Richard Dormer

Richard Dormer
Richard Dormer in The Gentlemen's Tea-Drinking Society (2009)
Born	11 November 1969 Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Occupation	actor, playwright
Years active	1991–present

Richard Dormer (born 11 November 1969) is an actor, playwright and screenwriter from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role as Beric Dondarrion in HBO series Game of Thrones.

Early life

Dormer was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He was accepted by the Royal College of Art, but chose a scholarship at the RADA school of acting in London. After living and working in London, he returned to Northern Ireland. He lives in Belfast and is married to director Rachel O'Riordan.^[1]

Career

Dormer gained notice following his performance as Northern Irish snooker star Alex Higgins in Hurricane in 2003, which he wrote and starred in. Critics and even Higgins himself praised the production, and Dormer won The Stage award for best actor in 2003.^[2][3][4] In 2004 Dormer won the Irish Times Best Actor Award for his performance in Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and in 2005 completed a season with Sir Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal and performed in Bath in the George Bernard Shaw play You Can Never Tell, William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Noël Coward's play Private Lives, and in a production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.^[5]

Since, Dormer has written a number of plays including The Half and Gentleman's Tea Drinking Society which were produced through Belfast's Ransom theatre company. In 2012 Dormer was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre to write a production. Set in Brooklyn in the summer of 1969, Dormer's Drum Belly gives an insight into the dark edgy underworld of New York's Irish gangsters and opened April 2013 to mainly positive reviews and was published by Bloomsbury Publishing^[6][7][8][9] Dormer has also provided the voices for over twenty BBC Radio 4 plays, documentaries and advertising campaigns.^[10]

Film

Following a run of film castings playing secondary characters, he was cast as the lead in the 2012 Good Vibrations which tells the story of Northern Ireland personality and punk rock visionary Terri Hooley. The film premièred at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was awarded Best Film at the Galway film awards, best screenplay, Dinard and nominated for the Outstanding Debut award at the 2014 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards.^[11] The film was well received by critics gaining consistent reviews, most of which highlighted Dormer's performance as a strength.^{[12][13][14][15]} Dormer's portrayal of Terri Hooley saw him nominated in the Best Actor award in the 2013 Irish Film and Television Awards. He has since played roles in Yann Demange's critically acclaimed film '71 alongside Jack O'Connell and forthcoming Gerard Johnson directed Hyena, 2014.

Television

Dormer has become a well known television actor, more recently playing key roles in the Cinemax drama series Hunted and BBC One's Hidden.^[16][17] 2012 also saw Dormer taking over the role of Lord Beric Dondarrion, known as the "Lightning Lord", the leader of the "Brotherhood Without Banners" for Season 3 of HBO series Game of Thrones.^[18] In 2016, Dormer reprised his role as Dondarrion in the sixth season of the series.

Dormer is the voice of the Dad on the children's animated series Lily's Driftwood Bay. The series aired in May on Nick Jr. in the UK and on Sprout in the US. It will also air on RTÉ in Ireland, ABC Australia, KiKa in Germany, MTV in Finland, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden, and HOP! in Israel later this year. Broadcasters in Australia and the US are keeping the original voices to the series.^[19]

In 2014 Dormer began filming on Sky Atlantic's Fortitude. Described as "their most ambitious project to date", he takes the role of Sheriff Dan Anderssen and stars alongside Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston and The Killing's Sofie Gråbøl.^[20] Fortitude aired on 29 January 2015.^[21] The series is set in the fictional Arctic Norwegian settlement of Fortitude. On 9 April 2015, Sky Atlantic recommissioned the show for a second series consisting of 10 episodes.

Also in 2015, Dormer starred in the BBC drama We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story as TV producer David Croft (TV producer).^[22] The comedy drama retells the creation of the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army as well as the relationship between Croft and Jimmy Perry who became successful TV comedy writers.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	11 Minutes		Post-production
2014	Hyena	Nick Taylor	Post-production
2014	Shooting for Socrates	Arthur	Post-production
2014	'71	Eamon
2013	Dark Touch	Henry
2013	'S.L.R	Mr Verma	Short
2012	Jump	Johnny
2012	Good Vibrations	Terri Hooley	Nominated for IFTA best actor award
2010	Ghost Machine	Taggert
2009	Scapegoat	Narrator
2009	Five Minutes of Heaven	Michael	Featured at Sundance Film Festival
2009	Pumpgirl	Hammy
2009	Best: His Mother's Son	Ad Director
2006	Middletown	Ned
2005	Mrs Henderson Presents	Comic
2005	The Mighty Celt	Ronan
2002	Puckoon	Arthur Faddington
2002	The Escapist	Denis' Brief
2001	Mapmaker	Harry Hawcett
2000	A Further Gesture	Joe

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	The Musketeers	Christophe
2015	We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story	David Croft (TV producer)
2015	Fortitude	Sheriff Dan Anderssen
2014	Lily's Driftwood Bay	Dad
2013, 2016	Game of Thrones	Lord Beric Dondarrion
2012	Hunted	Lewis Conroy
2011	Hidden	Frank Hanna	Television series shown on BBC One
2011	Justice	George
2011	Brendan Smyth: Betrayal of Trust	Chris Moore
2010	An Crisis	Kyle Braid
2008	Last Man Hanging	James Brown
2007	My Boy Jack	Corporal John O'Leary	ITV movie with Daniel Radcliffe
2003	Holy Cross	Seamus
2000	Chihuahua		Short
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Civilian
1992	Soldier Soldier	Cpt David Lutchens
1991	Casualty	Rick Tomlinson

References

1. Hurricane, the story of Alex Higgins, back in Belfast, BBC News, 8 January 2011
2. "Richard Dormer- Playwright Dramatist". Doollee.com. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
3. 20 questions with Richard Dormer. "What's on?". Retrieved 3 March 2012.
4. Fisher, Phillip. "British Theatre Guide". Retrieved 3 March 2012.
5. Michael Billington. "Waiting for Godot, Theatre Royal, Bath | Stage". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
6. "Drum Belly (Modern Plays) Richard Dormer: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama". Bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
8. "Drum Belly". The Public Reviews. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
9. Weaver, Jesse (2013-05-11). "Irish Theatre Magazine | Reviews | Current | Drum Belly". Irishtheatremagazine.ie. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
10. United Artists. "United Artists". Retrieved 4 March 2012.
11. "Bafta Film Awards 2014: NI writers nominated for Good Vibrations - BBC News". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
12. Anthony Quinn (2013-03-28). "Film review: Good Vibrations (15) - Reviews - Films". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
13. "Empire's Good Vibrations Movie Review". Empireonline.com. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
14. Peter Bradshaw. "Good Vibrations – review | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
15. Andrews, Kernan (2012-07-19). "Good Vibrations scoops Film Fleadh award". Advertiser.ie. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
16. "Hunted (2012– )". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
17. "Hidden (2011)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
18. "'Game of Thrones' Announces Casting and Return Date for Season 3 [Comic-Con 2012] - /Film". Slashfilm.com. 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
19. "Top actors set sail for Driftwood Bay". Northern Ireland Screen. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
20. Lesley Goldberg (2014-01-23). "Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston to Star in Sky's 'Fortitude'". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
21. Wagmeister, Elizabeth (December 19, 2014). "Pivot Sets Jan. 29 Premiere for Stanley Tucci Drama 'Fortitude'". Variety. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
22. ."We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story - review". Radio Times. 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-23.

External links

• Richard Dormer at the Internet Movie Database