David Morrissey

Acting

David Morrissey

Born 1964-06-21 · Everton, Liverpool, England, UK

David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. Morrissey grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. He learned to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At the age of 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers, though took other defining roles such as Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998) and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998). More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former won him a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter a Best Actor award at the Royal Television Society Awards. His film roles have not always been acclaimed; his appearance as the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006) was widely criticised, and The Reaping (2007) bombed at the box office. Since then, he has had leading roles in Sense and Sensibility (2008), Red Riding (2009) and Five Days (2010), acted in the films Nowhere Boy (2009) and Centurion (2010), and produced and starred in the crime drama Thorne (2010). He returned to the stage in 2008 for a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and will take the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011. As a director Morrissey has helmed short films, and the dramas Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004) for the BBC. His feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, premiered at the 2009 London Film Festival and was broadcast on BBC television in March 2010. He is married to the novelist Esther Freud, has three children and is a patron of numerous charities. Description above from the Wikipedia article David Morrissey, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Acting credits

The Woman in Cabin 10 poster
6.2

On a lavish yacht for an assignment, a journalist sees a passenger go overboard. But when no one believes her, she risks her life to uncover the truth.

The Woman in Cabin 10

2025

The Other Boleyn Girl poster
6.7

A sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history: two beautiful sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, driven by their family's blind ambition, compete for the love of the handsome and passionate King Henry VIII.

The Other Boleyn Girl

2008

Welcome to the Punch poster
5.9

When notorious criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London, it gives detective Max Lewinsky one last chance to take down the man he's always been after.

Welcome to the Punch

2013

Basic Instinct 2 poster
5.0

Novelist Catherine Tramell is once again in trouble with the law, and Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass to evaluate her. Though, like Detective Nick Curran before him, Glass is entranced by Tramell and lured into a seductive game.

Basic Instinct 2

2006

Captain Corelli's Mandolin poster
5.9

When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

2001

Centurion poster
6.2

Britain, A.D. 117. Quintus Dias, the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.

Centurion

2010

Blitz poster
6.2

A tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.

Blitz

2011

The Reaping poster
5.8

Katherine Morrissey, a former Christian missionary, lost her faith after the tragic deaths of her family. Now she applies her expertise to debunking religious phenomena. When a series of biblical plagues overrun a small town, Katherine arrives to prove that a supernatural force is not behind the occurrences, but soon finds that science cannot explain what is happening. Instead, she must regain her faith to combat the evil that waits in a Louisiana swamp.

The Reaping

2007

Derailed poster
6.4

When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, they are forced to turn the tables on him to save their families.

Derailed

2005

Slingshot poster
6.1

An elite trio of astronauts aboard a years-long, possibly compromised mission to Saturn's moon, Titan, gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot manoeuvre that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space.

Slingshot

2024

The Water Horse poster
6.5

A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend.

The Water Horse

2007

Nowhere Boy poster
7.2

A rebellious teenager, future Beatle John Lennon lives with his Aunt Mimi in working-class mid-1950s Liverpool, England. Mimi's husband suddenly dies, and John spies his mother Julia at the funeral. Despite Mimi's misgivings, John intends to have a real relationship with his mother. Julia introduces him to popular music and the banjo and, though a family conflict looms, young John is inspired to form his own band.

Nowhere Boy

2009

Macbeth poster
6.0

Counted among his greatest tragedies, Shakespeare’s unsettling combination of warring soldiers and ‘weird sisters’ is brought to life in this post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Scottish play. This production, directed by Gemma Bodinetz and starring David Morrissey in the title role, was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Macbeth

2011

Waterland poster
6.3

The story of a mentally anguished high school history teacher going through a complete reassessment of his life. His method for reassessing his life is to narrate it to his class and interweave in it three generations of his family's history.

Waterland

1992

Being Human poster
5.1

One man must learn the meaning of courage across four lifetimes centuries apart.

Being Human

1994

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 poster
6.6

Yorkshire, 1974. Fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions. When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions that draw them into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974

2009

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 poster
6.9

After 6 years of brutal murders, the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire. Assistant Chief Constable of the Manchester Police, Peter Hunter, is called in to oversee the West Yorkshire Police's Ripper investigation and see what they could have missed.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980

2009

Robin Hood poster
5.7

The Swashbuckling legend of Robin Hood unfolds in the 12th century when the mighty Normans ruled England with an iron fist.

Robin Hood

1991

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983 poster
6.9

Detective Chief Superintendent Maurice Jobson is forced to remember the very similar disappearance of Clare Kemplay, who was found dead in 1974, and the subsequent imprisonment of local boy Michael Myshkin. Washed-up local solicitor John Piggott becomes convinced of Myshkin's innocence and begins to fight on his behalf, unwittingly providing a catalyst for Jobson to start to right some wrongs.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983

2009

The Walking Dead: The Return poster
7.3

Stars of "The Walking Dead," Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, walk down memory lane and visit iconic locations where pivotal moments between their characters, Rick and Michonne, were filmed.

The Walking Dead: The Return

2024

Hilary and Jackie poster
6.6

The tragic story of world-renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told from the point of view of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré-Finzi.

Hilary and Jackie

1998

Ronaldo poster
7.0

Filmed over 14 months with unprecedented access into the inner circle of the man and the sport, this is the first official and fully authorised film of one of the most celebrated figures in football. For the first time ever, the world gets vividly candid and un-paralleled, behind-closed-doors access to the footballer, father, family-man and friend in this moving & fascinating documentary. Through in-depth conversations, state of the art football footage and never before seen archival footage, the film gives an astonishing insight into the sporting and personal life of triple Ballon D'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo at the peak of his career. From the makers of ‘Senna’ and ‘Amy’, Ronaldo takes audiences on an intimate and revealing journey of what it’s like to live as an iconic athlete in the eye of the storm.

Ronaldo

2015

Dampyr poster
6.2

In war-torn Balkans, bogus monster hunter Harlan Draka is hired by soldiers who happen to be under attack by an army of actual vampires, uncovering the hidden truth about his past in the process: he is half-human and half-vampire... a Dampyr.

Dampyr

2022

The Colour Room poster
6.1

A pioneering ceramic artist Clarice Cliff rises to prominence in the 1920s while working in Britain’s Stoke-on-Trent pottery industry.

The Colour Room

2021

Behind the camera