Jack Davenport
Encyclopedia
Jack Davenport is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor, best known for his roles in the television series This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....

, Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

and as James Norrington
James Norrington
James Norrington, CB is a fictional character in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is played by English actor Jack Davenport.-Character history:...

 in the Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a series of films, a theme park ride, and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications. The franchise originates with the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which opened at Disneyland in...

series. He has also appeared in many other Hollywood films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...

. More recently, Davenport was part of the ensemble cast of characters in the drama series FlashForward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...

.

Personal life

Davenport, the son of actors Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport is an English stage, television and film actor.- Early life :Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy and Arthur Henry Davenport. Davenport's father was a bursar...

 and Maria Aitken
Maria Aitken
Maria Penelope Katharine Aitken is an English actress, writer, producer and director.Aitken was born in Dublin, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and socialite Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and...

, was born in Merton, England and lived in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...

 for the first seven years of his life. His uncle is writer and former Conservative Member of Parliament Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and British government minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months...

, his maternal grandfather was politician William Aitken and his maternal great-grandfather was the first Baron Rugby
Baron Rugby
Baron Rugby, of Rugby in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1947 for the civil servant Sir John Maffey. He was Governor-General of the Sudan between 1926 and 1933 and Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies between 1933 and 1937...

. His parents divorced when he was seven, at which point he was sent to
the independent Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...

, a co-educational boarding school in Oxford, as his parents did not want him to become involved in the divorce proceedings. He then went on to attend the independent school Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...

, followed by the British American Drama Academy. He is married to the actress Michelle Gomez
Michelle Gomez
Michelle Gomez is a Scottish actress best known for her comedy roles in Green Wing and The Book Group.-Early life:Her father, originally from Montserrat, was a photographer, while her mother ran a modeling agency...

 who gave birth to their son, Harry, in early 2010.

Career

Davenport had not planned to become an actor; however, his career began when he took a gap year after attending Cheltenham College. A director from Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Clwyd Theatr Cymru , known until 1998 as Theatr Clwyd, is a regional arts centre located 1 mile from Mold, Flintshire, in north-east Wales.The complex contains five auditoria:*The Anthony Hopkins Theatre ....

 (The Welsh National Theatre) was impressed by his performance in a summer drama course and asked Davenport to work for him. At 18 years of age he ended up in Wales, performing bit parts in Hamlet, where he became friends with Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans is a Welsh actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of characters such as Spike in Notting Hill and Jed Parry in Enduring Love and as a member of the Welsh rock groups Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Ifans also appeared as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly...

 (Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

).

The following year, he attended the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

 (UEA), concentrating in Film Studies and English Literature. He tried out acting once more at the UEA but was not, at this point, seriously interested in it. In fact, Davenport had considered becoming a member of a film crew, as opposed to acting in front of the camera. His mother advised him, after his graduation from UEA, to write to John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

 requesting work on the set of his upcoming film, Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures is a 1997 comedy film. Although not a sequel, it was a follow-up to the wildly popular A Fish Called Wanda, starring the same four actors, John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin...

, so that Davenport could gain some real experience behind the camera. Cleese instead sent Davenport's letter to the casting department, and he was cast as a student zookeeper. Whilst a small part with very few lines it provided his first opportunity to work in front of the camera. After the production of Fierce Creatures was completed, Davenport found an agent who secured him an audition for the role of Miles Stewart in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television drama series This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....

.

Since then Davenport has played roles in many successful films and TV series, including The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...

, Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

, and Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (TV serial)
Ultraviolet is a 1998 British television serial written and directed by Joe Ahearne and starring Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast. It was produced by World Productions for Channel 4.-Synopsis:...

, as well as the box office smash Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure fantasy film based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

, and its sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 adventure fantasy film and the second film of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, following Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . It was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and produced by...

and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

During his career Davenport has also performed voice-overs
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...

, having narrated the audio versions of John Buchan's
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation....

 The Thirty-Nine Steps
The Thirty-nine Steps
The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh...

and recorded parts in Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson  – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...

' A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....

. He also provides the voice over for the British MasterCard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...

 advertisements (the American being done by Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup
William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...

).

In 2006, he featured in the ITV1 drama The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant is a 2005 film loosely based on the life of Mary Bryant, a Cornish girl convicted of petty theft and is transported to the Australian Penal Colony on the First Fleet with other prisoners bound for Botany Bay. It is written by Peter Berry and directed by Peter...

and in 2009 starred in the film The Boat That Rocked
The Boat That Rocked
The Boat That Rocked is a 2009 British comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis, with pirate radio in the United Kingdom during the 1960s as its setting. The film has an ensemble cast featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, and Kenneth Branagh...

.

In 2007 Davenport was cast in Swingtown
Swingtown
Swingtown was an American television series created by Mike Kelley as a summer replacement series for CBS. The show was a period and relationship drama about the impact of sexual and social liberation in 1970s American suburban households, with story arcs involving open marriages and key...

(2008), a period and relationship drama for CBS about the impact of sexual and social liberation in 1970s American suburban households, with story arcs involving open marriages and key parties. This was cancelled after its only season.

In 2008, Davenport was cast in the new ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 pilot FlashForward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...

(2009–2010), which was based on a Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...

 novel
Flashforward (novel)
Flashforward is a science fiction novel by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer first published in 1999. The novel is set in 2009. At CERN, the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is performing a run to search for the Higgs boson. The experiment has a unique side effect: the entire human race loses...

