James Frain
James Frain is an English actor. His best known television roles include Thomas Cromwell in the Showtime/CBC historical drama The Tudors, Franklin Mott in the HBO drama True Blood, Warwick the Kingmaker in the BBC drama serial The White Queen, John Sumner in the Sky/Canal+ crime drama The Tunnel, Ferdinand Chevalier in the BBC/Space sci-fi thriller Orphan Black, Theo Galavan/Azrael in Fox's Gotham, and Sarek in Star Trek: Discovery.
In film, he is best known for playing Daniel Barenboim and Álvaro de la Quadra in the biographical dramas Hilary and Jackie and Elizabeth, respectively, Bassianus in the Shakespeare adaptation Titus, and Gérard de Villefort in the historical drama The Count of Monte Cristo.
Early life and education
James Frain was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, and brought up in Stansted Mountfitchet, near Bishop's Stortford, Essex, the eldest of eight children of a teacher mother and a stockbroker father.He was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, studied Drama and Film at the University of East Anglia, and trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Career
Screen
In 1993, while in his final year of drama school, Frain made his film debut in Shadowlands, after being spotted by the film director Richard Attenborough. In 1995, He starred as a Northern Irish terrorist in the Thaddeus O'Sullivan directed film, Nothing Personal.In 2000, he was nominated for Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's 20th Genie Awards in Toronto, for his performance as Gustave Sonnenschein in the István Szabó directed film Sunshine.
Frain has also appeared in a number of television series, including Soldier Soldier ; Armadillo ; 24 ; Invasion ; and The Closer. He played Thomas Cromwell in Showtime's The Tudors; the villainous billionaire "Chess" in the NBC superhero/crime drama series The Cape; heroic Templar Sir Gregory in the Syfy original film Dark Relic ; and vampire Franklin Mott in the HBO drama True Blood. In season 2 of Grimm, Frain joined the cast as a mysterious recurring character named Eric Renard.
He appeared in the second season of Gotham as Azrael, and portrayed Sarek, the father of Spock, on Star Trek: Discovery, the second prequel TV series in the Star Trek franchise.