Richard Armitage (actor)
Richard Crispin Armitage is an English actor and author. He received recognition in the UK with his first leading role as John Thornton in the British television programme North & South. His role as dwarf king and leader Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson's film trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit brought him international recognition.
Other notable roles include John Proctor in Yaël Farber's stage production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Francis Dolarhyde in the American television series Hannibal, Lucas North in the British television drama Spooks, John Porter in the British television drama Strike Back, Daniel Miller in the EPIX spy series Berlin Station and Guy of Gisborne in the British television drama Robin Hood. He voiced Trevor Belmont in the Netflix adaptation of Castlevania. In 2020, he played the lead role in the Netflix miniseries The Stranger.
After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Armitage initially sought theatre work and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He turned to film and television roles when he noticed that leading stage roles went to actors with name recognition who could bring in patrons to fill venues. After twelve years away and having earned that name recognition, Armitage returned to the stage in 2014, taking his first leading role in a major production. He played John Proctor in the successful and critically acclaimed production of The Crucible at The Old Vic, and earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor.
One of Armitage's trademarks is his baritone voice, which he has employed as a voice actor since 2006. While working on the television series Robin Hood, he was asked to record audiobooks for the first season of that series. Armitage has recorded several audiobooks and has worked as a narrator on television, radio shows, and adverts. In 2022, he ventured into video games for the first time, providing the voice of the Daemon Prince Be'lakor in Total War: Warhammer III.
Armitage's first crime thriller Geneva was released on Audible and was published in print by Faber in the UK in October 2023. The Cut followed in August 2025.
Early life and education
Armitage was born on 22 August 1971 in Leicester, Leicestershire, the younger son of Margaret, a secretary, and John Armitage, an engineer. He has an older brother named Christopher.He attended Huncote Community Primary School in Huncote, Blaby District, Leicestershire, and began secondary school at the local comprehensive school, Brockington College in Enderby. At Brockington, Armitage pursued his interest in music – playing the cello in school and local orchestras, and learning how to play the flute. By the age of 14, having secured a grant from the Leicestershire Authority, he successfully persuaded his mother to allow him to transfer to Pattison College in Coventry, an independent school specialising in the performing arts, so that he could focus on drama and dance.
Armitage has expressed gratitude for the lessons and opportunities Pattison College provided, saying "It... instilled me with a discipline that has stood me in good stead – never to be late, to know your lines and to be professional." By the time he finished school, he had achieved A Levels in music and English, and acting experience in local amateur and professional productions such as Showboat, Half a Sixpence, Orpheus and the Underworld, and The Hobbit at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.
Career
1988–2003: Early work
After completing the programme at Pattison College in 1988, Armitage joined the Nachtcircus in Budapest for six months to obtain his Equity Card, a requirement at the time for entertainment professionals to work in the UK. Returning to the UK, he pursued a career in musical theatre – working as an assistant choreographer to Kenn Oldfield and performing in various productions, including the ensembles of 42nd Street, My One and Only, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun and as Admetus and Macavity in Cats. Armitage was also pursuing acting in dramatic theatre productions, including The Real Thing, Six Degrees of Separation and Death of a Salesman.By 1992, he began to doubt if musical theatre was the right career path, so he enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1993 to further study acting. "I needed to do something a bit more truthful than musical theatre. For me it was a bit too theatrical and all about standing on stage and showing off. I was looking for something else, so that's why I went back to drama school."
After completing LAMDA's three-year programme, he returned to the stage as a supporting player with the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Macbeth and The Duchess of Malfi, as well as Hamlet and Four Alice Bakers with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre while taking a series of small roles in television and films. In 2002 he starred in the Charm Offensive's production of Use Me As Your Cardigan.
That same year, Armitage appeared in his first major television role, as John Standring in the BBC drama Sparkhouse. "It was the first time I went to an audition in character. It was a minor role but it was something I really got my teeth into... I couldn't go back. I knew I had to approach everything the same way." After this he took supporting roles in the TV productions of Between the Sheets, Cold Feet, and Ultimate Force.
