English male stage actors

Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (; born 27 May 1970), known as Joseph Fiennes, is an English actor of film, stage, and television. Journalist Zoe Williams observed that "he seemed to be the go-to actor for English cultural history". Fiennes is particularly known for his versatility and period pieces. His numerous accolades include one Screen Actors Guild Award and nomination for a British Academy Film Award.
He is known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth (1998), Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), Martin Luther in Luther (2003), and Monsignor Timothy Howard in the second season of the TV series American Horror Story (2012–2013). His performance as Commander Fred Waterford in the TV series The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2021) was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2018.

John Sessions (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), born John Marshall, was a British actor and comedian. He was known as a regular performer on comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as co-creator, co-writer and co-star of the sitcom Stella Street, as a panellist on QI, and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and Hollywood.

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works, as well as those of others.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama In Which We Serve and was knighted in 1970. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride", and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".
Coward's plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career he had considerable success in television roles.
Olivier's family had no theatrical connections, but his father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant-garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965), and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970).
Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940) and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor/director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). His later films included Spartacus (1960), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976) and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), "Long Day's Journey into Night" (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983).
Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death.

Lyndon Brook (10 April 1926 – 9 January 2004) was a British actor, on film and television.

Charles Albert Fechter (23 October 1824 – 5 August 1879) was an Anglo-French actor.

Charles Mathews (28 June 1776, London – 28 June 1835, Devonport) was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment. His play At Home, in which he played every character, was the first monopolylogue and the defining work in the genre.

Derek William Douglas Bond MC (26 January 1920 – 15 October 2006) was a British actor. He was President of the trade union Equity from 1984 to 1986.

David Benson (born David Hodgson on 11 January 1962) is an English theatre actor, writer and comedian.
He was born in Oxford, England, and has a twin sister, Miranda, and an older brother, Jonathan. Educated at Park Hall Secondary Modern in Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, and at Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, he went on to gain a Degree in Drama and Theatre Studies at the Royal Holloway College, University of London. From 1985 he lived in Edinburgh, but moved to New York in 1993 where he spent much of the following four years. He changed his surname in 1996 on joining Equity, the actors' trade union. In 2001 he moved permanently to London, where he currently resides.Primarily a stage performer, he initially became known for his one-man stage show, entitled Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, about the life and career of the actor, for which he won the Scotsman's Fringe First award in 1996; and for his television role as Noël Coward in the 1990s BBC comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart. His theatrical repertoire includes many of Coward's songs, performed in-character as Coward. When not touring in the theatre he worked on BBC radio, including playing the character parts in the science fiction comedy series The Scarifyers.
He has a dozen one-man shows in his theatrical repertoire, with which he tours. He also sings: performing a wide range of the songs of Noël Coward, amongst others, in a flamboyant cabaret style, performed in-character as Coward. He has also written and directed professional stage productions for other performers.
His theatrical, television and radio work has mainly revolved around comedy. His most famous roles, impersonating comic actor Kenneth Williams, comedian Frankie Howerd, and playwright and composer Noël Coward, have all used his talent for mimicking well-known stars of stage and screen.

Colin Glenn Clive (born Clive-Greig; 20 January 1900 – 25 June 1937) was a British stage and screen actor. His most memorable role was Henry Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in the 1931 film Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel, Bride of Frankenstein.