Toby Stephens

Toby Stephens
Stephens in 2018
Born	(1969-04-21) 21 April 1969 (age 55) London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Anna-Louise Plowman ​ ​ (m. 2001)​
Children	3
Parents	Robert Stephens (father) Maggie Smith (mother)
Relatives	Chris Larkin (brother)

Toby Stephens (born 21 April 1969) is a British actor who has appeared in films in the United Kingdom, United States and India. He is known for the roles of Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day, for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, William Gordon in the 2005 Mangal Pandey: The Rising film and Edward Fairfax Rochester in the 2006 BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre. From 2014 to 2017, he starred as Captain Flint in the Starz television series Black Sails, followed by one of the lead roles in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space from 2018 to 2021. He has starred as the Greek God Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Early life

Seaford College

Stephens, the younger son of actors Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born on 21 April 1969 at the Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia, London.^[1] He was educated at Aldro School and Seaford College in West Sussex.^[2][3] He then trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[4]

Career

Stephens began his film career with the role of Othello in 1992, in Sally Potter's Orlando. He has since made regular appearances on television (including in The Camomile Lawn, 1992) and on stage.

He played the title role in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Coriolanus shortly after graduation from LAMDA; that same season he played Claudio in Measure for Measure for the RSC. He played Stanley Kowalski in a West End production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, and Hamlet in 2004. He has appeared on Broadway in Ring Round the Moon. He played the lead in the film Photographing Fairies and played Orsino in Trevor Nunn's 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. In 2002, he took on the role of Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day. Aged 33 at the time of film's release, he remains the youngest actor to have played a Bond villain.^[5] The following year, he depicted British double-agent Kim Philby in the BBC miniseries Cambridge Spies, co-starring with Tom Hollander, Samuel West, and Rupert Penry-Jones.

In 2005, he played the role of a British Army captain in the Indian film, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey, portraying events in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The following year he returned to India to play a renegade British East India Company officer in Sharpe's Challenge. In late 2006, he starred as Edward Rochester in the highly acclaimed BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre (broadcast in the United States on PBS in early 2007) and The Wild West in February 2007 for the BBC in which he played General George Armstrong Custer in Custer's Last Stand.

During mid-2007, Stephens played the role of Jerry in a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal under the direction of Roger Michell. Later that year, Stephens starred as Horner in Jonathan Kent's revival of William Wycherley's The Country Wife. The play was the inaugural production of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.^[6]

Stephens in 2014

In February 2008, the Fox Broadcasting Company gave the go-ahead to cast Stephens as the lead in a potential one hour, prime time US television show, Inseparable, to be produced by Shaun Cassidy. Billed as a modern Jekyll and Hyde story, the show was to feature a partially paralysed forensic psychologist whose other personality is a charming criminal. Stephens' casting was highly unusual, because Fox had not yet approved a script nor purchased a pilot for the show. However, in mid-May 2008, The Hollywood Reporter announced that "[b]y the time the network picked up the pilot (...) [the producers'] hold on Stephens had expired (...)"^[7][8]

In May 2008, Stephens performed the role of James Bond in a BBC Radio 4 production of Ian Fleming's Dr. No, as part of the centenary celebration of Fleming's birth. The production was reportedly the first BBC radio dramatisation of the novel though Moonraker was on South African radio in 1956, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond.^[9] He has since appeared in a number of adaptations of other James Bond novels.

Also in May 2008, Stock-pot Productions announced that Stephens will have the lead role in a feature-length film entitled Fly Me, co-starring Tim McInnerny.^[10] Stock-pot was the producer of One Day, a short 2006 film shown at international film festivals, in which Stephens played a small part as the boss of McInnerny's character.

On 5 October 2008, Stephens appeared onstage at the London Palladium as part of a benefit entitled "The Story of James Bond, A Tribute to Ian Fleming". The event, organised by Fleming's niece, Lucy Fleming, featured music from various James Bond films and Bond film stars reading from Fleming's Bond novels. Stephens took the part of James Bond himself in the readings.

In early December 2008, Stephens read from Coda, the last book written by friend Simon Gray, for BBC Radio 4. The excerpts from which Stephens read included Gray's description of his participation as godfather at the christening of Stephens' son Eli.

Early in 2009, Stephens appeared as Prince John in season 3 of the BBC series Robin Hood. The series aired on BBC America in the United States. Stephens appeared in two episodes of a six-part television series, Strike Back, based on the novel by Chris Ryan.^[11] The series aired in May 2010.

