Hugh Bonneville

<p>Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams was born on November 10, 1963, in Paddington, London. Educated at Sherborne School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read theology, he trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Bonneville began his professional stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, appearing in classic productions of <em>Hamlet</em> and <em>The School for Scandal</em>.</p><p>Bonneville gained wider cinematic notice in 1999 playing the bumbling stockbroker Bernie in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy <em>Notting Hill</em> opposite Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, followed by his BAFTA-nominated performance as the young John Bayley in the 2001 biographical drama <em>Iris</em>.</p><p>In 2010, Bonneville achieved worldwide television stardom when he was cast as the patriarch Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's ITV/PBS period drama <em>Downton Abbey</em>. Leading the ensemble across six award-winning seasons and multiple blockbuster feature films, Bonneville earned two Primetime Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination. He further endeared himself to global audiences as the lovable, marmalade-tolerant father Mr. Henry Brown in the critically lauded <em>Paddington</em> (2014) and <em>Paddington 2</em> (2017).</p>