Julian Neil Rohan Wadham was born on the 7th August 1958. He, at
an early age, understood what it was like for boy actors to play female
roles in the Shakespeare era, whilst attending Ampleforth College
Junior School - a Catholic academy in Yorkshire for boys eight to
13 - he portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in a school play. The experience
not only taught him a lesson in stage history, but it also trained
him in the rudiments of acting and whet his appetite for theatre.
After graduating from London's Central School of Speech and Drama
in 1980, he performed in various television and stage productions
over the next decade, earning a 1983 nomination as Most Promising
Newcomer from the London Theatre Critics for his role in Falkland
South.
His
roles in 'Our Country's Good', 'Serious Money', and' Another Country'
helped those dramas win Best Play Laurence Olivier Awards in the 1980s.
Wadham's television career has resulted in a number of industry awards.
He won the Royal Television Society and Prix Europa prize for Goodbye,
Cruel World and the Royal Television Society award for Blind Justice.
In the 1990s, he achieved worldwide recognition for roles as Sir James
Chettam in the acclaimed TV miniseries Middlemarch and Maddox in the
Oscar-winning film The English Patient. He also appeared as Pitt in
the brilliant film 'The madness of King George' (1993) which went on
to win the BAFTA film oscar and was nominated for several American oscars.
Wadham also has a prolific career in theatre, including The Madness
of George III, The Changeling, A Letter of Resignation, David Hare's
Plenty, The Good Samaritan at Hampstead, and, most recently, The Winter's
Tale at the Royal National Theatre. His good looks and aristocratic
bearing make him a popular choice among casting directors seeking a
proper gentleman at home with beautiful women and high society. Wadham
performs frequently for Britain's National Theatre in productions of
such esteemed directors and producers as Richard Eyre, Harold Pinter,
Peter Gill, Stuart Burge, and Max Stafford-Clark.
In
cinema he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild along with the other
members of the cast. Wadham more than holds his own, amongst the plethora
of talent in The English Patient. He embodies the role of Maddox and
delivers a simply superb performance. Indeed, in my opinion, Wadham
has just as much charisma and screen presence as alongside Ralph Fiennes,
given the right role.