In mid-2009, Stephens returned to the London stage in the Donmar Warehouse production of Ibsen's A Doll's House alongside Gillian Anderson and Christopher Eccleston.^[12]

In 2010, he starred in the made-for-television film The Blue Geranium, a further sequel to the television series and films based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple character.^[13] The show was broadcast in the US on PBS in June 2010. Stephens starred as a highly self-centred detective opposite Lucy Punch in a three-part comedy television series for BBC Two entitled Vexed.^[14]

Stephens took on a small supporting role in a short film, The Lost Explorer, the directorial debut of photographer Tim Walker. The film is based on a short story by author Patrick McGrath.^[15]

On the London stage in the spring of 2010, Stephens received outstanding reviews for his performance as Henry in a revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, directed by Anna Mackmin at the Old Vic Theatre in London.^[16] Of debuting at the Old Vic, where his parents performed as part of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre Company, Stephens said: "It's quite moving for me to do something there. It means it has an added fascination. It was an historic place but I never saw anything when [my parents] were there, which is really sad, because I was just born. I'm a huge admirer of Stoppard's work."^[17]

In 2010, Stephens appeared as Georges Danton in Danton's Death. The play was another debut for Stephens, this time at London's Royal National Theatre.^[18][19]

Over the years, Stephens has continued to prolifically narrate audiobooks and perform in broadcast radio dramas. In January 2011, Stephens joined other stars in narrating portions of the King James Version of the Bible for BBC Radio 4 as part of a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Bible's publication. Stephens performed the role of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in a radio serial, which debuted in February 2011. Stephens narrated another audiobook, Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery, released in February 2011.

From 2014 to 2017, Stephens starred as Captain James Flint in the Starz television series Black Sails, a prequel to Treasure Island, set in the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy.^[20]

In 2016, he was cast as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the film The Journey.^[21]

Between 2018 and 2021, he appeared as John Robinson in Lost in Space, the Netflix remake of the 1965 TV series.^[22] In 2021, he featured as Damian Cray in the second season of Alex Rider.^[23]

He appeared as the Greek God Poseidon in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Disney+ adaption of the books by the same name.^[24]

Personal life

Stephens and New Zealand-born actress Anna-Louise Plowman were married in 2001. Their first child, a son, was born in 2007.^[25] The British playwright Simon Gray (who wrote Japes, a stage play, and Missing Dates, a radio drama, both of which starred Stephens) was reported to be Eli's godfather.^[26] Their daughters were born in 2009^[27] and 2010, respectively.^[28]

Plowman and Stephens performed together as Sibyl and Elyot in Jonathan Kent's revival of Private Lives – the Noël Coward play in which his mother starred in 1975 on Broadway – for the 2012 Chichester Festival,^[29] reprised at the Gielgud Theatre in 2013.^[30][31]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Orlando	Othello
1996	Twelfth Night	Duke Orsino
1997	Photographing Fairies	Charles Castle
1998	Cousin Bette	Victorin Hulot
1999	Onegin	Vladimir Lensky
1999	Sunset Heights	Luke Bradley
2000	The Announcement	Ross
2000	Space Cowboys	Young Frank
2001	Possession	Fergus Wolfe
2002	Die Another Day	Gustav Graves
2004	Terkel in Trouble	Justin (voice)	English dub
2005	Midsummer Dream	Demetrius (voice)	English dub
2005	Mangal Pandey: The Rising	Captain William Gordon
2006	Dark Corners	Dr Woodleigh
2006	Severance	Harris
2013	Believe	Dr. Farquar
2013	All Things to All Men	Riley
2013	The Machine	Vincent McCarthy
2016	13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi	Glen "Bub" Doherty
2016	The Journey	Tony Blair
2018	Hunter Killer	Lt. Bill Beaman		TBD	The Morrigan	Malachy Crowley
TBD	The Severed Sun	TBD

