This is an accepted version of this page Peter Dougan Capaldi (/kəˈpældi/;[1] born 14 April 1958) is a Scottish actor, director, singer and guitarist.

[3] His parents ran an ice cream business in Springburn, where they were neighbours and acquaintances of the family of Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, although the two men did not know each other as children.

As an art student, he was the lead singer and guitarist in a punk rock band called the Dreamboys, whose drummer was future comedian Craig Ferguson.

[20][21] Starting in 1983, Capaldi received many more roles, appearing in diverse mediums as film, television, and theatre; he appeared as Beatles member John Lennon in a performance of John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert at the Young Vic,[22] and the same year had a significant role in the film Local Hero as Danny Oldsen.

Some of his major roles on the big screen include the archaeology student Angus Flint in The Lair of the White Worm, and Azolan, a valet in pre-Revolution France in Dangerous Liaisons, both in 1988.

[23][24] His roles in television films include playing another Beatle, George Harrison, in John and Yoko: A Love Story in 1985, and Robert McRae in Chain in 1990.

[25][26] He portrayed roles in theatre such as the servant Fabian in Twelfth Night and the protagonist Jonathan Harker in Dracula, in 1983 and 1984, among many others;[27][28] and appeared in an episode or two for drama shows such as the legal-drama Shadow of the Noose in 1989, and mystery-drama Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1991.

[31] He also featured prominently as the spy chief Mr. Vladimir in the drama miniseries The Secret Agent, also in 1992,[32] and the protagonist's nemesis Dr. Ronnie Pilfrey in the comedy-drama Fortysomething in 2003.

[33] He has been part of the regular cast on many shows: the protagonist's uncle Rory in the television adaptation of Ian Banks's The Crow Road,[31] and the angel Islington in Neil Gaiman's BBC Two gothic fantasy serial Neverwhere, both in 1996.

"[7] As he took on more and more roles on television, Capaldi's roles in films and on-stage mostly included minor or supporting roles, with major titles including Gareth in the comedy film Bean in 1997,[38] and the French poet and director Jean Cocteau in the biographical film Modigliani in 2004;[39] investigator Luke Fitzwilliam in a stage adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, Murder Is Easy at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1993;[40] and as journalist and art critic Robbie Ross in the premiere run of the stage play The Judas Kiss at the Almeida Theatre in 1998, with the play subsequently moving to the West End of London and then to Broadway in New York City.

[55][56] Other major roles during these years included: Dr Pete in the Scottish crime-drama series The Field of Blood in 2011, for which he received a BAFTA Scotland nomination in the TV actor category,[57] though he was beaten by his co-star Jayd Johnson;[58] and Randall Brown on the BBC Two drama The Hour in 2012, receiving a BAFTA nomination for the role.

[67] Capaldi wrote and presented A Portrait of Scotland, a documentary detailing 500 years' history of Scottish portrait painting in 2009;[68] and in 2012, Capaldi and Tony Roche co-wrote, directed and performed in The Cricklewood Greats, a mockumentary about a fictitious film studio, which tracks real developments and trends throughout the history of British cinema.

[80] He portrayed Cardinal Richelieu in an adaptation of The Three Musketeers on BBC One the next year, though with his casting, he was killed off-screen to avoid clashes with Doctor Who.

[99][100] He also narrated an audiobook version of Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2021,[98] and voiced the recurring character Seamus McGregor in the Netflix series Big Mouth in 2022.

[101] Capaldi's live-action projects have included playing the role of Mr Micawber in The Personal History of David Copperfield, a comedy-drama film based on the novel by Charles Dickens, in 2019[102] and elderly incarnation of the writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon in Terence Davies's biographical drama Benediction in 2021.

As such, the show was characterised by Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter as "more interested in contemplating issues such as those of race, gender and other institutional disorders, in an ever increasing, politically polarized Britain.

[117] He subsequently appeared with them and others in the video "What They Took With Them", which saw the actors reading a poem, inspired by primary accounts of refugees and part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, and which included a petition to governments to expand asylum and to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.