Born June 1, 1947 in Holywell, Wales, Jonathan Pryce is an award-winning actor and singer, both on stage and film. Leaving home at 16 to attend art school, he became more interested in drama and studied acting on scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After graduating, he joined the Liverpool Everyman Theatre and became its Artistic Director. This is where he met Irish actress, Kate Fahy. The two got married in 1974 and live in the Hampstead area of London with their three children. By the mid-1970s, Pryce began his career as a stage actor, continually appearing in London productions.
Jonathan Pryce had his Broadway debut in Comedians which paid off greatly as he won the 1977 Tony Award for his performance. He also received the 1977 Theatre World Award and the 1977 nomination for Drama Desk Outstanding Actor Award. His performance as Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him an Olivier Award, and continued his fame with roles in Breaking Glass and the TV film Something Wicked This Way Comes.
After having minor roles in the big screen, Jonathan Pryce moved on to being part of musicals. He landed a role as The Engineer in the award-winning West End musical Miss Saigon where, despite casting conflicts, he won the Tony Award once again.
His versatility is evident in his role in Evita, his first musical film. Alongside Madonna and Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce portrayed the Argentinean dictator Juan Peron. After this success, he went on to play Elliot Carver, a James Bond villain in the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies. Pryce’s flexibility is further seen in his portrayal of author Lytton Strachey in Carrington, which won him the Best Actor award at Cannes. He also appeared as Weatherby Swann, the fictional governor of Jamaica in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. He reprised this role for the sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
In 2004, he co-starred in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? with his wife, Kate Fahy. He was nominated for another Olivier Award for his role as Martin, but lost it to Richard Griffiths despite Pryce’s highly-praised performance. In the acclaimed musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, he replaced John Lithgow as Lawrence Jameson in 2007.