Robert Hardy

One of England's most enduringly successful character actors, Robert Hardy is noted for his versatility and depth. Born in Cheltenham in 1925, he studied at Oxford University and, in 1949, he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. He became an expert on the longbow when he played Henry V at Stratford, and was a longbow/weapons consultant for the Mary Rose Trust when that 16th c. warship was recovered at Portsmouth, England.

Television viewers most fondly remember him as the overbearing Siegfried Farnon in "All Creatures Great and Small" (1978) but his most critically acclaimed performance was as the title character of "Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years" (1981). His portrayal of Britain's wartime leader was so accurately observed that, in the following years, he was called on to reprise the role in such productions as "The Woman He Loved" (1988) and "War and Remembrance" (1988). He has been seen recently as the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, in the Harry Potter series.