Harry Melling (actor)

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Harry Melling
Harry Melling Venice (cropped).jpg
Melling at the 2018 Venice Film Festival
Born
Harry Edward Melling

(1989-03-17) 17 March 1989 (age 34) [1] [2] [3] [4]
London, England
Alma mater London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active2000–present
Known for Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter
Relatives Patrick Troughton (grandfather) [5]

Harry Edward Melling (born 17 March 1989) is an English actor known for playing Dudley Dursley in five Harry Potter films and for his role as Harry Beltik in The Queen's Gambit. His grandfather was actor Patrick Troughton. [5]

Contents

Early life

Harry Edward Melling was born on 17 March [1] [2] 1989 in London, England. [3] [4] He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. [2] [6]

Career

In his early career, Melling performed in stage productions of The Provoked Wife , King John , Antigone , and Plenty . He appeared in five of the Harry Potter films as Harry Potter's spoiled cousin, Dudley Dursley. He was first cast in the role at age 10, in 1999 and would play the character until 2010 and his appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 . [2]

In 2009, he starred in a revival of Mother Courage and Her Children at the Royal National Theatre. He appeared in "The Sorcerer's Shadow", an episode of the BBC television series Merlin , playing a young warlock named Gilli who intends to use magic to help him win Camelot's legendary tournament. He also played Robert Brown in the BBC television series Just William . [7] In October 2009, it was announced that Melling had lost so much weight since his last appearance in Harry Potter that he was now "unrecognisable". The role of Dudley was almost recast for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 , but Melling was able to reprise the part by wearing a fat suit. He commented positively about the change, "I can now shed the child actor thing, like the fat, and start a new career, because no one sees me as Dudley." [8]

In 2014, Melling made his playwriting debut at HighTide Festival with his one-man show Peddling. [9]

In 2018, Melling played alongside Liam Neeson in the Coen brothers' Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs . [6] [10] Of Melling's performance, New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote:

[I] came away haunted by a scattering of sights and sounds--above all, by the recitations of the limbless man, which thrum with genuine yearning. He is beautifully played, with a little help from C.G.I., by Harry Melling, who was once the odious Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. Funny how people grow up. [11]

In 2020, Melling played evangelical preacher Roy Laferty in the Netflix thriller The Devil All The Time . That same year, he appeared in the Netflix series drama The Queen's Gambit in which he plays Harry Beltik, a chessplayer, friend and one of Beth's competitors in Kentucky. [6]

Melling appeared in a Coen brothers film for a second time when he performed the role of Malcolm, the elder son of the Scottish King in the 2021 film, The Tragedy of Macbeth. [6]

In 2022, he had a starring role as a young Edgar Allan Poe in the film The Pale Blue Eye . [6] [10] [12] [13]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Dudley Dursley
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
2016 The Lost City of Z William Barclay
2017 The Current War Benjamin Vale
2018 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs HarrisonSegment: "Meal Ticket"
The Keeper Sergeant Smythe
2019 Waiting for the Barbarians Garrison Soldier 4
2020 The Old Guard Steven Merrick
Say Your Prayers Tim
The Devil All the Time Roy Laferty
2021 The Tragedy of Macbeth Malcolm
2022 Please Baby Please Arthur
The Pale Blue Eye Edgar Allan Poe
2023 Shoshana Geoffrey J. Morton
TBA Harvest Post-production

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2005 Friends and Crocodiles Young OliverTelevision film
2010 Merlin Gilli 1 episode
2010 Just William Robert Brown4 episodes
2011 Garrow's Law George Pinnock3 episodes
2016 The Musketeers Bastien1 episode
2019 The War of the Worlds ArtillerymanMiniseries, 2 episodes
2019 His Dark Materials Sysselman1 episode
2020 The Queen's Gambit Harry BeltikMiniseries, 4 episodes
TBA Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light Thomas Wriothesley

Stage

YearTitleRoleVenue
2009 Mother Courage and her Children Swiss Cheese Royal National Theatre
2010Bedroom, Dens and Other Forms of Magic Theatre503
2010 Women Beware Women Young WardRoyal National Theatre
2011 The School for Scandal Sir Benjamin Backbite Barbican Centre
2011When Did You Last See My Mother?Ian Trafalgar Studios
2012 I Am a Camera Christopher Isherwood Southwark Playhouse
2013Smack Family RobinsonSean Robinson Rose Theatre, Kingston
2013 The Hothouse LambTrafalgar Studios
2013 King Lear Fool Minerva Theatre, Chichester
2014King LearFool Brooklyn Academy of Music
2014peddlingBoyHighTide Festival
2014The Angry BrigadeMorris
Commander
Prophet
Snitch
Manager
Jim		 Theatre Royal, Plymouth
Oxford Playhouse
Warwick Arts Centre
Watford Palace Theatre
2016 Hand to God Jason/TyroneVaudeville Theatre, London
2016King LearEdgar The Old Vic
2017JamKane Finborough Theatre

Video games

YearTitleRoleNotes
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Dudley Dursley Voice

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References

  1. 1 2 Scull, Eric (22 March 2013). "Harry Melling Shares His Thoughts with MuggleNet on the Black Comedy 'Smack Family Robinson'". MuggleNet. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Harry Melling: 'It feels like the Dudley Dursley narrative is changing'". NME. 12 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Harry Melling". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Harry Melling". Times of India . Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  5. 1 2 Jardine, Cassandra (6 October 2009). "Harry Potter star: My life after Dudley Dursley" . The Telegraph . Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "'People want to hold onto their experiences of Harry Potter': Harry Melling on the wizarding franchise, the Coen bros and The Pale Blue Eye". The Independent . 31 December 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  7. ↑ "Just William (2010)". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  8. ↑ Jardine, Cassandra (6 October 2009). "Harry Potter star: My life after Dudley Dursley". The Telegraph .
  9. ↑ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2 May 2014). "A Lost Boy, Trying to Find His Way". New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  10. 1 2 "The Haunting of Harry Melling". Vanity Fair. 6 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Lane, Anthony (19 November 2018). "The Fractious, Frustrating Thrills of 'Widows' [Desperate Measures]". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "'The Pale Blue Eye' Review: Christian Bale Is a Detective Who Teams Up with Edgar Allan Poe in Scott Cooper's Gloomfest Murder Mystery". Variety . 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  13. ↑ "The Pale Blue Eye review". The Independent . 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
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