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Frain
James Frain
Birthname James Dominic Frain
Gender Male
Date of birth 14 March 1968 (age 54)
Place of birth Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Character(s) Jarvis, Zuse
Jarvis
[Source]

James Frain (born 14 March 1968) is an English stage and screen actor. He is possibly best known for his role in the Showtime series The Tudors in which he appeared as Thomas Cromwell from 2007 to 2009.

Background and Career[]

Frain was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and raised in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, the eldest of eight children.[1] He was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, studied English, Film and Drama at the University of East Anglia and trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. While in his final year there he made his film debut in Shadowlands (1993) as a result of being spotted by Richard Attenborough and has had a successful film career on both sides of the Atlantic ever since.

Skilled at accents and capable of playing a large variety of roles, he was nominated for Best Actor at the 1995 Venice Film Festival for his performance as a Northern Irish terrorist in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's controversial Nothing Personal (1995) and for Best Supporting Actor at the Genies in Toronto for his performance in István Szabó's Sunshine (1999).

He has been a regular on the stage in the UK, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre, as well as on the West End. He has also appeared on Broadway and was a recipient of the 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performances along with the rest of the cast of The Homecoming (2007).

He has appeared in a number of television series, such as Armadillo (2001); 24 (2005); Invasion (2006); and The Closer (2006). His more recent roles include Thomas Cromwell in Showtime's The Tudors; the villainous billionaire 'Chess' in the upcoming NBC superhero/crime drama series The Cape; heroic Templar Sir Gregory in the SyFy original movie Dark Relic (2010); and vampire Franklin Mott in the HBO TV series True Blood.

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