David Matthew Macfadyen is a BAFTA award-winning English actor, known for his roles as MI5
Intelligence Officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks, Mr. Darcy
in Pride & Prejudice and Daniel in the Frank Oz comedy Death at a Funeral.
He is also known for portraying John Birt in the political drama Frost/Nixon, as well
as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid in the BBC series Ripper Street.
Early life Macfadyen was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk,
the son of Meinir, a drama teacher and former actress, and Martin Macfadyen, an oil executive.
His paternal grandparents were Scottish and his maternal grandparents were Welsh.
Macfadyen was brought up in a number of places, including Jakarta, Indonesia, as a result
of his father's profession.
He attended schools in England, Scotland and Indonesia, and went to Oakham School in Rutland,
before being accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at 17.
Career After having studied at the RADA from 1992
to 1995, Macfadyen became known in British theatre due primarily to his work with the
stage company Cheek by Jowl, for whom he played Antonio in The Duchess of Malfi, Charles Surface
in The School for Scandal, and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
His Benedick was played as an officer-class buffoon with a moustache and a braying laugh.
In 2005, he played Prince Hal in Henry IV, Parts One and Two at the Royal National Theatre,
with Michael Gambon in the role of Falstaff.
In 2007, he returned to the stage, portraying an American, Clay, a stay at home father with
a liberal attitude in the play The Pain and the Itch.
A TV breakthrough came when he appeared as Hareton Earnshaw in an adaptation of Wuthering
Heights, screened on the ITV network in 1998.
Further television drama work followed, including starring roles in the dramas Warriors and
The Way We Live Now, both for the BBC.
Also in 2001, he earned acclaim for his starring role in the BBC Two drama serial Perfect Strangers,
which was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff.
In 2002, he starred in The Project, a BBC drama charting New Labour's rise to power.
He starred in Spooks, which became a success when screened on BBC One.
A longer second season was screened in 2003, and a third season was broadcast in autumn
2004, with him leaving the series in the second episode.
The series was aired as MI-5 on the A&E Network.
In 2007 he appeared in the one-off Channel 4 drama Secret Life, which dealt with the
controversial subject of paedophilia.
Matthew won the 'Best Actor' award at the Royal Television Society 2007 Awards for this
part, and was nominated for a BAFTA.
He also appeared in a short sketch for Comic Relief as the bridegroom in Mr Bean's Wedding,
alongside Rowan Atkinson and Michelle Ryan.
Macfadyen appeared in films including Enigma, and In My Father's Den, for which he received
the New Zealand Screen Award for Best Actor.
He stars as the romantic lead Fitzwilliam Darcy in an acclaimed adaptation of Pride
and Prejudice, released in the UK in September 2005.
Macfadyen starred in Frank Oz's "Death at a Funeral" and the film Incendiary, based
on Chris Cleave's novel alongside Michelle Williams and Ewan McGregor.
He has also appeared in Ron Howard's film Frost/Nixon, in which he played John Birt.
In 2008, he played the male lead Arthur Clennam in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens'
Little Dorrit.
In 2009 Macfadyen appeared alongside Academy Award nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter
in the BBC Four movie Enid, based on the life of Enid Blyton, as Hugh Pollock, Blyton's
publisher and first husband.
In 2010, he played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood.
He starred as Prior Philip in the TV serial The Pillars of the Earth, and was the middle-aged
Logan Mountstuart in Any Human Heart.
In June 2010, Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his work in Criminal Justice.
In 2011, Macfadyen made a final cameo in the BBC show Spooks, and in 2012, he played Oblonsky
in Joe Wright's film, Anna Karenina.
In December 2012 he played Detective Inspector Edmund Reid in BBC One's Ripper Street.
Personal life In 2002, he began a relationship with his
then-married Spooks co-star Keeley Hawes.
They were married in November 2004.
The couple have two children, daughter Maggie and son Ralph.
Macfadyen is stepfather to Hawes's son, Myles, from her previous marriage.
The couple are both patrons of the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham.
Theatre 1994 : The Crimson Island, by Mikhail Bulgakov
[ R.A.D.A. ] 1994 : Lorca's Death, by Ben Benison [ R.A.D.A.
] 1994 : The Feigned Inconstancy, by Marivaux
[ R.A.D.A. ] 1994 : The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay [ R.A.D.A.
