Tom Wilkinson

1973–1994: Rise to prominence[edit]

Wilkinson made his acting debut on stage at the Nottingham Playhouse.^[11] In 1976 he was in his first film which was the thriller Smuga cienia directed by Andrzej Wajda adapted from the Joseph Conrad short novel The Shadow Line.^[12] He later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and made his West End debut as Horatio in the 1981 RSC production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Aldwych Theatre for which he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.^[13][11] He went on to act in supporting roles in the British thriller Parker (1984), the biographical film Sylvia (1985), and the mystery Wetherby (1985).^[14] He also worked on several British television series, most notably portraying Raymond Gould in the ITV mini-series First Among Equals (1986).^[15] He was simultaneously appearing in this series on television and on the West End stage in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts in which he played Pastor Manders.^[11] In 1988 he played Dr. Stockmann in a West End production of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People at the Playhouse Theatre. For his performance he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a Revival.^[13] In 1993 he had a small role as an Appeal Prosecutor, Grant Richardson in Jim Sheridan's biographical crime drama In the Name of the Father starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson. He first gained critical acclaim with his appearance as Seth Pecksniff in the BBC's 1994 adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.^[16]