Toby Jones

Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones[1] (born 7 September 1966)[1] is an English actor.

For other people named Toby Jones, see Toby Jones (disambiguation).

Toby Jones
Jones in October 2003
Born	Tobias Edward Heslewood Jones (1966-09-07) 7 September 1966 Hammersmith, London, England
Education	University of Manchester (1986–1989) L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (1989–1991)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Karen Jones ( m. 2015)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Freddie Jones

After appearing in supporting roles in films between 1992 and 2005, Jones made his breakthrough as Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous (2006). Since then, his films have included The Mist (2007), W. (2008), Frost/Nixon (2008), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Berberian Sound Studio (2012), The Hunger Games (2012), Tale of Tales (2015), Dad's Army (2016), and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). He also provided the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films, Aristides Silk in The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Owl in Disney's Christopher Robin (2018), and portrayed Arnim Zola in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).

Jones's television credits include the 2012 Titanic miniseries, Agent Carter, Wayward Pines and Doctor Who. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl (2012) and won a Best Male Comedy BAFTA for his role in Detectorists (2018). In 2017, he portrayed Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective", an episode of the BBC crime drama Sherlock.

Early life

Jones was born in Hammersmith, London,[1] to actors Jennifer Jones (née Heslewood) and Freddie Jones. He has two brothers: Rupert, a director, and Casper, also an actor.[2] He attended Christ Church Cathedral School and Abingdon School in Oxfordshire in the 1980s. He studied drama at the University of Manchester from 1986 to 1989, and at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris from 1989 to 1991.

Career

Film and television

Jones has appeared in more than 20 films since his first acting role in the 1992 film Orlando. He voiced Dobby in two Harry Potter films: Chamber of Secrets (2002) and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010). He played Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury in the HBO/Channel 4 production Elizabeth I. In 2006, he portrayed Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous. He appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist in 2007. In 2008, he portrayed Karl Rove in Oliver Stone's W and Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar in Frost/Nixon. He appeared alongside his father in the 2004 film Ladies in Lavender.[3]

Jones appeared in the 2010 episode "Amy's Choice", of Doctor Who, as the Dream Lord, and in the Big Finish Productions series' Dark Eyes (audio drama) as Kotris. He also played the role of Samuel Ratchett in Agatha Christie's Poirot TV Series 12 episode "Murder on the Orient Express". In 2011, he played the role of the British spy master Percy Alleline in the adaptation of John Le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Arnim Zola in Captain America: The First Avenger, a role which he reprised in the sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier three years later as well as in a cameo in the TV series Agent Carter the following year. In 2012, he had a leading role in the ITV mini-series Titanic, starred as one of the seven dwarves in Snow White and the Huntsman, played Dr. Paul Shackleton in Red Lights, and Max in Virginia. He also portrayed film director Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl, a role that earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

He appears in the music video for Gomez's song "Whippin' Picadilly".[4]

He played Neil Baldwin in the BBC drama Marvellous in 2014.[5][6][7][8][9][10] Sam Wollaston, in The Guardian, praised Jones's "lovely, very human, performance",[11] one that earned him his second British Academy Television Award nomination. From 2014, he appeared in the BBC Four television series Detectorists,[12] for which he received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2016 before winning the award in 2018.

In 2015, Jones played the part of Roger Yount, a banker, in the three-part BBC series Capital based on John Lanchester's novel of the same name.[13] Discussing working with Jones on Capital, writer Peter Bowker said, "I think Toby is a genius and thought that long before I worked with him. He always wants to know a character's needs, and what's beneath those needs. Then he takes all that material and somehow embeds it into the character and physically inhabits the character, so that you never think he's playing the character. It's fascinating to watch him close up. He carries the emotional complexities in every tiny gesture that his character makes so that you immediately can see what his character is like. A character like Roger is full of contradictions, a city banker with an air of entitlement but also a little insecurity picking away at him. Toby can portray that in his walk alone. That's what's great about him, he can portray cold he can portray warm and he can portray both of those things at once."[14]

He plays Captain Mainwaring in the film Dad's Army, released in February 2016. In July the same year he starred as the eponymous agent Verloc in the BBC's The Secret Agent, a 3-part television adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel.[15]

In 2017, he portrayed Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective", an episode of the BBC crime drama Sherlock. In 2018, he played the dinosaur auctioneer Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth instalment of the Jurassic Park series.[16] In the same year, Jones voiced Owl in Disney's live-action Christopher Robin.