] 1995 : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by
Dale Wasserman [ R.A.D.A. ] 1995 : The Libertine, by Stephen Jeffreys
[ R.A.D.A.
], with My Funny Valentine 1995 : The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
[ Cheek by Jowl ] 1996 : A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shakespeare
[ Royal Shakespeare Company ] 1998 : Much Ado About Nothing, by Shakespeare
[ Cheek by Jowl ] 1998 : The School for Scandal, by Richard
Brinsley Sheridan [ Royal Shakespeare Company ]
1999 : Battle Royal, by Nick Stafford [ Royal National Theatre ]
2005 : Henry IV, by Shakespeare [ Royal National Theatre ]
2006 : Total Eclipse, by Christopher Hampton [ rehearsed reading at the Royal Court Theatre
] 2007 : The Pain and the Itch, by Bruce Norris
[ Royal Court Theatre ] 2010 : Private Lives, by Noël Coward [ Vaudeville
Theatre ] 2013 : Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense,
by David and Robert Goodale, Duke of York's Filmography
Television 1997 : Holding the Baby, by Paul Jackson
[ TV series on ITV ] 1998 : Wuthering Heights, by David Skynner
[ ITV ] – based on the novel by Emily Brontë 1999 : Warriors, by Peter Kosminsky [ BBC
] 2000 : Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings
of Sherlock Holmes, by Paul Seed [ BBC ] 2001 : Perfect Strangers, by Stephen Poliakoff
[ BBC Two ] 2001 : The Way We Live Now, by David Yates
[ BBC ] – based on the novel by Anthony Trollope
2002 : The Project, by Peter Kosminsky [ BBC ]
2002–2004: Spooks [ BBC ] 2007 : Mr Bean's Wedding [ sketch for the
show The Big One for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day on 16 March 2007, BBC One ]
2007 : Secret Life, by Rowan Joffe [ Channel 4 ]
2008 : Ashes to Ashes, by Bille Eltringham [ BBC One ]
2008 : Little Dorrit, by Adam Smith & Dearbhla Walsh [ BBC One ]
2008 : Agatha Christie's Marple A Pocket Full of Rye, by Charles Palmer [ ITV ]
2009 : Enid, by James Hawes [ BBC Four ] 2009 : Criminal Justice II, by Yann Demange
BBC One 2010 : The Pillars of the Earth, by Sergio
Mimica-Gezzan [ CBC ] 2010 : Any Human Heart, by William Boyd [ Channel
Four ] 2011 : Spooks, a one off appearance in the
series finale.
2012- : Ripper Street by Richard Warlow BBC One.
2013 : Ambassadors as Prince of Darkness Film
Voice work 2000 : The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles
Darwin [ Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 ] 2001 : Trampoline, by Meredith Oakes [ Afternoon
Play on BBC Radio 4 ] 2003 : Essential Poems [ TV programme on
BBC Two ] 2004 : The Coma, by Alex Garland [ audio
book ] 2004 : Getting Away From It: The Island,
by Tim Pears [ Afternoon Reading on BBC Radio 4 ]
2004 : The Hungerford Massacre [ TV documentary on BBC One ]
2005 : Stories We Could Tell, by Tony Parsons [ audio book ]
2006 : The 9/11 Liars [ TV documentary on Channel 4 ]
2006 : Nuremberg: Nazis On Trial [ 3-part TV documentary on BBC Two ]
2007 : Robin Hood's Quest & The Quest for Aladdin's Treasure [ video games by Oxygen
Games ] 2007 : The Making of Music [ BBC Radio 4
] 2007 : The Blair Years [ 3-part TV documentary
on BBC One ] 2007 : Last Party at the Palace [ TV documentary
on Channel 4 ] 2008 : Dangerous Jobs for Girls [ 4-part
TV documentary on Channel 4 ] 2008 : Words of War [ TV documentary on ITV1
] 2009 : Wine [ 3-part TV documentary on BBC
Four ] 2009 : Inside MI5 [ TV documentary on ITV1
] 2011: M&S food adverts
2011: Bupa healthcare adverts 2014: Horse Power Documentary on Scuderia
Ferrari / Shell Motorsport on Sky Atlantic References
External links Matthew Macfadyen at the Internet Movie Database
BBC Drama Faces: Matthew Macfadyen