Iain Glen

Early life and education

Iain Glen was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), followed by the University of Aberdeen. He then trained at RADA in London, where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal.

Career

In 1990, Glen won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Silent Scream. In the same year he was cast as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in Tom Stoppard's film adaptation of his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance in The Blue Room opposite Nicole Kidman.

It was announced in 2009 that Glen would star as Ser Jorah Mormont in the HBO series Game of Thrones. In 2010, he played the role of Father Octavian, leader of a sect of clerics who were on a mission against the Weeping Angels in "The Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone", a two-episode story which formed part of the fifth season of the revived television series Doctor Who. He appeared in the second series of Downton Abbey, as Sir Richard Carlisle, a tabloid publisher who is a suitor to, and subsequently engaged to, Lady Mary.

From 2010 to the present Glen has played the title character in the Irish TV crime series Jack Taylor adapted from the novels by Ken Bruen.

In the 2012 BBC drama series Prisoners' Wives, he plays Paul, the husband of Francesca, whose comfortable life comes crashing down when he is imprisoned for drug trafficking. Also in 2012, he starred in a new 4-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Sasha Yevtushenko. In 2013, he played the lead in the new play Longing.

From 6 December 2013 until early January 2014 Glen starred alongside Richard McCabe in Fortune's Fool at the Old Vic, directed by Lucy Bailey. He had been due to appear in the full run until 22 February 2014 but was forced to withdraw early to recover from illness, with his role taken by his understudy Patrick Cremin and then by William Houston who joined the cast about the same time as Glen's departure.

In 2015, Glen provided the voiceover for a Vauxhall Mokka advertisement.

Family

Glen is the younger brother of Hamish Glen, artistic director of the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and former artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre.

He was married to Susannah Harker from 1993 to 2004; they have one son, Finlay (born 1994). His partner is now actress Charlotte Emmerson, and they have two daughters: Mary (born September 2007) and Juliet (born 2012).

Selected theatre