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	The Camomile Lawn	Oliver
1996	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall	Gilbert Markham
2000	The Great Gatsby	Jay Gatsby
2001	Perfect Strangers	Charles
2002	Napoléon	Tsar Alexander I
2003	Essential Byron	Reader
2003	Cambridge Spies	Kim Philby
2003	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Philip Blake	Episode S9:E1 Five Little Pigs
2004	London	Casanova
2005	Waking the Dead	Dr Nick Henderson	Episodes: "Subterraneans Part I" and "Subterraneans II"
2005	The Queen's Sister	Anthony Armstrong-Jones
2006	The Best Man	Peter Tremaine
2006	Secrets of the Dead: The Umbrella Assassin	Narrator (voice)	Episode: An account of the murder of Georgi Markov
2006	Sharpe's Challenge	William Dodd
2006	Jane Eyre	Edward Fairfax Rochester
2007	The Wild West – Custer's Last Stand	General George Armstrong Custer
2008	Wired	Crawford Hill
2009	The Best Job in the World	Narrator (voice)
2009	Robin Hood	Prince John of England	3 episodes
2010	Strike Back	Arlington
2010	Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447	Narrator (voice)
2010	Agatha Christie's Marple The Blue Geranium	George Pritchard
2010–2012	Vexed	Jack Armstrong
2012	Law & Order: UK	Prof. Martin Middlebrook	Episode: "Trial"
2012	Lewis	David Connelly	Episode: "Generation of Vipers"
2014–2017	Black Sails	James McGraw / Flint	38 episodes
2015	And Then There Were None	Dr. Edward Armstrong
2018–2021	Lost in Space	John Robinson	28 episodes
2019	Summer of Rockets	Samuel Petrukhin
2021	Alex Rider	Damian Cray	6 episodes
2022	Prisoner C33	Oscar Wilde
2023	Six Four	Piers Fields-Turner	2 episodes
2023	Dodger	President Van Buren	Episode: "Coronation"
2024	Percy Jackson and the Olympians	Poseidon	2 episodes[24]
2024	McDonald & Dodds	Mark Holgate	Episode: "The Rule of Three"
2024	One Day	Lionel	Episode 1.9
2024	Batman: Caped Crusader	Gentleman Ghost / James "Jim" Craddock (voice)	[32]
2024	The Split	Archie Moore	2 part special
TBD	A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story	TBD

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2012	007 Legends	Gustav Graves	Also likeness

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Notes
1992	Tartuffe	Damis	Playhouse Theatre
1992	Tamburlaine	Celebinus / King of Argier	Royal Shakespeare Company
1992	Antony and Cleopatra	Pompey	Royal Shakespeare Company
1992	All's Well That Ends Well	Bertram	Royal Shakespeare Company
1993	Wallenstein	Max Piccolomini	Royal Shakespeare Company
1994	Unfinished Business	Young Beamish	Royal Shakespeare Company
1994	Coriolanus	Caius Marcius Coriolanus	Royal Shakespeare Company
1994	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Lysander	Royal Shakespeare Company
1994	Measure for Measure	Claudio	Royal Shakespeare Company
1996	A Streetcar Named Desire	Stanley Kowalski	Theatre Royal Haymarket
1998/99	Phedre	Hippolytus	Almeida Theatre / BAM
1998/99	Britannicus	Nero	Almeida Theatre / BAM
1999	Ring Round the Moon	Hugo / Frederick	Lincoln Centre
2001	Japes	Japes	Theatre Royal Haymarket
2001	The Royal Family	Anthony Cavendish	Theatre Royal Haymarket
2004	Hamlet	Hamlet	Royal Shakespeare Company
2004	The Pilate Workshop	Jesus	Royal Shakespeare Company
2007	Betrayal	Jerry	Donmar Warehouse
2007	The Country Wife	Mr. Horner	Theatre Royal Haymarket
2009	A Doll's House	Thomas	Donmar Warehouse
2010	The Real Thing	Henry	Old Vic
2010	Danton's Death	Georges Danton	Royal National Theatre
2012/13	Private Lives	Elyot Chase	Gielgud Theatre
2017	Oslo	Terje Rød-Larsen	Royal National Theatre / Harold Pinter Theatre
2019	A Day in the Death of Joe Egg	Bri	Trafalgar Studios
2022	The Forest	Man 1	Hampstead Theatre
2024	Corruption	Tom Watson	Lincoln Center Theater

