Stephen Graham

Stephen Graham
Graham in August 2013
Born	(1973-08-03) 3 August 1973 (age 48) Kirkby, Lancashire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Hannah Walters ​ ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	2

Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is an English actor. Graham is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006) and its television sequels This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011), and This Is England '90 (2015). His other film roles include Tommy in Snatch (2000), Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies (2009), Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano in The Irishman (2019), and Scrum in the Pirates of the Caribbean films On Stranger Tides (2011) and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

On television, Graham has starred in the fifth series of the BBC One series Line of Duty (2019) as DS John Corbett, as Al Capone in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), as Jacob Marley in the BBC/FX miniseries A Christmas Carol (2018), and as DCI Taff Jones in the ITV miniseries White House Farm (2020).

Early life[]

Stephen Joseph Graham^[1][2] was born on 3 August 1973 in Kirkby, Lancashire.^[2][3] His father was half Jamaican and half Swedish.^[4] He was brought up by his mother, a social worker, and his stepfather, a mechanic who later became a paediatric nurse.^[3] He maintained a good relationship with his biological father.^[3][5] He attended Overdale Primary School in Kirkby, where he was encouraged to pursue an acting career at the age of eight by local actor Andrew Schofield, who had seen him perform as Jim Hawkins in a school production of Treasure Island.^[3] He then continued his education at Ruffwood Comprehensive and was subsequently introduced to Liverpool's Everyman Theatre at the age of 14, later going on to train at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance.^[3]

Career[]

Graham has often portrayed characters from different British, Irish and American regions. He has played characters who are Cockney, Welsh, Geordie, Scouse and Scottish, as well as an Irish gang member in 19th-century New York City, a 1930s Chicago bank robber, a Brooklyn mobster, a Texan, the short-fused English nationalist "Combo" in This Is England,^[6] and a Jamaican gangster in Yardie.

Graham was nominated for an RTS Award for his work in The Street and a British Independent Film Award for his work on This Is England. He appeared in the music videos for "I Remember" by Deadmau5 and Kaskade,^[7] both "Fluorescent Adolescent" and "When the Sun Goes Down" by the Arctic Monkeys, "Unlovable" by Babybird (directed by Johnny Depp), and Gazelle's single "Finger on the Trigger".^[8] Graham also appeared in the music video "Soul Vampire" by Macclesfield-based neo-psychedelic band The Virginmarys, and the music video for "Turn" by Travis, also Kasabian's video "You're in Love with a Psycho". He appeared as an inmate within the open prison system in the music video for Goldie's "I Adore You" in 2017.

In 2011, Graham starred in the BBC Christmas show Lapland, but when the series was remade as Being Eileen, Graham's role was recast with Dean Andrews.^[9][10] He also appeared on a promotional video for a DLC of the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts, titled "CODnapped".

In November 2019, Graham was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.^[11] In January 2020, he appeared in the ITV series White House Farm as Welsh detective "Taff" Jones. Despite his long-standing reputation for his ability to adopt different accents, a number of critics criticised his performance and stated that his Welsh accent was inauthentic.^[12]

Personal life[]

Graham married actress Hannah Walters on 6 June 2008; they had met and started dating while both were training at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance. They currently reside in Ibstock, Leicestershire, having previously lived in the Beckenham area of London. They have a son, Alfie, and a daughter, Grace.^[13]

Graham is member of the Leicestershire Spa Champneys Springs, where he has been seen to frequent on regular occasions.

Graham is a fan of Liverpool FC and has made several appearances on the Sky Sports football show Soccer AM.^[14] He has struggled with depression and once tried to hang himself in his early 20s, which he survived because "the rope snapped".^[3] He is teetotal and has dyslexia,^[3] revealing that his wife reads scripts for him and helps him decide whether to accept or decline a role: "She says, 'We're doing this,' and I say, 'OK.' [...] If I can find socially aware, political things that are saying something—well, that's where I'm from. It's what I know. So it's where I've tried to keep my base."^[3]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Television[]

Music videos[]

References[]

External links[]

• Stephen Graham at the British Film Institute
• Stephen Graham at IMDb