Toby Stephens (Actor)

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2004-09-06

Gustav Graves in DIE ANOTHER DAY 2002

I haven't yet met Toby Stephens in person, but when I attended the world premiere of Die Another Day (2002) I saw him speak on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

About Toby Stephens:
Toby, who is the youngest son of actors Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born in London 1969. He was educated at Aldro and Seaford College and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He began his film career with the role of Othello in 1992's Orlando. He has since made regular appearances on television (including in The Camomile Lawn) and on stage.

He has gained acclaim as a stage actor of distinction, notably playing the title role in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Coriolanus shortly after graduation from LAMDA.

In 2002 he took on the role for which he is most widely known, that of Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day.

In 2005 he played the role of a British Army captain in the Indian film, Mangal Pandey: The Rising, portraying events in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The following year he returned to India to play a renegade British East India Company officer in Sharpe's Challenge.

In late 2006 he starred as Edward Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre (broadcast in the United States on PBS in early 2007) and The Wild West in February 2007 for the BBC in which he played General George Armstrong Custer in Custer's Last Stand.

During mid-2007, Stephens played the role of Jerry in a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal under the direction of Roger Michell.

In May 2008, Stephens performed the role of James Bond in a BBC Radio 4 production of Ian Fleming's Dr. No, as part of the centenary celebration of Fleming's birth. The production was reportedly the first BBC radio dramatisation of the novel though Moonraker was on South African radio in 1956, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond.

On 5 October 2008, Stephens appeared onstage at the London Palladium as part of a benefit entitled The Story of James Bond, a tribute to Ian Fleming. The event, organised by Fleming's niece, Lucy Fleming, featured music from various James Bond films and Bond film stars reading from Fleming's Bond novels. Stephens took the part of James Bond himself in the readings.

Actors involved in Die Another Day featured on FSWL:
>Colin Salmon (Robinson)
>David Decio (Mr Kil's PA)
>Deborah Moore (Air Hostess)
>Halle Berry (Jinx)
>Ian Pirie (Creep)
>John Cleese (Q)
>Judi Dench (M)
>Madonna (Le Chiffre
>Michael G. Wilson (General Chandler)
>Oliver Skeete (Concierge)
>Pierce Brosnan (James Bond)
>Rachel Grant (Peaceful)
>Rick Yune (Zao)
>Rosamund Pike (Miranda Frost)
>Samantha Bond (Moneypenny)

Text written and updated by Anders Frejdh in October 2008.

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Toby Stephens (Actor)

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