Radio drama and audio books

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Time and the Conways	Robin
1995	The Prince's Choice	Coriolanus, Hamlet, Henry V, Henry IV and Edward Poins
1997	As You Like It	Orlando
1997	The Lifted Veil	Latimer
1997	The Guns of Navarone	Mallory
1997	Birdsong
1997	Anna Karenina	Count Vronsky
1998	Troy	Achilles
1999	Tales from the Arabian Nights	Narrator
1999	Macbeth	Macbeth
2000	Conversations with Napoleon	Reader
2001	King Lear	Edmund
2001	On the Road	Narrator
2002	The Riddle of the Sands	Narrator
2002	The Woman in White	Walter Hartright
2002	Aeneid	Aeneas
2003	Dionysos	Pentheus, King of Thebes
2004	Will in the World	Reader
2005	Much Ado About Nothing	Benedick
2006	Shylock	Bassanio
2007	Heart of Darkness	Narrator
2007	Flashman on the March	Narrator
2008	Flashman and the Dragon	Narrator
2008	Missing Dates	Jason (Japes)
2008	The Good Soldier	Narrator
2008	Dr. No	James Bond
2008	Let's Murder Vivaldi	Ben
2008	Coda	Simon Gray
2008–2009	The Dark Flower	Narrator
2009	My Dark Places	James Ellroy
2009	Journey into Space: The Host	Jet
2009	King Solomon's Mines	Narrator
2009	Becket	King Henry II	[33]
2010	Dick Barton Special Agent: The Mystery of the Missing Formula	Narrator
2010	Goldfinger	James Bond
2010	No Place Like Home	Jonathan
2011	King James Version of the Bible	Narrator
2011	Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery	Narrator
2011	Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery	Narrator
2011	Paul Temple Intervenes	Narrator
2011	The Lady in the Lake	Philip Marlowe
2011	The Big Sleep	Philip Marlowe
2011	Farewell, My Lovely	Philip Marlowe
2011	Playback	Philip Marlowe
2011	Carte Blanche	Narrator
2011	The Long Goodbye	Philip Marlowe
2011	The High Window	Philip Marlowe
2011	The Little Sister	Philip Marlowe
2011	Poodle Springs	Philip Marlowe
2012	From Russia, with Love	James Bond
2014	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	James Bond
2015	Diamonds Are Forever	James Bond
2016	Thunderball	James Bond
2018	Moonraker	James Bond
2018	Sea of Thieves: Athena's Fortune	Narrator
2019	Live and Let Die	James Bond
2020	The Man with the Golden Gun	James Bond

Awards

• 1992—Ian Charleson Award Second Prize: for Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well (Swan Theatre)^[34]
• 1994—Ian Charleson Award (best classical actor under 30): for Coriolanus in Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company)^[35]
• 1994—Sir John Gielgud Award (best actor): for Coriolanus in Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company)
• 1999—Theatre World Award (debut performance on Broadway): for Hugo/Frederick in Ring Round the Moon (Lincoln Center Theater)

