Julian Wyatt Glover is an English classical actor, with many stage, television and film roles since commencing his career in the 1950s. He is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Glover is known for portraying major characters in many popular movie and television franchises. His film roles have included General Maximilian Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, Aristotle Kristatos in the James Bond filmFor Your Eyes Only, Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Brian Harcourt-Smith in The Fourth Protocol. He also voiced the giant spider Aragog in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Glover has also appeared frequently on television, especially in Britain, including guest appearances in cult series such as The Avengers, The Saint, Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and Remington Steele. From 2011 to 2016, he played the recurring supporting role of Grand Maester Pycelle in HBO's Game of Thrones, and in January 2013, appeared as General Beauvilliers in the BBC drama Spies of Warsaw.
Personal life
Glover was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Honor Ellen Morgan, a BBC journalist, and Claude Gordon Glover, a BBC radio producer. Glover and Wyatt divorced in the 1940s, after the birth of a daughter, Prue, and Honor Wyatt subsequently married George Ellidge. Julian Glover's younger half-brother is the musician Robert Wyatt. Glover has been twice married to actresses: Eileen Atkins and Isla Blair, with whom he has a son, actor Jamie Glover.
Career
Glover attended Bristol Grammar School, where he was in the same class as actor Timothy West and the actor who played Darth Vader, David Prowse. He also attended Alleyn's School in Dulwich, London and then trained at the National Youth Theatre, performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the early 1950s, he appeared in several shows at Unity Theatre, London, played ' Tolen ', in Ann Jellicoe's ' The Knack, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962, before becoming a regular in 1960s and 1970s British television series such as The Avengers, The Saint, Strange Report, Doctor Who and Blake's 7. In 1966. Glover played William the Conqueror in A Choice of Kings, then in 1967 featured as Professor Quatermass's nemesis Colonel Breen in the Hammer Films production of Quatermass and the Pit, an adaptation of Nigel Kneale's 1958–59 BBC TV original. He has also appeared twice in Doctor Who: as Richard the Lionheart in the 1965 serial The Crusade; and, in 1979, as the villain Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, in one of the original run's most popular serials, City of Death. Glover later recorded DVD commentaries for The Crusade episode "The Wheel of Fortune" and for City of Death. In the 1980s, Glover made some of his most notable appearances: the Imperial general Maximilian Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, the ruthless Greek villain Aristotle Kristatos in the James Bond filmFor Your Eyes Only and the deceptive American Nazi Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. On television, he played the leading role of Sir Martin Lacey in the BBC English Civil War drama series By the Sword Divided, and played the guest role of surgeon Arnold Richardson in a 1989 episode of the BBC medical drama Casualty. He has also played a leading role in the British film Brash Young Turks. In the 2002 film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Glover voiced the giant spider Aragog. Glover has been associated with the epic poem Beowulf since the 1980s and has delivered staged interpretations in various forms, often taking the role of an Anglo-Saxon gleeman or traveller poet, delivering an abridged version of the tale while standing around a mead hall hearth and rendering selected passages in the poem's original Old English. This adaptation has been shown in documentaries on both the English language and Anglo-Saxon England and was also used for historian Michael Wood's documentary on the poem broadcast during the BBC Poetry Season in 2009. In 2009, Glover played the role of Mr. Brownlow in the West End revival of the musical Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In the short film Battle for Britain, Glover played a 101-year-old Polish veteran Royal Air Force pilot. Glover portrayed the character of Grand Maester Pycelle in the HBO series Game of Thrones between 2011 and 2016, appearing in a total of 31 episodes across the first six seasons of the show. In 2013, Glover played the role of General Beauvilliers in the BBC Four drama series The Spies of Warsaw. In May 2014, he played the character Joe Goodridge in two episodes of the BBC TV medical drama series Holby City. In the same year, he portrayed an old man in horror thriller Backtrack. In 2019, Glover played the role of Nonno in the West End theatre production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre. Glover is an Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