. In the series, Davenport played the character of Lloyd Simcoe, a physicist allegedly responsible for a worldwide blackout, which causes the whole world to see the future. That series was also cancelled after a single season.

In Feb 2011, Davenport was cast in the NBC musical drama pilot Smash
Smash (TV series)
Smash is an upcoming American NBC series set to premiere on Monday, February 6, 2012.-Synopsis:The show revolves around a group of characters who come together to put on a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. But before that can happen, the people who will try to bring it all...

. In May 2011, it was reported that NBC has picked up the show as a series for the Fall 2011 TV season. The series follows a group of people coming together to put on a Marilyn Monroe musical on Broadway. Davenport plays the musical's director.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1996 This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....

Miles
1997 Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures is a 1997 comedy film. Although not a sequel, it was a follow-up to the wildly popular A Fish Called Wanda, starring the same four actors, John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin...

Student Zoo Keeper
1998 Tale of the Mummy
Tale of the Mummy
Tale of the Mummy is a 1998 British-American horror film, directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Jason Scott Lee, Jack Davenport, Louise Lombard and Christopher Lee.-Plot:...

Detective Bartone
1999 The Cookie Thief (short) A man
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith. This novel first introduced the character of Tom Ripley who returns in the novels Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water...

Peter Smith-Kingsley
2000 Offending Angels
Offending Angels
Offending Angels is a 2002 British romantic comedy film directed by Andrew Rajan.-Plot:Sam and Baggy are two non-committal slackers who wile their time away with nonsensical affairs while dreaming of greater things in life. Paris and Zeke are two guardian angels who confront them with plans for...

Rory
2001 Not Afraid, Not Afraid Michael
2001 Subterrain Businessman
2001 Gypsy Woman
Gypsy Woman
Gypsy Woman is a 2001 film written by Steven Knight....

Leon
2001 The Bunker
The Bunker
The Bunker is an account, written by American journalist James P. O'Donnell, of the history of the Führerbunker in early 1945, as well as the last days of German dictator Adolf Hitler...

LCpl. Ebert
2003 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 adventure fantasy film based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney theme parks. It was directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...

James Norrington
James Norrington
James Norrington, CB is a fictional character in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is played by English actor Jack Davenport.-Character history:...

2004 The Libertine Harris
2005 The Wedding Date
The Wedding Date
The Wedding Date is a 2005 romantic comedy directed by Clare Kilner, who also directed How to Deal . The release was successful achieving $47 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $15 million...

Edward Fletcher-Wooten
2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 adventure fantasy film and the second film of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, following Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . It was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and produced by...

James Norrington
James Norrington
James Norrington, CB is a fictional character in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is played by English actor Jack Davenport.-Character history:...

Teen Choice Award for Choice Rumble (Shared with: Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom is an English actor. He had his break-through roles in 2001 as the elf-prince Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and starring in 2003 as blacksmith Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, and subsequently established himself as a lead in Hollywood...

) Will Turner
Will Turner
William "Will" Turner, Jr. is a central character in the first three titles of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series produced by Walt Disney Pictures. He is played by Orlando Bloom . Will is a blacksmith's apprentice working in Port Royal...

 vs. Commodore
.
2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End James Norrington
James Norrington
James Norrington, CB is a fictional character in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is played by English actor Jack Davenport.-Character history:...

2009 The Boat That Rocked
The Boat That Rocked
The Boat That Rocked is a 2009 British comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis, with pirate radio in the United Kingdom during the 1960s as its setting. The film has an ensemble cast featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, and Kenneth Branagh...

Twatt
2011 The Key Man Bobby


Television appearances
Year Title Role
1997 The Moth Robert Bradley
1996–1997 This Life Miles Stewart
1998 Macbeth Malcolm
1998 Ultraviolet Detective Sergeant Michael Colefield
2000 The Wyvern Mystery
The Wyvern Mystery
The Wyvern Mystery is a 2000 BBC film starring Naomi Watts and Derek Jacobi. The film is based on Sheridan Le Fanu's novel.-Cast:*Naomi Watts as Alice*Derek Jacobi as Squire Fairfield*Jack Davenport as Harry*Iain Glen as Charles...

Harry Fairfield
2002 Dickens Charley Dickens
2002 The Real Jane Austen Henry Austen
2003 Eroica
Eroica
The name Eroica may refer to:*The Eroica Symphony, by Ludwig van Beethoven;*The Eroica Variations for piano, also by Beethoven;*The Eroica Piano Trio, an American chamber ensemble;...

Prince Lobkowitz
2003 The Welsh Great Escape Narrator
2000–2004 Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

Steve Taylor / Steve
2004 Marple: The Body in the Library Superintendent Harper
2005 Mary Bryant Lt Ralph Clarke
2007 This Life + 10 Miles Stewart
2008 Swingtown
Swingtown
Swingtown was an American television series created by Mike Kelley as a summer replacement series for CBS. The show was a period and relationship drama about the impact of sexual and social liberation in 1970s American suburban households, with story arcs involving open marriages and key...

Bruce Miller
2009–2010 FlashForward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...

Lloyd Simcoe
2012–present Smash
Smash (TV series)
Smash is an upcoming American NBC series set to premiere on Monday, February 6, 2012.-Synopsis:The show revolves around a group of characters who come together to put on a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. But before that can happen, the people who will try to bring it all...

(Pre-Production)
Derek

Radio

  • Alistair Cooke
    Alistair Cooke
    Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...

    's American Journey
    (2006) (reading the veteran journalist's wartime reports for BBC Radio 4
    BBC Radio 4
    BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

    )

External links

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