References

1. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
2. Anita Singh (7 July 2015). "Dame Maggie Smith's son: 'Stop calling me posh'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
3. Tim Walker (21 May 2009). "Toby Stephens: Being born into the theatre was a mixed blessing". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
4. "2011 : APPEARANCES". toby-stephens.tumblr.com. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
5. Ivan-Zadeh, Larushka (20 March 2014). "Black Sails actor Toby Stephens: Most British scripts you get sent are just awful". Metro. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
6. David Benedict, "Theatre Royal Haymarket Gambles", Variety, 23 July 2007, online edition. [1]
7. Nellie Andreeva, "Busy Pre-upfront Weekend", The Hollywood Reporter, 10 May 2008, updated 11 May 2008, Online edition. [2]
8. "Pilot Buzz", zap2it, 12 May 2008
9. "Bob Holness on Game Shows". Retrieved 14 September 2007.
10. Stock-pot Productions Limited, Blog, 27 May 2008 Archived 21 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine
11. Dan French, "Richard Armitage for Sky1's 'Strike Back'", "Digital Spy", 24 August 2009 [3]
12. Spencer, Charles (20 May 2009). "A Doll's House, at the Donmar Warehouse – review". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 April 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
13. "Julia McKenzie returns as the fictional sleuth Miss Marple, in her seventh film The Blue Geranium for ITV1", ITV.com, 21 January 2010 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
14. Katherine Rushton, "Greenlit Gets First BBC Order with Cop Comedy", "Broadcast", 23 July 2009 [4]
15. "Sam Elliott Connor, "The Lost Explorer," "Dazed & Confused," May 2010". Archived from the original on 4 March 2012.
16. Leo Benedictus, "What to say about...The Real Thing", "The Guardian", 23 April 2010 [5]
17. Louise Jury, "Toby's emotional debut for classic Stoppard play", London Evening Standard, 7 December 2009. "Toby's emotional debut for classic Stoppard play | News". Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
18. "Slumdog's Danny Boyle Returns to the Stage as Frankenstein," Theatre News, London Evening Standard, 21 January 2010. [6]
19. Terri Paddock, "20 Questions with... Toby Stephens," whatsonstage.com 19 November 2001. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
20. Andreeva, Nellie (13 September 2012). "Toby Stephens Set As The Lead In Starz's Michael Bay-Produced Series 'Black Sails'". Deadline. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
21. McNary, Dave (10 September 2015). "Toronto: John Hurt, Toby Stephens, Freddie Highmore Join 'The Journey'". Variety. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
22. Andreeva, Nellie (20 September 2016). "Toby Stephens To Topline 'Lost in Space' Netflix Remake, Maxwell Jenkins To Co-Star". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
23. "'Lost in Space' dad Toby Stephens turns baddie for 'Alex Rider'". Boston Herald. 2 December 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
24. Otterson, Joe (26 January 2023). "'Percy Jackson' Disney+ Series Casts Lance Reddick, Toby Stephens (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
25. Lawson, Mark (31 May 2007), "Prodigal Son", The Guardian (online ed.).
26. Janice Turner, "Simon Gray Has Lung Cancer But Won't Stop Smoking", The Times, 24 April 2008, Online edition.
27. Tim Walker, "Toby Stephens: Being born into the theatre was a mixed blessing," The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 2009, Online edition.
28. "Maggie Smith's Grandchildren: Everything To Know About Her 5 Grandkids Maggie Smith has five grandchildren all under the age of 18 between her two sons". hollywoodlife.com. 10 May 2022.
29. Michael Billington (30 September 2012). "Private Lives – Minerva, Chichester". The Guardian.
30. Louise Jury; Josh Pettitt (4 July 2013). "It's odd kissing Toby Stephens with his wife in the cast, says Private Lives actress Anna Chancellor". Evening Standard.
31. Paul Taylor (4 July 2013). "Theatre review: Private Lives". The Independent.
32. "x.com". x.com. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
33. BBC Press Office (28 August 2009). "Classic stage plays and adaptations of major works of fiction at the heart of new drama season on Radio 3". Press release. Retrieved on 28 August 2009.
34. "Prized Performances". Sunday Times. 21 February 1993.
35. Fowler, Rebecca. "Ribands in the cap of youth". Sunday Times. 12 March 1995.

Interviews and articles

• The Independent – It'll Be All Right on the Night (27 March 1994)
• The New York Times – It's Not Romantic or Oedipal: It's Just the Family Business (24 April 1999)
• The Times – My Cultural Life^{[dead link‍]} (23 November 2002)
• The Sunday Telegraph – Villain with a Past (16 December 2002)
• San Francisco Chronicle – Traitor? It's No Easy Gig (19 October 2003)
• Stephens on Hamlet, Essay for RSC Website (2004)
• The Times – Interview: Toby Stephens (4 July 2004)
• The Telegraph – The Perils of Being Posh on TV (16 March 2006)
• The Independent – Toby Stephens: My Life in Travel (18 March 2006)
• The Times – Every Woman Has Her Own Idea of Mr. Rochester^{[dead link‍]} (29 August 2006)
• The Guardian – Prodigal Son (31 May 2007)
• The Times – Mr. Rochester Takes His Bow^{[dead link‍]} (3 September 2007)
• The Evening Standard – Restoring His Humour (2 October 2007)
• Angel & North – Charming Chameleon (2007)
• SFX – Meet the New James Bond (20 May 2008)
• BBC Press Office – Robin Hood returns to BBC One (27 March 2009)
• The Daily Telegraph – Being Born into the Theatre was a Mixed Blessing (21 May 2009)
• The Times – Diary: Toby Stephens^{[dead link‍]} (20 June 2009)
• London Evening Standard – Toby Stephens to Face Family History at Old Vic (23 March 2010)
• The Times – Toby Stephens: Of course I'd act with my mother^{[dead link‍]} (1 April 2010)
• The Spectator – Silencing the Voices (17 July 2010)
• The Guardian – This much I know: Toby Stephens (18 July 2010)
• OfficialLondonTheatre.com – The Big Interview: Toby Stephens (28 July 2010)

External links

• Toby Stephens at IMDb