# Nigel Terry
**Nigel Terry** (Peter Nigel Terry, 1945 – 30 April 2015) was an English stage and screen actor best known for playing Prince John in *The Lion in Winter* (1968), [King Arthur](https://www.edgepedia.org/king-arthur) in [John Boorman](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-boorman)'s *Excalibur* (1981), and the title role in [Derek Jarman](https://www.edgepedia.org/derek-jarman)'s *Caravaggio* (1986).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) He worked mostly in theater, appearing on the fringes of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was described in his Guardian obituary as "an actor's actor".[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Born 1945 in Bristol, England; died 30 April 2015 of emphysema, aged 69[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) |
| Film debut | Prince John in Anthony Harvey's *The Lion in Winter* (1968), opposite Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) |
| Screen comeback | King Arthur in John Boorman's *Excalibur* (1981), after thirteen years away from film[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/media/films_old/caravaggio/presskit.pdf) |
| Jarman roles | Title role in *Caravaggio* (1986); narrator of *The Last of England* (1987); Abraham in *War Requiem* (1989); Mortimer in *Edward II* (1991); voice in *Blue* (1993)[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945) |
| Training | Central School of Speech and Drama, London, from 1963[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) |
| Last major film | *Troy* (2004), as the Trojan high priest Archeptolemus, adviser to Peter O'Toole's King Priam[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945) |
## Early life and training
Terry was born in Bristol, the only child of Frank Terry, an RAF pilot, and his wife Doreen (née Such); the family later moved to Truro in Cornwall, where his father worked as a senior probation officer. His ancestry was English, Irish, and Huguenot. While attending Truro School, he grew keen on acting and painting, spent his holidays with the [National Youth Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-youth-theatre), and held short-term jobs in forestry and at a petrol station before beginning studies in 1963 at London's Central School of Speech and Drama.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
His stage debut came with the Dolphin Theatre Company at the Shaw Theatre in north London, playing Private Evans in Willis Hall's *The Long and the Short and the Tall* and Tybalt in *Romeo and Juliet*.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) After seasons in repertory at the Oxford Playhouse and the [Bristol Old Vic](https://www.edgepedia.org/bristol-old-vic), he appeared at the Royal Court in the premieres of Edward Bond's *The Fool* (1975) and [Caryl Churchill](https://www.edgepedia.org/caryl-churchill)'s *Light Shining in Buckinghamshire* (1976). At the [Royal Shakespeare Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-shakespeare-company) in the late 1970s he played Soranzo in *'Tis Pity She's a Whore* and Casca in *Julius Caesar*.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
## Screen career
**The Lion in Winter and Excalibur.** Terry made a striking film debut in 1968 as a drooling young Prince John in Anthony Harvey's *The Lion in Winter*, holding his own in scenes with [Peter O'Toole](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-otoole) and [Katharine Hepburn](https://www.edgepedia.org/katharine-hepburn); his fellow debutants on that film included [Anthony Hopkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthony-hopkins) and Timothy Dalton.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) He then stayed away from film for thirteen years, returning as a rueful, melancholic King Arthur in Boorman's *Excalibur* (1981), opposite Helen Mirren as Morgana and Nicol Williamson as Merlin.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) The role required him to follow Arthur from the young man who draws the sword from the stone to the aging king facing the collapse of the Round Table.[4](https://n2w.me/personnalites/nigel-terry)
**Work with Derek Jarman.** Terry became one of the favored actors of the independent film-maker Derek Jarman, alongside [Tilda Swinton](https://www.edgepedia.org/tilda-swinton) and [Sean Bean](https://www.edgepedia.org/sean-bean).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) In *Caravaggio* (1986) he played the seventeenth-century painter Michelangelo Merisi da [Caravaggio](https://www.edgepedia.org/caravaggio), the film unfolding in flashback from the painter's deathbed; the cast also included Sean Bean as Ranuccio and Tilda Swinton as Lena.[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/media/films_old/caravaggio/presskit.pdf) The film was made on a budget of £500,000 in a small studio in London's East End, and a Guardian review described Terry's painter as "a brooding, dangerous Nigel Terry".[5](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2007/feb/04/1) The Los Angeles Times praised the cast, "headed by Nigel Terry", for playing "with swaggering abandon".[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html)
He continued with Jarman through the director's late career: as narrator of *The Last of England* (1987), as Abraham in *War Requiem* (1989), an experimental docudrama built on [Benjamin Britten](https://www.edgepedia.org/benjamin-britten)'s music that featured [Laurence Olivier](https://www.edgepedia.org/laurence-olivier)'s final screen appearance, as Mortimer in *Edward II* (1991), and as one of the four voices, with Swinton, John Quentin, and Jarman himself, reading the director's diaries in *Blue* (1993), a film shot entirely in a single shade of aquamarine.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945)
His other film credits included *Deja Vu* and *Sylvia* (both 1985), *Christopher Columbus: The Discovery* (1992), *The Emperor's New Clothes* (2001), *FearDotCom* (2002), *The Tulse Luper Suitcases: The Moab Story* (2003), and Wolfgang Petersen's *Troy* (2004), his last major film, in which he played a Trojan high priest and adviser to O'Toole's King Priam.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945)
## Theatre career
Theatre remained Terry's principal activity throughout his career.[4](https://n2w.me/personnalites/nigel-terry) He worked with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company without committing to either, often alongside mavericks such as the director Max Stafford-Clark and the playwright Howard Barker. In a notable National Theatre season in 1981, directed by Peter Gill, he played the lead in Molière's *Don Juan* and a laconic Rakitin in Turgenev's *A Month in the Country* opposite Francesca Annis.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
Barker's plays gave him some of his characteristic parts: Charles II in *Victory* (1983) and the last classics teacher at a defunct university in *The Bite of the Night* (1988), directed by Danny Boyle. He played Byron in the 1988 first revival of Howard Brenton's *Bloody Poetry* at the Royal Court, led Yuri Lyubimov's production of Dostoevsky's *The Possessed* at the Almeida, and for the RSC played a sinister Bosola in *The Duchess of Malfi* with Harriet Walter, followed by a small-scale tour pairing Shylock and Benedick opposite Fiona Shaw.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
On television he was a familiar face in Britain, with roles including Mr Boldwood in *Far from the Madding Crowd* (1998), Svidrigailov in *Crime and Punishment* (2002), and Sir Thomas Gray in the series *Covington Cross* (1992), which was shown on ABC in the United States.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945) • [2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/media/films_old/caravaggio/presskit.pdf)
## Later life
Terry moved from London back to Cornwall in 1993, partly to be near his parents in their last years, and lived alone in a cottage near St Ives for the rest of his life. He died of emphysema on 30 April 2015, aged 69.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
## References
1. [Nigel Terry obituary, The Guardian (Michael Coveney, 3 May 2015)](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/may/03/nigel-terry)
2. [Caravaggio press kit, Zeitgeist Films](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/media/films_old/caravaggio/presskit.pdf)
3. [Terry, Nigel 1945–, Encyclopedia.com (Gale)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/terry-nigel-1945)
4. [Nigel Terry (1945–2015), biographie et carrière, n2w.me](https://n2w.me/personnalites/nigel-terry)
5. [Caravaggio, Philip French's DVD club, The Guardian (4 February 2007)](https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2007/feb/04/1)
6. ['Caravaggio': A Dialectic of Passions, Los Angeles Times (13 September 1986)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-13-ca-11533-story.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames S to T*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license