David Thewlis

David Thewlis
Main Jobs	Actor
Main Time Period Active	2015-
First DWU Credit	The Poisoned Sea
Latest DWU Credit	Crookback

The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.

David Wheeler (born 20 March 1963), known professionally as David Thewlis is an English actor, director, screenwriter, and author. He plays the third on screen incarnation of The Rogue.

 Biography

Prior to Doctor Who

Thewlis was born David Wheeler in Blackpool on 20 March 1963, the second of three children of Maureen (née Thewlis) and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his father's shop. As a teenager, he played in a rock band called QED and played lead guitar with a punk rock band called Door 66. He was educated at Highfield High School in Blackpool's Marton area. He later enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 1984.

Thewlis had a minor role in an episode of the 1980s sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. He also appeared in an 1985 episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, 'It's Only Rock and Roll', as a member of Rodney's short-lived band. His first professional role was in the play Buddy Holly at the Regal in Greenwich.

Thewlis's breakout role was Naked (1993; dir. Mike Leigh), as the main character, Johnny, a homeless, highly intelligent, embittered, rambling street philosopher, for which Thewlis was named Best Actor by the National Society of Film Critics (United States), the London Film Critics Circle, the Evening Standard, the New York Film Critics' Circle and the Cannes Film Festival. That same year, he appeared on television as a sexual predator named James Jackson in Prime Suspect 3, opposite Helen Mirren and Ciarán Hinds. Before that, his first television appearance was in Valentine Park.

Thewlis directed Hello, Hello, Hello in 1995, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.

During the 1990s, Thewlis appeared in a variety of films, mostly fantasy and period, including Restoration (1995), Black Beauty(1994), Total Eclipse (1995) with Leonardo DiCaprio, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), Dragonheart (1996), and Seven Years in Tibet (1997), opposite Brad Pitt. He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Divorcing Jack (1998), and played Clov in a television film of Samuel Beckett's Endgame (2000). Notable appearances also include Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged (1998), the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski (1998), and Paul McGuigan's Gangster No. 1 (2000), opposite Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell.

He also wrote, directed and starred in the feature Cheeky (2003).

He auditioned for the role of Quirinus Quirrell in the Chris Columbus directed film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but the part went to Ian Hart. Despite missing out on the first film, he was cast in 2004 as Professor Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He did not have to audition as he was director Alfonso Cuarón's first choice for the role. Thewlis reprised the role in four other films in the series.

He appeared as an SS Commandant of a Nazi death camp and father of the main character in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was well received. Other credits include Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Terrence Malick's The New World (2005), and The Omen (2006).

Thewlis' debut novel, The Late Hector Kipling, is a black comedy set in the art world and was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.

Thewlis played the late Dr. Michael Aris, husband of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, with Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Suu Kyi, in the biopic The Lady directed by Luc Besson. In 2012, he received an International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Plus Camera Award. In the same year, he also played in Separate We Come, Separate We Go, directed by Harry Potter co-star Bonnie Wright.

In June 2015, Thewlis was reported to be filming scenes for a Donald Crowhurst biopic, The Mercy, on the beach at Teignmouth, Devon, playing Donald Crowhurst's press agent, Rodney Hallworth, while Colin Firth is playing Donald Crowhurst. He also starred in Regression, a thriller released in autumn 2015. In September 2015, Thewlis starred as Inspector Goole in Helen Edmundson's BBC TV adaptation of J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls. In October 2015, he played King Duncan in the film Macbeth.

Work on Doctor Who

Thewlis was cast as Oliver Griffiths in the Doctor Who story The Poisoned Sea. He reprised this role for several more stories. In The Sinister Minister it was revealed that Oliver Griffiths was in fact The Rogue, making Thewlis the third Actor to play the character.

After Doctor Who

Thewlis portrayed Ares in Wonder Woman (2017), the DC Comics film featuring the character of the same name. He briefly reprised his role as Ares in Justice League (2017). That same year, he appeared as V. M. Varga, the main antagonist of the third season of Fargo. His performance was critically acclaimed, and earned him nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries, and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Thewlis has most recently starred in the 2020 Netflix film I'm Thinking of Ending Things, directed by Charlie Kaufman.

Personal Life

Thewlis married Welsh actress Sara Sugarman in 1992, and they divorced in 1994. He then had a brief relationship with English actress Kate Hardie. In 2001, he began a relationship with English actress Anna Friel. Their daughter, actress Gracie, was born in 2005. Thewlis and Friel split up in late 2010.

Thewlis married his second wife, Hermine, who is a French artist in 2017. They live in Sunningdale, Berkshire. He also owns a converted Victorian ballroom in the London district of Clerkenwell.

Selected Credits

Doctor Who As The Rogue The Poisoned Sea The Greenhouse Effect The Demons of Madison Road The Sinister Minister False Prophets God's Familiars Bliss Crookback