In 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford Brookes University.[17]

Radio

In 2003 Jones played the part of Lord Brideshead in BBC Radio adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. Jones voiced the title character of the 2005 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Oblomov. He also read the 2009 Radio 4 adaptation of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. He played Inspector Goole in 2010 BBC Radio adaptation of An Inspector Calls. Since 2013 Jones has been the voice of the lead character, Joey Oldman in the BBC Radio 4 series The Corrupted, an adaptation of the G. F. Newman novel Crime and Punishment. On 2 December 2012 he played Napoleon Bonaparte in Anthony Burgess's Napoleon Rising on Radio 3. In 2013 he played Kotris in the award-winning Doctor Who audio play, Dark Eyes. In 2020 he portrayed Falstaff in Radio 3's Henry IV, Part 1.[18]

Stage

In 2001, he starred in the London West End comedy The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Branagh. His comic turn as Arthur earned him the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the play moved to Broadway in 2003.

In 2009, he returned to the stage in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre,[19] Parlour Song at the Almeida Theatre,[20] and The First Domino at Brighton Festival Fringe.[21] In 2011, he played JMW Turner in The Painter at the Arcola Theatre. Jones starred as Stanley in the 2018 revival of The Birthday Party at The Harold Pinter Theatre.[22] In 2020, he starred as the title role in the Conor McPherson adaptation of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, at the Harold Pinter Theatre.

