Anthony Andrews (British, 12 January 1948)

Anthony Andrews portrait by Allan Warren

Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews is an English actor best known for his role as Lord Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 ITV miniseries Brideshead Revisited (1981), for which he won Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Awards, and was nominated for an Emmy.

Anthony Andrews and Jeromy Irons in tv series Brideshead Revisited, 1981

​Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes (née Cooper), a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, an arranger and conductor for the BBC. He grew up in North Finchley London. At the age of eight he took dancing lessons, making his stage debut as the White Rabbit in a stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

After a series of jobs that included catering, farming and journalism, he secured a position at the Chichester Theatre where he worked as an assistant stage manager and later as a stand-in producer.

Andrews auditioned in 1968 for a production of Alan Bennett's new play, Forty Years On, which featured John Gielgud as the headmaster of a British public school during the First World War period. Andrews was cast as Skinner, one of twenty schoolboys.

In 1974 he played Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge in the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. In 1975 he had a leading role in the Spanish film Las adolescentes (The Adolescents), opposite Koo Stark.

Anthony Andrews as Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge TV series Upstairs, Downstairs, 1974

From 1974-1975, Anthony Andrews played Steerforth in TV series David Copperfield. And in 1979, Andrews was the main star of the ITV television series Danger UXB, in which he played a British bomb disposal officer in the London Blitz.The series first aired in the United Kingdom in 1979 on the ITV network.

Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982

In 1982 Anthony Andrews played the leading role of Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited adapted by Evelyn Waugh's novel of same name. He won a Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Award for his performance and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982

In the United States, Andrews is best known for his portrayal of the titular character in Ivanhoe as well as that of Sir Percy Blakeney(Scarlet Pimpernel) in the 1982 film The Scarlet Pimpernel, which he played opposite American actress Jane Seymour.

Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney(Scarlet Pimpernel) in film The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1982

In 1988, Anthony Andrews teamed up with Jane Seymour again to star in The Woman He Loved, a British HTV made-for-television romantic drama film for ITV. This time Anthony Andrews played Prince of Wales, King Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor)

Anthony Andrews as King Edward VIII in tv film The Woman He Loved, 1982

With his fine features, tall and slim figure and natural elegance, Anthony Andrews was constantly casted as an British aristocrat, but it seems he was tired of the typecast after the film The woman he loved. And for the next three decades Anthony Andrews avoided any aristocratic roles according to him, and in 2010 he even successfully portrayed the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in the acclaimed film The King's Speech staring Colin Firth.

Anthony Andrews as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin film The King's Speech, 2010

But it seemed playing aristocrat is part of Anthony Andrews's destiny, and in 2105, he played Lord Hazelwood in TV series The Syndicate