Ladies in Lavender

Charles Dance, OBE (born Walter Charles Dance; 10 October 1946) is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains.

Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor (née Perks), a cook, and Walter Dance, an engineer. He attended Widey Technical School for Boys (it closed when known as Widey High School in 1988) in Manadon. He was set for a career in graphic design after graduating from the Plymouth College of Art before turning to acting.

He has appeared in numerous films, including Plenty (1985) with Meryl Streep, The Golden Child (1986) with Eddie Murphy, Out on a Limb (1987) with Shirley MacLaine, White Mischief with Greta Scacchi (1987), Good Morning, Babylon (1987), Hidden City (1987), Pascali’s Island (1988), Alien 3 (1992), Kalkstein (Italy, 1992), Last Action Hero (1993), China Moon (1994), Kabloonak (1994, Paris Film Festival Award for Best Actor 1996), Century (1994), Shortcut to Paradise (Spain, 1994), Space Truckers (1996), Michael Collins (1996), What Rats Won’t Do (1998), Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (1998) Hilary and Jackie (1998), Gosford Park (2001), Dark Blue World (2001), Black and White (2002), Swimming Pool with Charlotte Rampling (2002), Ali G In Da House (2002), Dolls (2006) and Woody Allen’s Scoop and The Contractor (2007). He recently appeared in Paris Connections (2010) as the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski. Dance made one of his earliest big screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus, and in 1989 he played Bond creator Ian Fleming in Anglia Television’s dramatised biography, Goldeneye (the name of Fleming’s estate in Jamaica and a title later used for a James Bond film).

His debut film as a screenwriter and director was Ladies in Lavender (2004), which starred Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.