David Morrissey
David Mark Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. He grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. Learning to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart, Mark and Stephen McGann, and Cathy Tyson. At age 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 (RADA) 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). Returning to the stage in 2008, he did a run of Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House and the title role in the Liverpool Everyman's production of Macbeth in 2011.
As 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 novelist Esther Freud, has three children, and is a patron of numerous charities.
THEATRE includes Hangmen at the Royal Court; and The Lover / The Collection at Theatre Royal Bath; The End of History at The Royal Court; King John at The Barbican; The School for Scandal and Peer Gynt at The National Theatre; Twelfth Night and Three Days of Rain at the Donmar Warehouse; Macbeth at The Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse; Much Ado About Nothing in The West End; In a Dark Dark House at The Almedia; Julius Caesar at The Bridge. TELEVISION includes Gone, Daddy Issues, Tip Toe, The Siege, The Walking Dead, Prime Target, Sherwood, Red Riding, State of Play (BAFTA nomination for Best Actor), The Missing, The City and The City, Britannia, Extant, and The Driver (also Executive Producer), The Long Shadow, Inside No.9, The Singapore Grip, Good Omens, The 7.39, Our Mutual Friend, Clocking Off, Holding On, State of Play, The Deal, Viva Blackpool, Doctor Who, Sense and Sensibility, The Hollow Crown, True Love, The Field of Blood, South Riding, Thorne: Sleepyhead/Scaredy Cat, One Summer.
FILM includes the upcoming The Beatles biopics, Welcome to the Punch, Nowhere Boy, Centurion, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Woman in Cabin 10, The Colour Room, Slingshot, Dampyr, Blitz, The One’s Below, Hilary & Jackie, Some Voices, Born Romantic, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Derailed, Stoned, The Reaping, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
Photos
Films (76)
The Oresteia
2026 · Christopher Middleton
La Disparue de la cabine 10
2025 · Thomas Heatherley
Mission Titan
2024 · Sam Napier
The Walking Dead: The Return
2024 · The Governor (archive footage)
Six Inches of Soil
2024 · Narrator (animated sequence)
Britain's Notorious Prisons - Strangeways
2023 · Narrator
Criatura de la noche
2022 · Gorka
The Colour Room
2021 · Fred Ridgeway
Jürgen Klopp: Germany's Greatest Export
2020 · Self - Narrator (voice)
Klopp: The Inside Story
2020 · Narrator
A Separate Peace
2020 · John Brown
Two Tribes
2019 · Self
National Theatre Live: Julius Caesar
2018 · Mark Antony
The Ones Below
2016 · Jon
National Theatre Live: Hangmen
2016 · Harry
The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: 10 Years On
2016 · Narrator (voice)
Ronaldo
2015 · (voice)
Secrets of Mexico's Drug War
2015 · Narrator
Doctor Who Explained
2013 · Self
The Walking Dead: A Decade of Dead
2013 · Self
Welcome to the Punch
2013 · Thomas Geiger
Earthbound
2012 · Bill Norman
London's Burning
2011 · Borough Commander
Blitz
2011 · Dunlop
Macbeth
2011 · Macbeth
Around The World In 60 Mins
2011 · Self - Narrator (voice)
Gee Gee
2011 · Michael
Thorne: Scaredycat
2010 · DI Tom Thorne
Cooked
2010 · (voice)
Centurion
2010 · Bothos
Mrs Mandela
2010 · Theunis Swanepoel
Nowhere Boy
2009 · Bobby Dykins
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
2009 · Maurice Jobson
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1983
2009 · Maurice Jobson
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974
2009 · Maurice Jobson
U Be Dead
2009 · Dr. Jan Falkowski
Is Anybody There?
