Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce, born John Price on 1 June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, Wales, is an actor whose career has spanned stage, film, and television across more than five decades. The son of Isaac Price, a former coal miner who operated a small grocery shop with his wife Margaret Ellen, Pryce grew up in a Welsh Presbyterian household with two older sisters. He attended Holywell Grammar School before briefly pursuing art college at sixteen and then teacher training at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, Lancashire. A college theatre production redirected his path, and he applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, earning a scholarship and graduating in 1971 with an Acting diploma. Upon joining Equity, he adopted the stage name Jonathan Pryce because his birth name, John Price, was already in use by another registered performer.

Pryce began his professional stage career at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where he eventually served as artistic director, before performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Nottingham Playhouse. His association with director Richard Eyre at Nottingham led to his starring role in Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians, in a part written specifically for him. The production transferred to the Old Vic in London before moving to Broadway in 1976, directed by Mike Nichols. That New York run marked Pryce's Broadway debut and earned him the 1977 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He continued his stage work through the late 1970s with the RSC, playing Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra. In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him a Laurence Olivier Award and drew widespread critical acclaim.

His Broadway career extended well beyond that debut. In addition to Comedians, he appeared on Broadway in Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and returned in 2019 for The Height of the Storm. His most celebrated Broadway role came in 1991 with the New York transfer of the West End musical Miss Saigon, in which he originated the role of The Engineer. He had first played the character in the 1990 London production, winning both the Olivier Award and the Variety Club Award for the performance. The Broadway transfer was not without controversy: the Actors' Equity Association initially sought to prevent Pryce from reprising the role, citing concerns about a Caucasian actor portraying an Asian character in yellowface. Producer Cameron Mackintosh responded by threatening to cancel the production entirely, and after significant support from fellow actors, including public statements from Charlton Heston and John Malkovich, the AEA reached an agreement allowing Pryce to perform. He won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for the role, as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical that same year.

On screen, Pryce's breakthrough came with Terry Gilliam's dystopian film Brazil in 1985, in which he played the protagonist Sam Lowry. He subsequently appeared in a wide range of productions, including Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Carrington (1995), Evita (1996), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The New World (2005), The Wife (2017), and the Pirates of the Caribbean series from 2003 to 2007. His portrayal of Pope Francis in The Two Popes (2019) earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He also worked again with Gilliam in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).

His television work has been equally extensive. He received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his portrayals of Henry Kravis in the HBO film Barbarians at the Gate (1993), a wealthy widower in the BBC series Return to Cranford (2010), Prince Philip in the Netflix series The Crown, and a retired senior MI5 officer in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses. He played Thomas Wolsey in the BBC limited series Wolf Hall (2015), the High Sparrow in HBO's Game of Thrones from 2015 to 2016, and Sir Stuart Strange in Taboo (2017).

Pryce was awarded a knighthood in 2021 for services to drama. His Broadway appearances span from 1976 to 2019, and his body of work across stage, film, and television has brought him two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, among numerous other honors.