Raymond Andrew Winstone (/ˈwɪnstən/; born 19 February 1957)[2] is an English television, stage, and film actor with a career spanning five decades.

Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perhaps best known for his "hard man" roles, usually delivered in his distinctive London accent.

Winstone's other notable films include Sexy Beast (2000), Ripley's Game (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), King Arthur (2004), The Departed (2006), Beowulf (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Hugo (2011), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Black Widow (2021), and Damsel (2024).

[2] His mother, Margaret (née Richardson; 1932–1985) had a job emptying fruit machines, and his father, Raymond J. Winstone (1933–2015), ran a fruit-and-vegetable business.

[6] He recounted an early encounter with a notorious gangster: "I was still a baby the day Ronnie Kray came round to see Dad, but I've been told this story so many times I can see it unfolding in my mind.

After borrowing extra tuition money from a friend's mother, a drama teacher, Winstone took to the stage, appearing as a Cockney newspaper seller in a production of Emil and the Detectives.

[9] While Winstone has portrayed many characters who share the "hard man" nature of his performance in Scum, he has also explored a variety of other roles, including comedy (Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence) and as the romantic lead (Fanny and Elvis).

[11] One of his first TV appearances came in the 1976 "Loving Arms" episode of the popular police series The Sweeney,[12] where he was credited as "Raymond Winstone" (as he was in What a Crazy World[11]) and played a minor part as an unnamed young thug.

After a short run in the TV series Fox (1980), and a role in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982),[12] alongside Diane Lane and Laura Dern.

[12] Over the years, he has appeared in many TV shows, including The Bill,[6] Boon, Fairly Secret Army (as Stubby Collins), Ever Decreasing Circles, One Foot in the Grave,[6] ‘’Home To Roost, (Se4, Ep6)’’, Murder Most Horrid, Birds of a Feather, Minder, Kavanagh QC,[6] Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and Get Back (with the fledgling Kate Winslet).

In Last Christmas, he played a dead man, now a trainee angel, who returns from heaven to help his young son cope with his bereavement which was written by Tony Grounds.

The series was also written by Grounds, with whom Winstone worked again on Births, Marriages & Deaths and Our Boy, the latter winning him the Royal Television Society Best Actor Award.

[12] He then played lead role in Sexy Beast (2001),[6] which earned him great acclaim from UK and international audiences and brought him to the attention of the American film industry.

Winstone plays "Gal" Dove, a retired and happily married former thief dragged back into London's underworld by a psychopathic former associate (Ben Kingsley, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance).

Two years later, he joined Kevin Spacey for 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic, a series of productions that were written, rehearsed, and performed in a single day.

Now internationally known, Winstone was next chosen by Anthony Minghella to play Teague, a sinister Home Guard boss in the American Civil War drama Cold Mountain (2003).

[citation needed] Winstone made his action-film debut in King Arthur (2004),[12] starring Clive Owen, directed by Antoine Fuqua, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

[13] A complete change of pace for Winstone occurred when he provided the voice for the cheeky-chappy Mr. Beaver in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, also in 2005.

Winstone appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2006 film The Departed as Mr. French, an enforcer to Jack Nicholson's Irish mob boss.

Critic Roger Ebert singled out Winstone for praise among the ensemble cast of The Departed, writing that the actor "invests every line with the authority of God dictating to Moses".

In 2010, Winstone starred as Arjan van Diemen in the film Tracker with Temuera Morrison[17] He had a role as CIA agent Darius Jedburgh in the Edge of Darkness remake, replacing Robert De Niro.

[18] Winstone starred in British independent film The Hot Potato in 2011, and the following year in a big-screen remake of popular 1970s show The Sweeney (2012).