Simon Scott Merrells | |
---|---|
Born | Epping, Essex, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Relatives | Jason Merrells (brother) |
Simon Merrells is an English film, television and stage actor best known for his portrayal of Marcus Licinius Crassus in Spartacus: War of the Damned .
Merrells was born in London, three years before his brother Jason Merrells.[ citation needed ] He started drama school, but soon left to work as a minicab driver to fund travelling to Mexico, where he painted. He became involved in fringe theatre in Brighton, where his brother was living, when he returned to England. [1] [2]
Merrells appeared with his brother Jason in a production of The Comedy of Errors in 2007, playing twins. [3]
Merrells has worked with director Steven Berkoff several times, first in a world tour of the play Coriolanus . In 2009, he played Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront , directed by Berkoff. [1] Variety said that "Compact and bristling with contained energy, Simon Merrells has the right physicality to play Terry but never quite emerges from Brando’s long shadow"; [4] The Independent said he "brings his own brand of studied vulnerability and sullen pride to the part". [5]
Merrells performed as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2007, and starred as Oedipus in another Berkoff production at the same venue in 2011. [1] He was nominated for a Stage Award for Best Actor for that role. [6] Later that year he played detective Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep ; The Stage said he was "charismatic" but "a touch too suave and slick". [7]
He has appeared on television in London's Burning as DSO Griggs, Family Affairs (as bouncer Conrad Williams), [1] [2] and Merseybeat . [3]
In 2009, Merrells had a lead role in the 2009 film, Invisible Eyes. In 2010, he portrayed Ben Talbot, brother of Lawrence Talbot in remake of The Wolfman . [8] In 2013, he portrayed the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus in the Starz series Spartacus: War of the Damned . He had to undergo a strict diet and four-week fitness boot camp in preparation for the role, losing 21 lbs. [9] Also that year, he portrayed character Mark Vega in the British horror film Judas Ghost. He also plays The Founder in the 2013 American remake of The Tomorrow People .
In 2014, Merrells starred in a small sci-fi film named Index Zero as Kurt, a main character, and two films in 2015, Billionaire Ransom (originally titled Take Down) and Victrix. In 2015, Merrells guest-starred in the Syfy channel series Dominion as a dyad named Julian. Also in 2015 Merrells starred in a futuristic short film called The Leap as an enforcement agent whose job it is to stop people trafficking on an interplanetary scale. In 2016, Merrells was cast as Tancrede de Hautville in the History channel's series Knightfall , which premiered in the United States in December 2017.
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2009 | Invisible Eyes | Dan |
2010 | The Wolfman | Ben Talbot |
2013 | Spartacus: War of the Damned | Marcus Licinius Crassus |
2013 | Judas Ghost | Mark Vega |
2014 | Index Zero | Kurt |
2014 | The Tomorrow People | Hugh Bathory / The Founder |
2015 | Billionaire Ransom | Jonathan Tilton-Scofield |
2015 | Dominion | Julian |
2016 | Victrix | Marius |
2017–18 | Legends of Tomorrow | Julius Caesar |
2017–19 | Knightfall | Tancrede de Hautville |
2018 | 12 Monkeys | Andrus |
2019 | Good Omens | Leslie the International Express Man |
2022 | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Watchwarden Revion |
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome".
Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas in the title role, a slave who leads a rebellion against Rome and the events of the Third Servile War. Adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Howard Fast's 1951 novel of the same title, the film also stars Laurence Olivier as Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus, Charles Laughton as Sempronius Gracchus, Peter Ustinov as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus, and John Gavin as Julius Caesar. Jean Simmons played Spartacus' wife Varinia, a fictional character, and Tony Curtis played the fictional slave Antoninus.
Steven Berkoff is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director.
The Third Servile War, also called the Gladiator War and the War of Spartacus by Plutarch, was the last in a series of slave rebellions against the Roman Republic known as the Servile Wars. This third rebellion was the only one that directly threatened the Roman heartland of Italy. It was particularly alarming to Rome because its military seemed powerless to suppress it.
