"From the moment you start talking to Stephen Dillane you realise this is a man who doesn't do bullshit. No equivocation, no meandering; he's thoughtful in his answers but straightforward. A professional."
Stephen John Dillane (born 27 March 1957 in Kensington, London) is an English actor from Kensington. Initially, he studied history and political science at the University of Exeter, and then became a journalist, but he was unhappy in this profession. He then switched to acting and entered the Bristol Old Vic theatre school, and his acting career began in the late 1980s. Since then, he has not yet been a headline actor, but he has been in several movies, shows, and plays.
His best-known roles have been as Thomas Jefferson on John Adams and as King Stannis Baratheon on Game of Thrones, both of which happen to be HBO series.
His wife Naomi Wirthner, his brother Richard Dillane and his younger son Frank Dillane are also actors.
Roles
- Remington Steele (1985) as Bradford Galt
- The Secret Garden 1987 as Captain Lennox
- The One Game (1988) as Nicholas Thorne
- Hamlet (1990 adaptation) as Horatio
- Angels in America (1993 production) as Prior Walter
- Hamlet (1994 production) as Hamlet
- Endgame by Samuel Beckett (1996 production) as Clov
- Two If by Sea (1996) as Evan Marsh
- Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) as Michael Henderson
- Firelight (1997) as Charles Godwin
- Uncle Vanya (1998 production)
- Anna Karenina (2000 miniseries) as Karenin
- The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (2000 production) as Henry (won a Tony)
- Spy Game (2001) as Charles Harker
- The Hours (2002) as Leonard Woolf
- King Arthur (2004) as Merlin
- The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) as Harry Vardon
- Macbeth (2005 one-man production)
- John Adams (2008) as Thomas Jefferson (nominated for an Emmy)
- The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall (2008) as Anthony Hurndall (won British Academy Television Award for Best Actor)
- 44 Inch Chest (2009) as Mal
- Marple: The Secret of Chimneys (2010) as Finch
- Game of Thrones (2012 - 2015) as King Stannis Baratheon
- Secret State (2012) as Paul J. Clark
- Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as John Brennan
- The Tunnel (2013) as Karl Roebuck
- A Touch of Cloth (2013) as Michael Macratty
- The Crown (2016) as Graham Sutherland
- Darkest Hour (2017) as Viscount Halifax
- Outlaw King (2018) as Edward I of England
- Alex Rider (2020) as Alan Blunt
- Boxing Day (2021) as Richard
Tropes
- Spell My Name with an S: In his first years acting, his name was often misspelled as "Stephen Dillon."
- Typecasting: As straight-laced, powerful, semi-deadpan authority figures.