Work

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Orlando	Valet
1993	Naked	Man at tea bar
	Dropping the Baby	Babyman	Short film
1994	Triphony	Man at Fire
1997	Numbertime Time	Tim
1998	Cousin Bette	Man in Café des Artistes
	Les Misérables	Door keeper
	Ever After	Royal page
1999	Simon Magus	Buchholz
	The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc	English judge
2000	Hotel Splendide	Kitchen boy
	The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz	Civil servant
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Dobby the house elf	Voice
2004	Ladies in Lavender	Hedley
	Finding Neverland	Smee
2005	Mrs Henderson Presents	Gordon
2006	Infamous	Truman Capote
	The Sickie	Douglas Knott
	The Painted Veil	Waddington
2007	Amazing Grace	Duke of Clarence
	Nightwatching	Gerard Dou
	The Mist	Ollie Weeks
	St Trinian's	Bursar
2008	City of Ember	Bardon Snode
	W.	Karl Rove
	Frost/Nixon	Swifty Lazar
2009	Creation	Thomas Huxley
	St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold	Bursar
2010	Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll	Hargreaves
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Dobby the house elf	Voice
	Virginia	Max
2011	The Rite	Father Matthew
	Your Highness	Julie
	Captain America: The First Avenger	Arnim Zola[23]
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	Percy Alleline
	My Week with Marilyn	Arthur P. Jacobs
	The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn	Aristides Silk[24]	Motion Capture
2012	The Hunger Games	Claudius Templesmith[25]
	Red Lights	Paul Shackleton
	Snow White and the Huntsman	Coll
	Berberian Sound Studio	Gilderoy
2013	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Claudius Templesmith
	Leave to Remain	Mr Nigel
	Hardwire	Max	Short film
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Arnim Zola
	Muppets Most Wanted	Museo del Prado Guard #2	Cameo
	Serena	Sheriff McDowell
	By the Gun	Jerry
2015	Tale of Tales	King of Highhills
	By Our Selves	John Clare
	The Man Who Knew Infinity	John Littlewood
2016	Dad's Army	Captain Mainwaring
	Anthropoid	Jan Zelenka-Hajský
	Morgan	Simon Ziegler
	Kaleidoscope	Carl
2017	Atomic Blonde	Eric Gray
	Happy End	Lawrence Bradshaw
	The Entertainer	Paul Limp	Short film
	Journey's End	Private Mason
	The Snowman	Investigator Svenson
	Zoo	Security Guard Charlie
2018	Normandie nue	Newman
	Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom	Mr Eversoll
	Christopher Robin	Owl	Voice
	Out of Blue	Professor Ian Strammi
2019	Avengers: Endgame	Arnim Zola	Cameo appearance[26]
	First Cow	Chief Factor
2020	The Last Thing He Wanted	Paul Schuster
	Archive	Vincent Sinclair
2021	Infinite	Kent	Post-production
TBA	A Boy Called Christmas	Father Topo	Post-production
	Louis Wain		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Lovejoy	Sgt. Protheroe	Episode: "Pig in a Poke"
1994	Cadfael	Griffin	Episode: "The Sanctuary Sparrow"
1995	Performance	Wart	Episode: "Henry IV"
1996	Death of a Salesman	Waiter	Television film
1998	Out of Hours	Martin Styles	6 episodes
1999	Underground	Beast	Television film
	Aristocrats	Ste Fox	4 episodes
1999–00	Midsomer Murders	Dan Peterson	4 episodes
2001	The Way We Live Now	Squercum	Episode #1.4
	Victoria & Albert	Edward Oxford	2 episodes
	In Love and War	Bolo	Television film
	Love or Money	Phil	Television film
2002	15 Storeys High	Obsessive-compulsive man	Episode: "Ice Queen"
2005	Coming Up	Simon	Episode: "Loving Ludmilla"
2005	Elizabeth	Robert Cecil	2 episodes
2006	A Harlot's Progress	William Hogarth	Television film
2007	The Old Curiosity Shop	Daniel Quilp	Television film
	The Last Detective	Bennett	Episode: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Willesden"
2010	Mo	Dr Mark Glaser	Television film
	Doctor Who	The Dream Lord	Episode: "Amy's Choice"
	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Samuel Ratchett Lanfranco Cassetti	Episode: "Murder on the Orient Express"
2011	Christopher and His Kind	Gerald Hamilton	Television film
2012	Titanic	John Batley	4 episodes
	The Girl	Alfred Hitchcock	Television film
2013	Murder on the Victorian Railway	Narrator	Voice Television film
	Words of Everest	Jan Morris	Television documentary
2014	Marvellous	Neil Baldwin	Television film
2014–17	Detectorists	Lance Stater	19 episodes
2015–16	Wayward Pines	David Pilcher/Dr. Jenkins	15 episodes
2015	Agent Carter	Arnim Zola	Episode: "Valediction"
	Capital	Roger Yount	3 episodes
	The Last Days Of...	Narrator	Voice 4 episodes
2016	The Secret Agent	Anton Verloc	3 episodes
	The Witness for the Prosecution	John Mayhew	2 episodes
	Civil	Otis O'Dell	Pilot
2017	Sherlock	Culverton Smith[27]	Episode: "The Lying Detective"
2019	Don't Forget the Driver	Pete Green	6 episodes; also co-creator and writer
	The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance	The Librarian (voice)	Netflix series launched August 30, 2019
2021	What If...?	Arnim Zola	Guest voice role In voice recording process

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue
2003	The Play What I Wrote	Arthur	Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
2009	Every Good Boy Deserves a Favor	Performer	Royal National Theatre, London
2013	Circle Mirror Transformation	Schultz	Rose Lipman Building, London
2014	Parlor Song	Ned	Almeida Theatre, London
2018	The Birthday Party	Stanley Webber	Harold Pinter Theatre, West End
2020	Uncle Vanya	Uncle Vanya

Theme park attractions

Year	Title	Role	Venue
2019	Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!	Arnim Zola	Hong Kong Disneyland