Albert Paul Shenar was an American actor and theater director, known for portraying the evil rat Jenner in Don Bluth's film, The Secret of NIMH (1982) and Bolivian drug lord Alejandro Sosa in Scarface (1983).
Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop. The current building opened in 1963.
Jeffery Kissoon is an actor with credits in British theatre, television, film and radio. He has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company at venues such as the Royal National Theatre, under directors including Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Janet Suzman, Calixto Bieito and Nicholas Hytner. He has acted in genres from Shakespeare and modern theatre to television drama and science fiction, playing a range of both leading and supporting roles, from Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest, to Malcolm X in The Meeting and Mr Kennedy in the children's TV series Grange Hill.
Jason Scott Merrells is an English actor, who is best known for his roles in Casualty, Queer as Folk, Cutting It, Waterloo Road and Emmerdale.
Marcus Andrew Sinden is an English actor, director and producer.
Lawrence StewartTalbot, also known as the Wolf Man, is a title character of the 1941 Universal film The Wolf Man and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is portrayed by Benicio del Toro. The Wolf Man was part of the Universal Monsters ensemble.
Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator (Thraex) who was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.
Greek is an opera in two acts composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex with the setting changed to the East End of London in the 1980s. The opera was first performed on 17 June 1988 in the Carl-Orff-Saal of the Gasteig, Munich, in a co-production by the Munich Biennale, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC.
Great West End Theatres is a documentary series detailing the history, architecture and theatrical anecdotes of the 40 West End Theatres of London, released individually as All-Region DVDs and also as digital downloads and the first 10 episodes were broadcast from 3 August 2013 in the UK by the BSkyB digital satellite channel Sky Arts 2 and were chosen as "Pick of the Day" by the London edition of Time Out magazine.
Anthony Barclay is an English actor who has appeared in productions including Domina for Sky Atlantic, The Irregulars for Netflix, Britannia for Sky Atlantic and Common as Muck for the BBC. He played Anthony Berg in Shaun Severi's film Citizen versus Kane which won the Canal+ Award at Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival and which earned Barclay a Best Actor nomination.
Spartacus is an American historical drama television series filmed in New Zealand that premiered on Starz on January 22, 2010, and concluded on April 12, 2013. The series was inspired by historical figure, Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BC led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic departing from Capua. Executive producers Steven S. DeKnight and Robert Tapert focused on structuring the events of Spartacus' obscure early life leading up to the beginning of historical records.
Spartacus: War of the Damned is the third and final season of the American television series Spartacus, a Starz television series, which follows Spartacus: Vengeance. The series was inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who, from 73 to 71 BC, led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. It premiered on January 25, 2013, and concluded on April 12, 2013.
Gannicus was a Celtic slave, who together with the Thracian Spartacus, Crixus, Castus and Oenomaus, became one of the leaders of rebel slaves during the Third Servile War. In the winter of 71 BC, Gannicus, along with Castus, broke off from Spartacus, taking a large number of Celts and Germans with them, marking the second detachment of the rebellion. Gannicus and Castus met their end at the Battle of Cantenna in Lucania near Mount Soprano, where Marcus Licinius Crassus, Lucius Pomptinus and Quintus Marcius Rufus entrenched their forces in battle and defeated them.
The Slave is a 1962 Italian peplum film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Steve Reeves and Gianna Maria Canale. It is an unofficial sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus, as it includes a mention of the character Varinia, who was specifically created for the novel template for that film. The running time was 100 minutes.
Sins of Rome is a 1953 historical drama film directed by Riccardo Freda and loosely based on the life story of Spartacus. The rights of film's negatives and copies were bought by the producers of Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus, as to prevent eventual new releases of the film that could have damaged the commercial outcome of Kubrick’s film; this resulted in Sins of Rome's withdrawal from market for about thirty years.
Tertulla was the wife of Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in Rome, and the mother of his two sons.