Ken Bones

Ken Bones is a British actor best known for his television, film and stage appearances. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Biography

Bones trained at RADA, 1971-73, where he gained an Honours Diploma and also won the Ronson Prize for Most Promising Actor, the Kendal Award, the Poel Prize for Verse Speaking, and the John Barton Prize for Stage Fighting.

His first professional stage appearance was as Roy in "The Odd Couple" at Crewe in January 1974, followed by Hennessey in "Count Dracula", Wick in "Little Malcolm and His Fight Against the Eunuchs", and Vincent Crummles in "Nicholas Nickleby" at the same theatre.

Bones then joined Prospect Theatre Company playing Gower in "Henry IV/Henry V" (1974) starring Timothy Dalton, and the Narrator in the rock musical "Pilgrim"(1975) starring Paul Jones and Peter Straker.

In Repertory Theatre he played Ernst Ludwig in "Caberet", Mr Shanks in "Habeas Corpus", Trofimov in "The Cherry Orchard", Milo Tindal in "Sleuth" and Curly Delafield in "Knuckle" at the Marlow Theatre, Canterbury (1976).

Through 1977 he toured with Sir Bernard Miles' 'Education in Theatre' company The Molecule Club teaching science to children.

He played Lucifer in the first modern revival of "The Lincoln Mystery Cycle" in Lincoln Cathedral (1978).

He played Ramble in "Lock up Your Daughters", Leonard in "Time and Time Again", Saul Hodgkin in "The Ghost Train", Alec Kooning in "Dear Janet Rosenberg", and Bob Cratchet in "A Christmas Carol" for Southern Exchange Theatre Company (1978.

In 1979 he played The Earl of Warwick in "Saint Joan" at Oldham; Eilert Loevborg in "Hedda Gabler" with Gayle Hunnicutt, and John in "Absent Friends" at The Watermill.

In 1980 he toured with Foco Novo theatre company, playing The Drum Major in "Woyzek". He went on to play Luther in "The Daughter in Law" at Nottingham; Laurence in "Abigails Party" at Cheltenham; Dick Wagner in "Night and Day" at Coventry; and Macbeth in "Macbeth" at Plymouth, the same year.

In 1981 he played Givola in "Arturo Ui" at Southampton, then Bad Angel in "Dr Faustus" starring Ben Kingsley and Black Dog and George Merrow in "Treasure Island" at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.

His first season with the Royal Shakespeare Company came in 1982.

Bones first television appearance was in the BBC Jubilee Play "A Day in the Life" by Ray Connolly, in 1977. In 1980 he appeared in an episode of Fox as Kemble. Bones played Sergeant Parkes in an episode of Spearhead (1981), Paul Roussillon in Bergerac (1988), and a Superintendent in London's Burning (1988). Also in 1988 Bones played Victorian medium Robert James Lees in ITV's Jack the Ripper starring Michael Caine.

In 1995 Bones played Toussant in the film Cutthroat Island, and in 1998 made appearances in Dangerfield and Cold Feet. He played Admiral Bill Wilson in the 1999 film Wing Commander, and in 2001 he played Banquo in a made for television film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Macbeth which starred Antony Sher as Macbeth. The film was the televised version of a stage show which had an enormously successful run in England, Japan and the USA.

In 2002 Bones played Keith Burns in an episode of Spooks and in 2003 appeared in Casualty as Robbie. His 2004 roles include Hippasus in the film Troy starring Brad Pitt, Mr Mansell in Heartbeat and Assistant Commissioner Bob Mullen in New Tricks.

In recent years Bones has appeared in Doctors (2007), Holby City (2008) and The Bill (1987 - 2009) as DCI Ted Ackroyd as well as in the film Perfect Hideout (2008) starring Billy Zane. In 2009 he played Erasmus in Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant.

His stage appearance include the Duke in The Revenger's Tragedy and Dr Klein in Her Naked Skinfor the National Theatre, and, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has appeared in Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Othello, The Duchess of Malfi, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Cyrano de Bergerac, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Tamburlaine, Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear among others.

In London's West End Bones has appeared in You Never Can Tell, Communicating Doors, Saint Joan, Becket, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Antony and Cleopatra; and for other theatres Design for Living, Relative Values, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sir Thomas More.

Most recently he played Revd Brown in Inherit the Wind with Kevin Spacey at The Old Vic.

See also

• Death Train (2005) — as Saratoga

External links

• Bones on the Internet Movie Database
• Bones on the National Theatre website