Nicholas C. Frost (born 1955), known professionally as Nicholas Farrell, is an English stage, film and television actor.
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Early life
Farrell was born in Brentwood, Essex. He was educated at Fryerns Grammar and Technical School in Basildon, Essex, He studied acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Life and career
Farrell's early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park. In 1984, he appeared in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, and The Jewel in the Crown.
Since then, his film and television work has included several screen adaptations of Shakespeare's works, including Kenneth Branagh's 1996 Hamlet, in which he played Horatio, a role he had played previously with Branagh for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also appeared in film adaptations of Twelfth Night (1996), Othello (1995) and In the Bleak Midwinter (1995). He provided the voice of Hamlet for the animated television adaptation Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992).
In 2009, he played the role of Albert Dussell in the BBC series The Diary of Anne Frank. In 2011, he played Margaret Thatcher's close friend and advisor Airey Neave in The Iron Lady.
In 2014, he portrayed Eyre Crowe in the British documentary drama miniseries 37 Days, about the weeks leading up to World War I. Other television appearances have included two Agatha Christie's Poirot films, Sharpe's Regiment, Lipstick on Your Collar, To Play the King, Roman Mysteries, Torchwood, and Collision. He has also appeared in episodes of Lovejoy, Foyle's War, Absolute Power, Spooks, Midsomer Murders, Drop the Dead Donkey, Call the Midwife, and Casualty. He also voiced the Golem Pump 19 in the 2010 two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal.
Farrell's theatre work includes performances of The Cherry Orchard, Camille, and The Crucible, as well as Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet. In the 2011 Chichester Festival he played schoolmasters Dewley and Crocker-Harris in the double bill of South Downs and The Browning Version. In 2021 he played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story at Nottingham Playhouse.
In 2014, Farrell starred in the Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco alongside Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth, and the short film The Pit and the Pendulum: A Study in Torture, based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story. He played the spy Guy Burgess in Alan Bennett's play An Englishman Abroad in a 2016 tour of the play, presented with Bennett's A Question of Attribution in a double bill titled Single Spies.
In 2020, he starred as the racehorse trainer in the Welsh film Dream Horse, alongside Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, and Owen Teale.
In 2021 he was chosen as the face of the Saga plc television campaign 'Experience is Everything'.
He is married to Scottish actress Stella Gonet, and they have a daughter, Natasha.
Selected film and television appearances
Television
Matador (1981) as Jim Donaldson
The Agatha Christie Hour: "The Manhood of Edward Robinson" (1981) as Edward Robinson
Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981) as Georg
Mansfield Park (1983) as Edmund Bertram
The Jewel in the Crown (1984) as Teddy Bingham
Casualty: "Facing Up" (1991) as Phil Byron
Lovejoy: "The Italian Venus" (1991) as Douglas Holden
Agatha Christie's Poirot: "The A.B.C. Murders" (1992) as Donald Fraser
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales: "Hamlet" (1992) as Hamlet (voice)
The Riff Raff Element (1993)
Lipstick on Your Collar (1993) as Maj. Church
To Play the King-second part of the House of Cards (UK) trilogy (1993) as David Mycroft
MacGyver: "Trail to Doomsday" (1994) as Paul Moran
Bramwell (1995) as Major Stuart Hyde
The Choir (1995) as Leo Beckford
Sharpe's Regiment (1996) as Lord Fenner
Drop the Dead Donkey: "Dave and Diana" (1996) as Martin Jones
Sex, Chips & Rock n' Roll (1999) as Howard Brookes
