Occupation Actor Height 1.83 m Role Actor | Name Tom Burke Years active 1999–present | |
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Full Name Tom Liam Benedict Burke Parents David Burke, Anna Calder-Marshall Grandparents Arthur Calder-Marshall, Violet Nancy Sales Movies Only God Forgives, Third Star, The Invisible Woman, Cleanskin, I Want Candy Similar People Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Maimie McCoy, David Burke | ||
Tom Liam Benedict Burke (born 30 June 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Athos in the BBC series The Musketeers (2014–2016), as Dolokhov in the BBC literary-adaptation miniseries War & Peace and most recently for his role as the titular character Cormoran Strike in the BBC series Strike (2017).
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Early life
Tom Burke was born in London and grew up in Kent. His parents, David Burke and Anna Calder-Marshall, and his godparents, Alan Rickman and Bridget Turner, were also actors. His grandfather was writer Arthur Calder-Marshall. Burke was born with a cleft lip.
Burke always wanted to become an actor and attended the National Youth Theatre and the Young Arden Theatre in Faversham during his youth, besides participating in the plays his parents staged in their hometown.
As a child, Burke was diagnosed with dyslexia and struggled academically. He left school before his A-levels because he "couldn't stand the idea of that" and thought he "wouldn't survive it". As soon as he left school at 17, he wrote to an acting agency and got the first role he ever auditioned for. He attended dance school before being accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London when he was 18.
Career
Burke's first role was as Roland in 1999's Dragonheart: A New Beginning, a direct-to-video sequel of the 1996 film Dragonheart. In that year he appeared in an episode of the series Dangerfield and the television movie All the King's Men. After graduating from RADA, he started working steadily in television, film and theatre.
Television
His first television part after drama school was Syd in the Paul Abbott thriller series State of Play, starring John Simm, Bill Nighy and James McAvoy. In 2004 he played Lee in TV film Bella and the Boys. In 2005 he played the 20-year-old version of Giacomo Casanova's son, Giac, in the television adaptation of Casanova, starring David Tennant and Peter O'Toole.
In 2006 he played Dr. John Seward in the TV film Dracula. In 2007 he played Napoleon Bonaparte in an episode of BBC's docudrama Heroes and Villains and had a small part as a book publisher in the satirical drama The Trial of Tony Blair. In 2009 he played Lieutenant Colin Race in an episode of the 12th series of Agatha Christie's Poirot. In 2011 he played Bentley Drummle in two episodes of BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. In 2012 he became a regular cast member in the second series of BBC Two's The Hour playing the part of journalist Bill Kendall. Since January 2014 he has played Athos on the BBC One series, The Musketeers, an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. He also plays Cormoran Strike in the BBC miniseries Strike based on J.K. Rowling's detective novels.
Films
In 2004 he had his first cinema part in The Libertine. In 2007 he played an aspiring filmmaker who ends up directing a porn film in the comedy I Want Candy. In 2008 he played Bluey in Donkey Punch, a horror thriller film which debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. In 2009 he played Geoff Goddard in Telstar: The Joe Meek Story. In the same year he had a small part in Stephen Frears' Chéri. In 2010 he played Davy in Third Star, a drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch, JJ Feild and Adam Robertson which follows a trip four friends, one of them terminally ill, make to Barafundle Bay in Wales.
In 2012 he played Mark in Cleanskin. In 2013 he played Billy, the older brother of Ryan Gosling's character in Only God Forgives, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. In the same year he had a supporting role in the Ralph Fiennes-directed film The Invisible Woman.
Theatre
As a theatre actor, Burke has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has appeared in plays at Shakespeare's Globe, playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in 2004; at the Old Vic in Noël Coward's Design for Living opposite Andrew Scott and Lisa Dillon in 2010; and at the Almeida Theatre playing Greg in reasons to be pretty in 2011. In 2002 he played Hamlet in Howard Baker's Gertrude – The Cry, a reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet which focuses on the character of Gertrude, the protagonist's mother.
In 2006 he worked with Ian McKellen in the play The Cut. In 2008 he played Adolph in Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse. Actor Alan Rickman, Burke's godfather, staged the play which earned Burke an Ian Charleston Award. The play subsequently premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 2010. In 2012 he played Louis Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma at the National Theatre.