David Mark Joseph Morrissey was born in the Kensington area of Liverpool on the 21st of June 1964 and lived at 45 Seldon Street. He was interested in film, television, and musicals as a child and decided to become an actor after seeing a broadcast of 'Kes' on television. At St Margaret Mary's Primary School, he was encouraged by a teacher named Miss Keller, who cast him as the Scarecrow in a production of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' but his secondary school, De La Salle, had no drama classes. On the advice of a cousin, he joined the Everyman Youth Theatre and appeared in their production of 'Fighting Chance', a play about the 1981 riots in Liverpool. By the age of 14, he was one of two youth theatre members who sat on the board of the Everyman Theatre and leaving school at 16 he joined a Wolverhampton theatre company, where he worked on sets and costumes. In 1982 he auditioned for Willy Russel's 'One Summer' about two Liverpool boys, Billy and Icky, who run away to Wales one summer. After filming for five months he went travelling in Kenya with his cousins and on his return left to study in London at RADA for a year. Being homesick he considered leaving the college but Paul McGann met with him and reassured him that he had been through the same homesickness phase when he first went to RADA and so David continued his studies and graduated on the 1st of December 1985. He went back to Liverpool to perform in the play 'WCPC' at the Liverpool Playhouse and then spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company where he played the Bastard in 'King John' (1988). He saw the role as a learning opportunity, as he had often wondered at RADA if he would ever have the chance to act in classical theatre. His second television role came in 1987 when he played the 18-year-old chauffeur George Bowman in 'Cause Célèbre' with Helen Mirren and was then cast as a mass murderer, in the film 'The Widowmaker' (1990). Following being out of work in film and television for eight months, he was cast in a leading role as a CID officer in the BBC television drama 'Clubland' (1991). After taking many obsessive character roles, he played the lead role of Shaun Southerns in Tony Marchant's BBC series 'Holding On' (1997). Southerns, a crooked tax inspector, was the first of many "men in turmoil" roles for David, and it earned him a nomination for the Royal Television Society Programme Award for Best Male Actor the next year. In 1998, he appeared in 'Our Mutual Friend' as schoolmaster Bradley Headstone alongside Paul McGann, with his performance described by a writer for The Guardian as bringing "unprecedented depth to a character". In the same year, he played Christopher 'Kiffer' Finzi in 'Hilary and Jackie', and both these roles were described as his breakthrough roles by Zoe Williams of The Guardian. His researching of the roles he was given intensively enabled him to build up his characters, no more so than his return to television in 2002 playing Franny Rothwell, a factory canteen worker who wants to adopt his dead sister's son, in an episode of Paul Abbott's 'Clocking Off'. His performance was described as characteristically powerful in The Independent.
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| The Deal |
His next major leading role was as Member of Parliament (MP) Stephen Collins in Paul Abbott's BBC serial 'State of Play (2003) for which he shadowed Peter Mandelson around the House of Commons for a fortnight and then played Gordon Brown in 'The Deal' (2003). They both won him considerable acclaim, the former earning him a Best Actor nomination at the British Academy Television Awards, while the latter won him a Best Actor award from the Royal Television Society.
Eager to play a comic role after starring in these dramas, he subsequently reunited with Peter Bowker for the BBC One musical serial 'Blackpool' (2004), in which his performance was described in The Daily Telegraph as 'a powerful mixture of barely suppressed danger and vulnerable, boyish charm' and a public poll on bbc.co.uk ranked him the second best actor of 2004. More film roles followed, some good, some not so good, and so from November 2008 to January 2009 he returned to the theatre for the first time in nine years to appear in the Almeida Theatre's British premiere of 'In a Dark Dark House' (2008) before in March 2009 appearing as corrupt police detective Maurice Jobson in 'Red Riding', for which he received a Best Actor nomination from the Broadcasting Press Guild. At the end of the year he played Bobby Dykins in the John Lennon biopic, 'Nowhere Boy' (2009). As a self-confessed 'Beatles geek', he relished the opportunity to star in the film about Lennon's childhood. Active on screen throughout 2010, he starred as Theunis Swanepoel, the interrogator in the BBC single drama 'Mrs Mandela', with his performance being praised by The Guardian and Independent critics.
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| The Walking Dead |
However some have said that it was his showcased role as the malevolent Governor in 'The Walking Dead' (2012-15) that indicated that David was poised for stardom that exceeded the bounds of his fame in England. David was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts by Edge Hill University in 2016, an award showing how he is considered one of the most versatile British actors of his generation, having performed in an eclectic range of productions for film, television and stage. It was his accomplished television and stage performances that brought him to the attention of the film world.
In addition to his acting career, David has founded his own production company, Tubedale Films which co-produced Patrice Leconte’s film, 'L’Homme Du Train', starring Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort. Tudedale Films has enabled him to branch out into directing; starting with shorts, and he also directed the TV project 'Sweet Revenge' in which he was able to work again with friend and fellow actor Paul McGann. David directed James Nesbitt in a two-part BBC drama called 'Passer-By' which was broadcast in March 2004, and his first feature film, 'Don’t Worry About Me' in 2009, both to much critical acclaim.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/09/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians_30.html
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