Topic: David Morrissey

David Morrissey (born 21 June 1964) is an English actor and director. Morrissey grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool. He learned to act at the Everyman Youth Theatre, alongside Ian Hart and Mark and Stephen McGann. At the age of 18, he and Hart were cast in the television series One Summer (1983), which won them recognition throughout the country. After making One Summer, Morrissey attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Throughout the 1990s, he often portrayed policemen and soldiers. His breakthrough roles came when he played Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend (1998), and Christopher Finzi in Hilary and Jackie (1998). More film parts followed, including roles in Some Voices (2000) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), before he played the critically-acclaimed roles of Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003) and Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003). The former won him a nomination at the British Academy Television Awards and the latter a Best Actor award at the Royal Television Society Awards. His film roles have not always been acclaimed; his appearance as the male lead in Basic Instinct 2 (2006) was widely criticised, and The Reaping (2007) bombed at the box office. Since then, he has had leading roles in Cape Wrath (2007), Sense and Sensibility (2008), and Red Riding (2009).

Morrissey is also a director; he has directed Sweet Revenge (2001) and Passer By (2004) for the BBC, and his feature debut, Don't Worry About Me, will be released in 2009. He is married to the novelist Esther Freud and has three children.