16. Kauffmann, Stanley (19 September 2005), "Heights and Depths". New Republic. 233 (12):28–29
17. Travers, Peter (6 October 2005) "Keane". Rolling Stone. (984):164
18. "AFI Awards 2008". American Film Institute. 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
19. "The Misanthrope's London production". Archived from the original on 11 January 2012.
20. Staff. "BBC Media Centre Programme Information – Afternoon Drama: Number 10". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
21. "Number 10". Radiolistings.co.uk. 6 January 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
22. "Why we chose LFC and Istanbul". 2 November 2011. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
23. Andreeva, Nellie (21 December 2010). "Damian Lewis Cast As The Male Lead In Showtime's Pilot 'Homeland'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
24. "The Love Book App, poetry read by great actors".
25. "Damian Lewis Suits Up for New Showtime Drama Billions". People. 11 August 2015.
26. "No. 60895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b13.
27. "The Mirror article". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
28. Collins, Lauren (2016). "Blue Blood, Blue Collar: Damian Lewis's transformations," The New Yorker, 18 January 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
29. Jarvis, Gemma. "Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory urges Suffolk to "dig deep" after launching FeedNHS". East Anglian Daily Times.
30. "Actor Signs up to Christian Aid Trade Campaign".
31. McCoid, Sophie (25 May 2018). "Damian Lewis posts cringeworthy video as he travels to Champions League Final". liverpoolecho. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
32. "Red hot: The irresistible rise of Damian Lewis". The Independent. 9 September 2006.
33. "Homeland and Peaky Blinders stars raise nearly £1m to feed NHS workers". BBC News. BBC. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
34. "Damian Lewis to Play Controversial Ex-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in Drama".

External links

• Damian Lewis on IMDb
• Interview with Charlie Rose—A compilation of Rose's interviews with Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, the stars of the hit drama Homeland. 2 January 2014.