David Threlfall
David Threlfall (born 12 October 1953) is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing 'Frank Gallagher' in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show.
The son of a plumber, Tommy Threlfall and his wife, he was born in Manchester. His introduction to drama came from school and two English teachers, at Wilbraham Road School, whose encouragement led to him playing John Proctor in a school production of The Crucible and then to his getting involved with Manchester Youth Theatre. He went to art college in Sheffield but only stayed for a year. A few months of labouring and thinking followed. Then, having consulted a magazine in a public library which listed drama colleges, Threlfall successfully applied to Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama. By graduation, he had an audition with Mike Leigh.
Threlfall graduated from The Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre. He has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his 1974 acting debut in the Play for Today 1977 version of the film Scum as the eloquent Archer. Television appearances include 'Trevor' in Mike Leigh's 1977 made-for-TV film Kiss of Death, 'Leslie Titmuss' in Paradise Postponed, 'Edgar' in the 1984 Granada Television production of King Lear opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the title role. He also had regular roles in the situation comedies Nightingales and Men of the World, and guest appearances in dramas such as Cutting It, The Knock, CI5: The New Professionals and Spooks. He played Prince Charles in Diana: Her True Story in 1993 and his father Prince Philip in the 2005 drama The Queen's Sister. David currently plays the key character of 'Frank Gallagher' in Paul Abbott's Shameless. Shown on Channel 4 since its first series in 2004, the ongoing show about the residents of a fictional Manchester housing estate is now in its seventh series, shown in 2010. He also played the role of 'Friedrich Kritzinger' in the BBC/HBO drama Conspiracy, a dramatisation of the Wannsee Conference. In 2006, he played the domineering husband of wartime diarist Nella Last, in the TV drama Housewife, 49.
Film credits include John le Carré's The Russia House, Patriot Games, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, alongside Cate Blanchett, and Nowhere Boy in which he took the part of John Lennon's Uncle George. He also had a small role in the 2006 film Alien Autopsy, and played the character 'Mr Blower' in the 2007 film Hot Fuzz, acting alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He recently starred in an episode of The Whistle Blowers. He starred as the lead role in the fourth episode of the BBC Documentary-Drama series Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire as the Emperor Constantine I.
He voiced the detective 'Paolo Baldi' in BBC Radio 4's Baldi. He also read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for a radio adaptation. He played 'Smike' in the eight-hour stage version of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby for the Royal Shakespeare Company in both London And New York. Other notable stage performances include Riddley Walker, Oedipus, Macbeth and Peer Gynt at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 'Bolingbroke' in Richard II and 'Orgon' in Tartuffe at the National Theatre in London. Threlfall played 'Jack' in When the Whales Came(1989), opposite Paul Scofield and Helen Mirren.
In 2010, he appeared as a guest on comedy quiz show Have I Got News for You.
Threlfall has been married to Sarajevan actress Brana Bajic since 1995. They met in 1994, whilst working on The Count of Monte Cristo at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. They have two sons, one called Louie born c.1996 and c.2000. David admits that despite his Shameless character being a chain smoker, in real life he is a non-smoker who has a dislike for nicotine.
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