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2002	Olivier Award	Best Supporting Actor	The Play What I Wrote	Won
2020		Best Actor	Uncle Vanya	Pending
2008	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture	Frost/Nixon	Nominated
2012	Golden Globe Award	Best Actor – Miniseries or TV Movie	The Girl	Nominated
2013	Primetime Emmy Award	Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie		Nominated
2013	BAFTA Award	Best Actor		Nominated
2015		Best Actor	Marvellous	Nominated
2016		Best Male Comedy Performance	Detectorists	Nominated
2018				Won
2007	London Film Critics' Circle	British Actor of the Year	Infamous	Won
2008		British Supporting Actor of the Year	The Painted Veil	Nominated
2009		British Supporting Actor of the Year	Frost/Nixon and W.	Nominated
2013		British Actor of the Year	Berberian Sound Studio	Won

Personal life

On The Graham Norton Show, Jones revealed that he and his wife Karen had been together for 25 years before marrying in 2015.[28]

See also

• List of Old Abingdonians

References

1. Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.; at ancestry.com
2. Braun, Liz (10 October 2006). "'Infamous' shows another look at Capote". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
3. "Toby Jones Biography (1964?-)". Filmreference.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
4. "Gomez – Whippin' Piccadilly". YouTube. 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 20 December 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
5. "Toby Jones on playing Neil Baldwin in Marvellous". BBC News. 24 September 2014. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
6. Simon, Jane (25 September 2014). "Marvellous – Toby Jones is outstanding portraying extraordinary life of Stoke City kit man Neil Baldwin". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
7. Dickson, E Jane (25 September 2014). "Neil Baldwin: "Prince Edward is the best royal I've met – I just knocked on his door"". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 28 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
8. Jeffries, Stuart (21 September 2014). "Toby Jones: totally Stoked". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
9. Collin, Robbie (23 September 2014). "Toby Jones interview: 'Every character has a special need'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 23 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
10. Walsh, John (13 September 2014). "Quiet genius of Toby Jones: From The Hunger Games to Truman Capote, Hollywood can't get enough of British acting's most versatile talent". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
11. Wollaston, Sam (26 September 2014). "Marvellous; Your Home in their Hands review – two Neil Baldwins meet real Lou Macari and real Gary Lineker". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
12. Hawksley, Rupert (2 October 2014). "Detectorists, BBC Four, review: 'first-rate writing'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
13. "BBC One: Capital". BBC Online. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
14. "Adapting 'Capital' for BBC One". BBC Online. 23 November 2015. Archived from the original on 28 November 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
15. "The Secret Agent: Episode 1: Credits". BBC Online. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
16. Kroll, Justin (7 November 2016). "Toby Jones and Rafe Spall in Talks to Join Sequel to 'Jurassic World' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016.
17. "Inspirational Honorary Graduates for 2018 graduation ceremonies announced – Oxford Brookes University". www.brookes.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
18. "BBC Radio 3 – The Shakespeare Sessions, Who is Falstaff?". BBC. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
19. Cavendish, Dominic (9 January 2009). "Toby Jones takes the lead in Tom Stoppard's classic Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 November 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
20. "Parlour Song – The Cast". Almeida Theatre. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
21. Emily-Ann Elliott (5 May 2009). "Bomb survivor writes Brighton play". The Argus (Brighton). Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
22. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jan/18/the-birthday-party-review-harold-pinter-jones-wanamaker-mangan-mackie
23. "Toby Jones to play evil scientist in 'Captain America' (exclusive)". Heatvisionblog.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
24. Fernandez, Jay A.; Kit, Borys (27 January 2009). "Daniel Craig to star in "Tintin"". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
25. Valby, Karen (24 May 2011). "'The Hunger Games' finds its voice: Toby Jones cast as Claudius Templesmith". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2o1UYjmr58
27. "Culverton Smith Is Sherlock's "Darkest" Villain Yet". denofgeek.com. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
28. "The Graham Norton Show S18E16 Will Smith, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Toby Jones". YouTube. Retrieved 16 June 2020.

External links

• Toby Jones on IMDb