Timothy Spall

From a very young age, Timothy Spall showed a vocation for acting, which led him to participate in plays that were performed at his school. However, in an interview he acknowledged that at the age of 16 he was hesitating between joining the army (he wanted to be a tank driver) or studying art. The decision came while he was rehearsing for a school performance of “The Wizard of Oz.” A teacher came up to him and said, “I think you should be an actor. It’s a terrible job… but I think you should do it and I’m going to help you and show you the way.’

Timothy trained in London at the National Youth Theater and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he was awarded the Bancroft Medal for Most Promising Actor. In 1979 he made his big screen debut as a supporting actor in  Quadrophenia . In the early 80s he alternated television (he was Barry in the famous BBC series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet ) with minor roles in films like The Bride or Gothic . In 1988 he collaborated with the Polish Agnieszka Holland in Conspiracy to Kill a Priest : it was his first work with a prestigious director. Then came Bernardo Bertolucci ( The Sheltering Sky ), Clint Eastwood( White Hunter, Black Heart ), Mike Leigh ( Life is Sweet , All or Nothing or Mr. Turner , among others), Kenneth Branagh ( Hamlet ), Tim Burton ( Sweeney Todd ) and Tom Hooper ( The Damned United ). In 1996 he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, but he has managed to overcome it without affecting his career. In fact, it only took him two years to return to the big screen, with three movies: Always Crazy , Our Mutual Friend and The Wisdom of Crocodiles , all released in 1998.

Despite the fact that most of his roles have been secondary, he has always known how to give his characters a distinctive feature that attracts the public’s attention. The best example of this can be found in Harry Potter : Peter Pettigrew doesn’t need more than a couple of minutes to stay in the viewer’s retina with his cowardly eyes, restless hands and rat-like appearance. With Mr. Turner , Spall has been able to show that his talent can sustain a starring role. The romantic painter William Turner’s recreation of him, a sullen and intelligent character who suited him like a glove, has earned him the prize at Cannes and critical recognition as one of the great British actors of our time.

He is not tall, nor handsome, nor does he have a prodigious physique, but his acting ability has placed him in a privileged place. Without making much noise, this British actor has participated in more than a hundred theater, film and television productions, among which are multi-award-winning films such as Secrets and Lies , the film that made him and his director known to the general public. , Mike Leigh, or The King’s Speech , which won an Oscar in 2010. A serene man, he does not consider himself a teacher, but someone with experience who still has a lot to learn: “Age and life, if you are lucky, will They make you reflect deeply and make you aware that you never stop learning and that you never lose the fear of doing it wrong”.

Spall is married with three children. The second of them, Rafe Spall, has followed in the footsteps of your father and has participated as a supporting actor in major productions such as Life of Pi or Prometheus .