John Standing

John Standing, born Sir John Ronald Leon on 16 August 1934 in London, is an English actor who performs professionally under the name John Standing. He is the 4th Baronet Leon, having inherited the title from his father, Sir Ronald George Leon, 3rd Baronet, a stockbroker, upon his father's death in 1964; Standing does not use the title. His mother was the actress Kay Hammond, born Dorothy Katherine Standing. His family's history includes ownership of Bletchley Park, the Buckinghamshire country house later acquired by the government and used as a code-breaking centre during the Second World War, until the Leon family sold it in 1937.

Standing was educated at Eton College and Millfield School in Somerset. He completed National Service as a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps from 1954 to 1955, after which he transferred to the Territorial Army. He subsequently studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London.

His professional theatre career began in 1955 with Peter Brook's production of Titus Andronicus, which starred Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He went on to appear in leading stage roles in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Christopher Fry's Ring Round the Moon, and John Osborne's A Sense of Detachment. In 1975, Standing made his Broadway appearance in Noël Coward's Private Lives, a production he had also performed in the West End alongside Maggie Smith. He received an Olivier Award nomination in 1979 for his work in Close of Play at the National Theatre.

Standing made his film debut in The Wild and the Willing in 1962. Subsequent film appearances include King Rat (1965), Walk, Don't Run (1966), The Psychopath (1966), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Elephant Man (1980), the horror film Nightflyers (1987), adapted from a short story by George R. R. Martin, Mrs Dalloway (1997), and A Good Woman (2004). In 1976, he appeared opposite Peter O'Toole in the BBC thriller film Rogue Male, directed by Clive Donner.

On television, one of his earliest prominent roles was as Sidney Godolphin in the BBC twelve-part serial The First Churchills in 1969. He appeared in the 1979 miniseries Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and co-starred in the ITV sitcom The Other 'Arf alongside Lorraine Chase, which ran from 1980 to 1984. Further television credits include The Choir (1995) and King Solomon's Mines (2004). In the United States, Standing made guest appearances on L.A. Law, Civil Wars, and Murder, She Wrote, and had a brief co-starring role with Robert Wagner and Samantha Smith in the action series Lime Street in 1985. In 2011, he appeared as Jon Arryn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Later television work includes The Line of Beauty (2006), in which he played Lord Kessler, and The Crown (2016), in which he appeared as Sir Henry Imbert-Terry.

In 2002, Standing contributed spoken word recordings to Lost Horizons, the second studio album by the British electronic duo Lemon Jelly. On the track "Elements" he recites a list of basic elements, and on "Ramblin' Man" he reads an extended list of locations ranging from Sussex villages to major world capitals.