2004–2010: Television success
In 2004, Armitage landed his first leading role as textile mill owner John Thornton in the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South. The director and producers took a chance casting a little-known actor for their leading man. He was the first actor to audition for the role and the last person cast. North & South was an unexpected success. The BBC message boards crashed shortly after the telecast as a result of chatter about him and he was hailed as the new "Mr. Darcy". Armitage did not perceive John Thornton as the ideal romantic leading man role and was surprised by the response. Instead, he said that he felt personally drawn to the role, as his father's family had been weavers. He cited Thornton's dualism as drawing him to the character. "The dichotomy between the powerful, almost monstrous, entrepreneur and this kind of vulnerable boy is exciting for me to look at."In 2005, he played Peter MacDuff in Macbeth in the BBC's ShakespeaRe-Told series and appeared as a recovering gambling addict in one episode of Inspector Lynley Mysteries. He starred in The Impressionists, playing the young Claude Monet, and as Dr Alec Track in ITV's The Golden Hour, a medical series based on the London Air Ambulance. His first substantial role in movies was in the independent film Frozen.
In 2006, Armitage was cast as Guy of Gisborne in the BBC series Robin Hood, which was filmed in Hungary. "In order to sustain the character of Guy, you have to find the conflict within him. He's constantly pulled between good and evil, between who he wants to be and who he actually is. He could have been a good man, but he is forever dragged down by his fatal flaw – that he wants glory at all costs." Approaching the third series, he said, "I do love playing him, but with a character like Gisborne, if you give him what he needs, then in a way, it's over. That character is only interesting when he isn't getting what he wants, whether it's power, money or the girl." The third and final series of Robin Hood started on 28 March 2009.
Armitage appeared in a two-part 2006/07 Christmas/New Years special of The Vicar of Dibley, as Harry Kennedy, the vicar's new love interest. He reprised the role in 2007 for Red Nose Day. On 8 April 2007, he played biker Ricky Deeming in the detective drama George Gently with Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby. On 9 May 2007, he appeared in the BBC Four production of Miss Marie Lloyd – Queen of The Music Hall playing Marie Lloyd's first husband, Percy Courtenay. He also appeared in the Granada TV production of Agatha Christie's novel Ordeal by Innocence as the character Philip Durrant.
Armitage joined the cast of Spooks as the character Lucas North for series 7, which began on 27 October 2008 in the UK. Armitage notes that the character, who spent eight years in a Russian prison, has a personable exterior, but is psychologically damaged. "I love films with a combination of action and good characters. That's why Lucas is interesting as I get to play someone with a complex psychology who goes out there and tries to save the world." During the filming of series 7 Armitage allowed himself to be subjected to waterboarding to film a flashback sequence. In July 2010, Armitage completed filming of series 9, his final series.
On 20 May 2009, Armitage appeared in the BBC1 drama Moving On as John Mulligan.
In May 2010, Armitage starred as former SAS trooper John Porter in Strike Back for Sky1. Filmed in South Africa, Armitage found the main challenge of the role was to show how the character resolved being a trained killer with having a family and home life. "In the end it was the character I was attracted to, the story of a man who makes a decision under pressure and that decision has a knock-on effect on his whole life," he said. "He goes in search of atonement still believing he did the right thing even though it cost the lives of three of his friends... There's anger and there's injustice. It's like, 'I did the right thing, with the wrong outcome.'" By the time Sky1 and Cinemax decided to commission a second series of Strike Back called Strike Back: Project Dawn, Armitage had committed to The Hobbit and was unable to continue in the series. However, he appeared as a guest star in the first episode to resolve John Porter's fate.
It was his role as John Porter that led to his casting in Captain America: The First Avenger. American casting agents noticed posters of him as John Porter in London. Although unknown to them, they offered him the role of Nazi spy Heinz Kruger because he looked the part. Armitage accepted and shot his scenes in the autumn of 2010, after filming wrapped on Spooks, series 9. The film was released in July 2011.