Paul Freeman Movies and Career Information

Paul Freeman (born 18 January 1943) is a British film and television actor. Freeman was born in Hertfordshire, England. He began his career in advertising and teaching, and like many British actors he landed small roles in the theatre, appearing in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet. He then went on to play starring roles in the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and later co-founded his own theatre group, the Joint Stock Theatre Company, in 1974 together with director Max Stafford-Clark. In 1978, he made his British television debut in the acclaimed serial Life of Shakespeare (1978) and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981). Freeman also acted in the ATV docudrama Death of a Princess, a controversial film about the execution of Masha'il bint Fahd al Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1980 he began his feature film career when he appeared in The Long Good Friday alongside Bob Hoskins and The Dogs of War (1981) in which he met Maggie Scott who went on to become his wife. In the same year, 1981, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas chose Freeman to play René Belloq, the rakish arch rival to Dr. Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film was a