2009 · Steve
Don't Worry About Me
2009 · Director
Doctor Who: The Next Doctor
2008 · Jackson Lake
The Other Boleyn Girl
2008 · Thomas Howard - Duke of Norfolk
The Water Horse
2007 · Captain Thomas Hamilton
The Reaping
2007 · Doug
Taking Liberties
2007 · Narration
Viva Blackpool
2006 · Ripley Holden
Basic Instinct 2
2006 · Michael Glass
Stoned
2005 · Tom Keylock
Derailed
2005 · Sam Griffin
The Year London Blew Up
2005 · Narrator (voice)
Zero Hour - Terror in Tokyo
2004 · Self-Narrator(voice)
Zero Hour: Massacre at Columbine High
2004 · Narrator
Disaster at Chernobyl
2004 · Self - Narrator (voice)
The Deal
2003 · Gordon Brown
This Little Life
2003 · Richie MacGregor
Trust Me - I'm a Politician
2003 · Self
Out of Control
2002 · Mike
Capitaine Corelli
2001 · Captain Günther Weber
Born Romantic
2000 · Fergus
Some Voices
2000 · Pete
The Suicide Club
2000 · Henry Joyce
Fanny & Elvis
1999 · Rob
Hilary and Jackie
1998 · Kiffer Finzi
Big Cat
1998 · Leo
The Commissioner
1998 · Murray Lomax
The One That Got Away
1996 · Andy "Mac" McNab
Being Human
1994 · Cyprion's Man
Black and Blue
1992 · DC Norman Mills
Waterland
1992 · Dick Crick
The Storyteller: Greek Myths - Theseus & the Minotaur
1991 · Theseus
Clubland
1991 · DC Judd
Robin Hood
1991 · Little John
The Widowmaker
1990 · Rob
Available Light
1990 · Marcus
Drowning by Numbers
1988 · Bellamy
Out of Town
1988 · The Traveller
Cause Célèbre
1987 · George Bowman
Inflicted Kindness
· DS Mark Thompson
Séries (68)
Tip Toe
2026 · Clive Goss
Gone
2026 · Michael Polly
Première cible
2025 · Professor Robert Mallinder
Manhunt
2025 · Narrator
Papa a Problèmes
2024 · Malcolm
Parish
2024 · Executive Producer
Rob Beckett's Smart TV
2024 · Self - Guest
The Long Shadow
2023 · DCS George Oldfield, ACC George Oldfield
Légendes du tennis
2023 · Narrator
L'empire Erdogan
2023 · Narrator
Britain's Notorious Prisons
2023 · Narrator
Ellie & Natasia
2022 · Dentist
Sherwood
2022 · DCS Ian St Clair
Between the Covers
2020 · Self
The Singapore Grip
2020 · Walter Blackett
De bons présages
2019 · Captain Vincent
The City and the City
2018 · Tyador Borlú
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018 · Self - Guest
Britannia
2018 · General Aulus Plautius
Lion Country: Night and Day
2017 · Narrator (voice)
Rock 'n' Roll America
2015 · Narrator
The Missing
2014 · Sam Webster
The Driver
2014 · Vince McKee, Executive Producer
Extant
2014 · Tobias Shepherd
Inside No. 9
2014 · Martin
The 7.39
2014 · Carl Matthews
The Hollow Crown
2012 · Earl of Northumberland
True Love
2012 · Adrian
The Field of Blood
2011 · Murray Devlin
South Riding
2011 · Robert Carne
The Walking Dead
2010 · Philip Blake
Thorne
2010 · Tom Thorne, Creator
Doctor Who Greatest Moments
2009 · Self
Red Riding
2009 · DS Maurice Jobson
Meet The Immigrants
2008
Sense and Sensibility
2008 · Colonel Brandon
Meadowlands
2007 · Danny Brogan
Would I Lie to You?
2007 · Self - Panellist
Five Days
2007 · DI Mal Craig
The One Show
2006 · Self
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
2005 · Self
Blackpool
2004 · Ripley Holden
Zero Hour
2004 · Narrator (Voice), Vocal Coach
Passer By
2004 · Director
This World
2004
9mm: Guns and Gangs
2003 · Narrator
State of Play
2003 · Stephen Collins
Murder
2002 · Dave Dewston
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
2001 · Self - Guest
Linda Green
2001 · Pete
Sweet Revenge
2001 · Director
Pure Wickedness
1999 · Frank Healy
Our Mutual Friend
1998 · Bradley Headstone
Holding On
1997 · Shaun
Into the Fire
1996 · Michael Ride
Soccer AM
1995 · Self
Out of the Blue
1995 · DS Jim 'Lew' Lewyn
Devil's Advocate
1995 · Matthew Salt
Finney
1994 · Stephen Finney
The Knock
1994 · Gerry Birch
Framed
1992 · DC Lawrence 'Larry' Jackson
Between the Lines
1992
The Storyteller: Greek Myths
1991 · Theseus
Screen One
1989 · DC Norman Mills
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989 · John Arbuthnot
ScreenPlay
1986 · Marcus, Judd
One Summer
1983 · Billy Rizley
The Siege