David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964 in Liverpool, England) is an English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.
At the age of 18, he was cast in the television series One Summer, which won him recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre for four years.
Throughout The '90s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though he took other defining roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend and Christopher Finzi in Hilary And Jackie. More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former earned him a Best Actor nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter won him a Best Actor award from the Royal Television Society. Unfortunately, he was also the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 and The Reaping. In the years following those films, he has had leading roles in Sense and Sensibility, Red Riding, Nowhere Boy and Centurion, and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne.
He returned to the stage in 2008 for a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark, Dark House and played the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011. He then starred in the British crime film Blitz, playing a morally dubious reporter in contact with the eponymous cop killer. The following year, he signed on for the role of The Governor in the third season of the AMC television series The Walking Dead, giving him Career Resurrection. The British Film Institute describes him as being considered "one of the most versatile British actors of his generation", and he is noted for his meticulous preparation for and research into the roles he plays.
Morrissey has directed short films and the television dramas Sweet Revenge and Passer By. His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010.
He is married to novelist Esther Freud, the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and daughter of artist Lucian Freud.
He appeared in
- Robin Hood (1991)
- Our Mutual Friend
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin
- State of Play
- The Deal (2003)
- Basic Instinct 2
- Sense and Sensibility
- Doctor Who
- The Other Boleyn Girl
- Red Riding
- Nowhere Boy
- Centurion
- Macbeth
- The Missing (2014) - Series 2
- The Walking Dead
- The City & the City (miniseries based on the Miéville novel)
