Jonathan Pryce

Bureaucracy and the Name Change

John Price was born in Wales in 1947 and had to change his name because another actor was already registered under exactly the same name. It was an administrative matter that gave us Jonathan Pryce. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London on a scholarship, where he began refining the dry style he's known for.

His first steps were in Liverpool theater during the 1970s. He wasn't looking for fame, but fame found him in a design studio.

In 1975 he won a Tony Award for his work in the Broadway play Comedians. That role as Gethin Price was aggressive and strange. But the real explosion of his career didn't happen on stage but in the dystopian future of a visionary director.

The Bureaucrat of the Dystopia

Terry Gilliam gave him the role of Sam Lowry in Brazil back in 1985. It was a chaotic shoot in which Pryce played a clerk lost in a suffocating future. The film had distribution problems in the United States but ended up winning the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award over big-budget blockbusters of the era.

Pryce has a face that fits any century. In 1995 he starred in Carrington and took the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He played writer Lytton Strachey with a fragility few expected from an actor seasoned in social drama.

And the gamble paid off.

In 1996 he took on the challenge of singing alongside Madonna in the film adaptation of Evita. He played Juan Domingo Perón under the direction of Alan Parker. It was a 55 million dollar project that showed his voice could hold up in the most demanding musical registers as well.

Press Villains and Human Popes

In 1997 he stepped into the shoes of Elliot Carver for the James Bond saga in Tomorrow Never Dies. His character was a media mogul who wanted to provoke a world war to boost ratings. That role brought him massive commercial visibility that allowed him to alternate small projects with big box-office hits.

He appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise playing Governor Weatherby Swann starting in 2003. They were supporting roles but essential to keep the machinery running. Yet the broader TV audience only discovered him much later, thanks to a burlap robe.

And then came the Vatican.

In 2015 he joined Game of Thrones as the High Sparrow. His portrayal of a fanatical yet soft-spoken religious leader unsettled millions of viewers over two seasons. But his greatest physical resemblance to a clergyman would come shortly after.

In 2019 he starred in The Two Popes alongside Anthony Hopkins. He played Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio just before he was elected Pope Francis. The film earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor after decades of quiet craftsmanship.

In 2022 he took on the role of Prince Philip in the final two seasons of The Crown, replacing Tobias Menzies. He shot the series during a time of heightened social sensitivity in the United Kingdom. In 2024 he continues playing David Cartwright in the spy thriller Slow Horses for Apple TV+.

In 2021 he was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to drama.