Age: 77
male
Jim Broadbent (born May 24, 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film Iris (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for his leading role as Lord Longford in the television film Longford (2006). Broadbent received four BAFTA Film Award nominations and won for his performance in Moulin Rouge! (2001). He was also nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, Broadbent first came to prominence in the 1980s, chiefly appearing in television comedy including playing Roy Slater in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. He appeared in the Terry Gilliam films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985) before a breakthrough role in Mike Leigh's independent comedy drama Life Is Sweet (1990). His notable film roles since include The Borrowers (1997), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), The Gathering Storm (2002), Hot Fuzz (2007), Another Year (2010), The Iron Lady (2011), Arthur Christmas (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012) and Brooklyn (2015). He played Horace Slughorn in the Harry Potter film series, Archmaester Ebrose in the seventh season of the television series Game of Thrones and Samuel Gruber in the Paddington film series.
A gripping historical thriller set in sixteenth-century England and centered on the highly secretive cult of Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. London, summer of 1584: Radical philosopher, ex-monk, and spy Giordano Bruno suspects he is being followed by an old enemy. He is shocked to discover that his pursuer is in fact Sophia Underhill, a young woman with whom he was once in love. When Bruno learns that Sophia has been accused of murdering her husband, a prominent magistrate in Canterbury, he agrees to do anything he can to help clear her name. In the city that was once England's greatest center of pilgrimage, Bruno begins to uncover unsuspected secrets that point to the dead man being part of a larger and more dangerous plot in the making. He must turn his detective's eye on history—on Saint Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century archbishop murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, and on the legend surrounding the disappearance of his body—in order to solve the crime. As Bruno's feelings for Sophia grow more intense, so does his fear that another murder is about to take place—perhaps his own. But more than Bruno's life is at stake in this vividly rendered, impeccably researched, and addictively page-turning whodunit—the stability of the kingdom hangs in the balance as Bruno hunts down a brutal murderer in the shadows of England's most ancient cathedral.
