Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Oliviers Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogans Run, Notting Hill and Foyles War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBCs 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexters Inspector Morse and William Gibsons Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.

Films indisponible à partir de John Shrapnel

K-19: The Widowmaker

Admiral Bratyeev

Film 2002

Hamlet Within

Film 2022

Alone

Hannah

Film 2002

Chemical Wedding

Crowley

Film 2008

Claim

Lex Vandenberg

Film 2002

St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral

Narrator (English voice)

Film 1997

Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic

Narrator (English Version)

Film 2005

Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty

Narrator (English Version)

Film 2002

Wild Women of Viramba

Narrator

Film 2003

Hitting Town

Leonard Brazil (voice)

Film 1976

The Awakening

Reverend Hugh Purslow

Film 2011

OXI, an Act of Resistance

Creon

Film 2014

An Organization of Dreams

Father

Film 2009

The Ha-Ha

Jamie

Film 1969

National Theatre Live: Macbeth

Duncan, King of Scotland/Seyton, attendant to Macbeth/Old Man

Film 2013

Animals of the Ocean Desert

Narrator

Film 2001

Partition

General Flood

Film 1987

Selling Hitler

Gerd Schulte-Hillen

Film 1991

Personal Services

Lionel

Film 1987

Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story

Narrator (Voice)

Film 2017

The Tom Machine

Film 1980

Professional Foul

McKendrick

Film 1977

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story

BKA Police Chief

Film 1990

Hamlet

Claudius/Ghost

Film 2015

The Return of the Flying Scotsman

Narrator - (Voice)

Film 2016

Gossip from the Forest

Matthias Erzberger

Film 1979

Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt

Narrator

Film 2004

Timon of Athens

Alcibiades

Film 1981

The Three Hostages

Gaudian

Film 1977

Hennessy

Tipaldi

Film 1975

England, My England

Samuel Pepys

Film 1995

Lion Queen

Narrator (voice)

Film 1998

Supermassive Black Holes

Narrator

Film 2000

Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies

Himself (Narrator)

Film 2007

King Charles III

Archbishop of Canterbury

Film 2017

Troilus & Cressida

Hector

Film 1981

Two Deaths

Cinca

Film 1996

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

Creon

Film 1986

Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus

Creon

Film 1986

Theban Plays: Antigone

Creon

Film 1986

Whistle

Paul

Film 2002

Poppyland

George Sims

Film 1985

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

Maj. Alexander Hardinge

Film 1978

King Arthur: His Life and Legends

Film 1995

Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome

Narrator

Film 2004

Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece

Narrator

Film 2004

Pope Joan

Father James

Film 1972

Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2

Narrator

Film 2001

The Race for Everest

Narrator

Film 2003

The Burston Rebellion

Rev. Charles Tucker Eland

Film 1985

Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain

Narrator

Film 2014

SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Narrator

Film 1992

Flayed

Robert

Film 1978

Séries TV indisponible à partir de John Shrapnel

Elizabeth R

Earl of Sussex

Tv 1971

Apparitions

Cardinal Bukovak

Tv 2008

Edward and Mrs Simpson

Major Alexander Hardinge

Tv 1978

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

Pompey

Tv 2006

Bodyguards

Commander Alan MacIntyre

Tv 1997

Natural World

Narrator

Tv 1983

Predators Killing for a Living

Tv 1997

Between the Lines

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning

Tv 1992

New Tricks

DAC John Felsham

Tv 2004

About Face

Tv 1989

G.B.H.

Dr Jacobs

Tv 1991

Jonathan Creek

Prof. Lance Graumann

Tv 1997

Kavanagh Q.C.

Mr. Justice Griffin

Tv 1995

Midsomer Murders

Max Jennings

Tv 1997

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

Sergent Mike McCaffrey

Tv 2002

Justice

Roger Anderson

Tv 1971

Invasion: Earth

Air Marshal Bentley

Tv 1998

Centrepoint

Claud Wareing

Tv 1990

The Woman in White

Sir Percival Glyde

Tv 1982

Between the Lines

D.C.C. Dunning

Tv 1992

Wycliffe

Dr. Sam Malvern

Tv 1994

Midsomer Murders

Leo Clarke

Tv 1997

Shakespeare: The Animated Tales

Claudius / The Ghost (voice)

Tv 1992

Armchair Thriller

Vincent Craig

Tv 1978

The Modern World: Ten Great Writers

Thomas Mann

Tv 1988

Merlin

The Sarrum

Tv 2008

Inspector Morse

Dr. Julian Storrs

Tv 1987

The Lions Rule

Narrator (voice)

Tv 2017