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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stevenberkoff.jpg]]
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3Leslie Steven Berks (born 3 August 1937 in Stepney, London), better known as Steven Berkoff, is an English character actor, author, playwright and theatre director of Romanian and Russian Jewish descent.
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5A highly acclaimed actor who's famous for his intense performances on both stage and screen, he followed dramatic arts training in both Paris and London and then moved on to performing with several repertory companies, then created the London Theatre Group in 1968.
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7He has been appearing in in British films as far back as 1959, but he's probably best known by general audiences for portraying a string of (often Soviet/Russian) film villains in TheEighties.
8----
9!!Selected filmography:
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11* ''Film/PrehistoricWomen'' (1967) as John
12* ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' (1971) as Det. Const. Tom
13* ''Film/NicholasAndAlexandra'' (1971) as Pankratov
14* ''Film/BarryLyndon'' (1975) as Lord Ludd
15* ''Film/{{Outland}}'' (1981) as Sagan
16* ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' (1983) as General Orlov
17* ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop'' (1984) as Victor Maitland
18* ''Film/RamboFirstBloodPartII'' (1985) as Lt. Col. Podovsky
19* ''Film/{{Revolution|1985}}'' (1985) as Sgt. Jones
20* ''Film/AbsoluteBeginners'' (1986) as The Fanatic
21* ''Film/UnderTheCherryMoon'' (1986) as Mr. Sharon
22* ''Film/{{Fair Game|1995}}'' (1995) as Colonel Ilya Pavel Kazak
23* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' (1997) as Hagath
24* ''Film/HeadInTheClouds'' (2004) as Charles Bessé
25* ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' (2007) as Flying Fox
26* ''Film/TheTourist'' (2010) as Reginald Shaw
27* ''Film/{{The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo|2011}}'' (2011) as Dirch Frode
28* ''Film/Red2'' (2013) as Cobb
29* ''Series/TheFrankensteinChronicles'' (2015) as William Blake
30* ''Series/{{Vikings}}'' (2019-2020) as King Olaf the Stout
31
32!!Tropes
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34* EvilBrit: One of the go to guy's for such roles in the eighties and nineties, when they were not Soviet/Russian.
35* EvilSoundsDeep: He has an impressively deep voice and played a lot of bad guys.
36* IcyBlueEyes: Just take a good look at the picture.
37* LargeHam: His approach to acting and theatre is...expressive, shall we say.
38** A shining recent example would be [[https://youtu.be/bir2smnpTzw this ad/short]] he made for ''Occupy White Walls'', a museography / {{Art}} sandbox MMO video game.
39** It's as if he tried to make ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'''s General Orlov into the [[EvilIsHammy hammiest villain]] in the whole ''Film/JamesBond'' film series and he very possibly succeeded.
40** Not to mention his guest role in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E18BusinessAsUsual an episode]] of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' where he's dining on scenery throughout.
41* {{Typecasting}}: It seems like he used to be the go-to guy whenever you needed a ruthless Russian villain in a movie. [[ActorSharedBackground His background]], looks and [[LargeHam hammy]] tendencies helped quite a bit.
42* MilkingTheGiantCow: His playwrighting and directing style is highly non-naturalist, and involves the almost complete absence of props. Consequently, while his characters speak, their actions are almost always mimed.

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