Dominic West

Dominic Gerard Francis Eagleton West (born 15 October 1969) is an English actor, director, producer, and musician.

He has since appeared in Chicago (2002), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), 300 (2007), Punisher: War Zone (2008), Johnny English Reborn (2011), John Carter (2012), Pride (2014), Testament of Youth (2014), Money Monster (2016), Genius (2016), The Square (2017), Tomb Raider (2018), Colette (2018) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

[6][7] His mother, Pauline Mary (née Cleary), was an actress, and his father, Thomas George Eagleton West, owned a plastics factory.

He has been unenthusiastic about the career benefits of being an Old Etonian, saying it "is a stigma that is slightly above 'paedophile' in the media in a gallery of infamy",[11] but asked whether he would consider sending his own children there, said "Yes, I would.

[12] Following a gap year during which he spent four months working as a cattle herder in Argentina, he studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1993, and promoted per tradition to an MA.

In 2006 West played the Spartan politician Theron in 300 and made a guest appearance as an actor in a sketch in The Catherine Tate Show, alongside "Frankie Howerd impressionist".

[21] In December 2009, West starred as Hank in a radio adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play The Hairy Ape for BBC Radio 3,[22] was a guest presenter on the BBC show Have I Got News for You, and ended the year alongside Joan Rivers and Sarah Jessica Parker with an appearance on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Show.

"[24] In 2012, West was offered the role of Mance Rayder in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, but turned it down due to the amount of time he would have to spend away from his family.

[34] Around 2009, he starred at London's Donmar Warehouse as the protagonist in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's existential drama Life Is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews.

[36] In the September he returned to his native Sheffield to play Iago to his former Wire co-star Clarke Peters's Othello at the Crucible Theatre.

[37] In September to October 2012, he starred in Jez Butterworth's The River at the Royal Court Theatre in London with Miranda Raison and Laura Donnelly.

Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources and acting through the commitment of justice.

West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence; High Fidelity by Nick Hornby; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; Life Class by Pat Barker; The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard; and Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield.

A few days into the trek, it was decided that the competition part of the race would be cancelled due to hazardous terrain and weather conditions, so the teams combined forces and continued.

[53] In August 2014, West was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

West in 2004
West plays McNulty in The Wire