Sir Jonathan Pryce CBE (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career as a stage actor in the early 1970s. His work in theatre includes an Olivier Award-winning performance in the title role of the Royal Court Theatre's Hamlet in 1980 and as The Engineer in the stage musical Miss Saigon in 1990. On the Broadway stage he earned Tony Awards—the first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut role in Comedians (1977), the second for Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway transfer of the musical Miss Saigon (1991).
Pryce's theatre work led to several supporting roles in film and television. His breakthrough screen performance was in Terry Gilliam's satirical dystopian black comedy film Brazil (1985). Critically lauded for his versatility, Pryce has appeared in big-budget films including Evita (1996), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003–2007), as well as independent films such as the film adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Martin Scorsese's period drama The Age of Innocence (1993), Christopher Hampton's Carrington (1995), Terrence Malick's historical film The New World (2005) and the drama The Wife (2017) opposite Glenn Close. In 2019, he earned his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Pope Francis in The Two Popes alongside Anthony Hopkins playing Pope Benedict XVI.
For his work on television, he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performances in Barbarians at the Gate (1993) and Return to Cranford (2010). Pryce has gained acclaim for his roles as Thomas Wolsey in the BBC limited series Wolf Hall (2015), the High Sparrow in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2015–2016) and Sir Stuart Strange in the series Taboo (2017). In 2022, he succeeded Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip in the final two seasons of the award-winning Netflix historical drama series The Crown, gaining a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Early life
Pryce was born John Price on 1 June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, the son of Margaret Ellen (née Williams) and Isaac Price, a former coal miner who ran a small general grocery shop with his wife. He has two older sisters and was raised a Welsh Presbyterian. He was educated at Holywell Grammar School and, at the age of 16, went to art college before he started training to be a teacher at Edge Hill College (now Edge Hill University) in Ormskirk, Lancashire. While studying, he took part in a college theatre production. An impressed tutor suggested he should become an actor, and applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for an application form on his behalf. Pryce was subsequently awarded a scholarship to RADA. When he joined Equity, he took "Jonathan Pryce" as his stage name because his birth name was too simil
