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Actor

1961-08-20 · Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland · Male

26 series in the catalog

Stanley Townsend is an Irish actor.

Early life and education

Stanley Townsend was born and brought up in Dublin.

After attending Wesley College, Dublin, he studied mathematics and civil engineering at Trinity College. While there he joined the Dublin University Players, the college's Amateur Dramatic Society.

Screen

Townsend's television work began on a number of shows for RTÉ in Dublin. After moving to London, television appearances have included Spooks, The Commander, Hustle, Waking the Dead, and Omagh Bombing.

Film credits include Mike Newell's Into the West, Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day-Lewis, The Van by Stephen Frears, Peter Greenaway's The Tulse Luper Suitcases, The Libertine with Johnny Depp, Paul Morrison's Wondrous Oblivion with Delroy Lindo, John Boorman's The Tiger's Tail and Michael Radford's Flawless.

Stage

Townsend co-founded co-operative theatre company Rough Magic with writer/director Declan Hughes and theatre director Lynne Parker, performing in numerous productions including The Country Wife, Nightshade, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He subsequently went on to perform in several productions at The Gate and Abbey Theatres in Dublin. In London, he has worked with such directors as Sam Mendes in The Plough and the Stars at the Young Vic, London, Richard Eyre in Guys and Dolls, and Rufus Norris in Under the Blue Sky. Theatre appearances at the Royal Court include The Alice Trilogy directed by Ian Rickson and Shining City directed by Conor McPherson, for which he won an Irish Theatre Award and was nominated for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor in 2004.

Townsend's other theatre work includes: Remember This, Phèdre and Happy Now? at the National Theatre, London; The Weir and Tribes at the Royal Court, London; The Wake, Trinity for Two and Sacred Mysteries at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; The Gingerbread Mix-up at St Andrews Lane, Dublin; Prayers of Sherkin at the Old Vic, London; Someone Who'll Watch Over Me at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds; Democracy at the Bush Theatre, London; Speed-the-Plow for Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Saint Oscar for Field Day Theatre Company, Derry; Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The White Devil for Rough Magic, Dublin; Who Shall Be Happy...? for Mad Cow Productions, Belfast, London, and tour; and Art in the West End. He played Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in early 2011.

His portrayal of Sims in The Nether for director Jeremy Herrin at the Royal Court Theatre in July 2014 won critical acclaim.