Anthony Calf

Anthony Calf is an English actor born on 4 May 1959. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and has built a career spanning theatre, television, and film across more than four decades.

Calf made his television debut in 1982 in the Doctor Who serial The Visitation, the same year he took the role of Digby Geste in a television adaptation of Beau Geste. His subsequent television work includes the role of Lawrence Durrell in My Family and Other Animals (1987), Pip in a 1989 television adaptation of Great Expectations, and Colonel Fitzwilliam in the BBC's 1995 miniseries Pride and Prejudice. He also portrayed Tom Faggus in the BBC adaptation of Lorna Doone. Among his recurring television roles, he played Michael Beauchamp in the medical drama Holby City from 2005 to 2006 and DAC Robert Strickland in New Tricks from 2005 to 2015. In 2010, he appeared as Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in the BBC revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, a role connected to his earlier stage portrayal of Eden in Howard Brenton's Never So Good (2008), in which Eden appeared as Prime Minister during the Suez crisis. He returned to Doctor Who in 2017 in the episode Empress of Mars, thirty-five years after his first appearance in the series. In 2019, he played William Wickham, founder of the British foreign secret service, in the fifth series of Poldark. His television credits also include appearances in Doc Martin, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, and Agatha Christie's Poirot.

His film work includes The Madness of King George (1994), Anna Karenina (1997), The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), and The Children Act (2017).

On stage, Calf has worked extensively with the National Theatre, where his credits include The Madness of George III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The False Servant. He appeared in Rock'n Roll at the Duke of York's Theatre and received a nomination for Best Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2008 for his performance in Uncle Vanya at the Gate Theatre. His stage credits also include Never So Good (2008), The White Guard (2010), My Fair Lady (2012–13), and Twelfth Night (2017) as Malvolio at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.

In 2015, Calf appeared on Broadway in King Charles III, bringing his stage career to an international audience. He is married to actress Caroline Harker, and the couple have three daughters.