Paul Jesson
Paul Jesson is an English stage, television and film actor and an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He has played leading roles at the National Theatre and the RSC and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1986 for his role in The Normal Heart at the Royal Court Theatre. He was nominated for a Scottish Critics' Award 2004 for his portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.
He played the Earl of Gloucester in the Donmar Theatre production of King Lear with Derek Jacobi, Maurice Montgomery in Nicholas Wright's Travelling Light at the National Theatre and appeared in Caryl Churchill's Love and Information at the Royal Court (2012).
His recent films include Brutus in Coriolanus directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, Nae Caranfil's Closer to the Moon and Sir David Hare's Wall.
He played William Turner, father of J. M. W. Turner in Mike Leigh's 2014 film Mr. Turner. He returned to the RSC to play Cardinal Wolsey in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at Stratford-upon-Avon, the Aldwych Theatre, London and the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. He played Menenius in the RSC's 2017 production of Coriolanus, Fritz Busch in David Hare's The Moderate Soprano at The Duke of Yorks and Niels Bohr in Michael Frayn's Copenhagen at Chichester Festival Theatre 2018.
Recent television includes The Trials of Jimmy Rose, Chewing Gum, Endeavour, The Trial of Christine Keeler, and The Crown.
He is a visiting tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Acted in
Sitting
2021
as John
The Children Act
2018
as Humphrey
Marrowbone
2017
as Doctor
RSC Live: Coriolanus
2017
as Menenius
The Crown
2016
as Sir Geoffrey Howe
The Sound of Music Live!
2015
as Admiral von Schreiber
Chewing Gum
2015
as Noah
The Trials of Jimmy Rose
2015
as Roy Anderson
Mr. Turner
2014
as William Turner Snr
Closer to the Moon
2014
as Studio Manager
Endeavour
2013
as Professor Ernest Burrowes
National Theatre Live: Travelling Light
2012
as Maurice Montgomery
Vera
2011
as Dale Acreman
Coriolanus
2011
as Tribune Brutus
National Theatre Live: King Lear
2011
as Earl of Gloucester
Margaret
2009
The Devil's Whore
2008
as Bradshaw
Vera Drake
2004
as Magistrate
Danielle Cable: Eyewitness
2003
as Brian Boyce
All or Nothing
2002
as Ron
Spooks
2002
as Guy Facer
The Glass
2001
as C.T.
Holding On
1997
as Lake
Midsomer Murders
1997
as Lynton Pargeter
Midsomer Murders
1997
as Hector Bridges
Pie in the Sky
1994
as Chief Constable Stokes
Resnick: Rough Treatment
1993
as Det Chief Supt Jack Skelton
Resnick: Lonely Hearts
1992
as Det Chief Supt Jack Skelton
Intimate Contact
1987
as Trevor Singleton
Quartermaine's Terms
1987
as Derek Meadle
Love's Labour's Lost
1985
as Costard
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
1984
as First Citizen
Widows
1983
as D.S. Alec Fuller
Widows
1983
as D.I. Alec Fuller
Widows
1983
as D.I. Fuller
The Tragedy of Richard III
1983
as George, Duke of Clarence
Henry VI Part 3
1983
as George, Duke of Clarence
Henry VI Part 2
1983
as John Holland / George Plantagenet
Henry VI Part 1
1983
as Second Messenger to King
Acceptable Levels
1983
as Major Green
Cymbeline
1982
as Cloten
Mike Leigh: Making Plays
1982
as (Archive Material)
Home Sweet Home
1982
as Man in Dressing Gown
Joggers
1981
as Edgar
The Winter's Tale
1981
as Clown
The Muscle Market
1981
as John
BBC Television Shakespeare
1978
Waiting at the Field Gate
1975
as Ron