Charles Dance Movies and Career Information

Charles Dance, OBE (born Walter Charles Dance; 10 October 1946) is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006. Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor (née Perks), a cook, and Walter Dance, an engineer. He attended Widey Technical School for Boys (it closed when known as Widey High School in 1988) in Manadon. He was set for a career in graphic design after graduating from the Plymouth College of Art before turning to acting. Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid- to late-1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford upon Avon. Later he returned to the RSC to take the title role in Coriolanus at Stratford upon Avon and Newcastle in 1989, and at the Barbican Theatre in 1990. He received rave reviews and a Critics' Circle Best Actor award for his performance as the Oxford don C. S. Lewis in William Nicholson's Shadowlands, in the 2007 stage revival. Dance made his screen debut in 1974, but his big break came ten years later when he played the major role of Guy Perron