
Age: 79
male
Walter Charles Dance OBE (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor, screenwriter, and director. He typically plays strict, authoritarian characters or villains. He is best known for his roles as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, Kitchener in The King's Man, Martin Benson in Amazon Prime's The Widow, Lord Mountbatten in Netflix's The Crown (for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series), Thomas in Underworld: Awakening and Underworld: Blood Wars, Harold Fillmore in Ghostbusters (2016), Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Frankenstein in Victor Frankenstein, Master Vampire in Dracula Untold, Conrad Knox in the Cinemax series Strike Back, Raymond Stockbridge in Gosford Park, one-eyed hitman Benedict in Last Action Hero, Clemens in Alien³, Sardo Numpsa in The Golden Child, and Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown. He started his career on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) before appearing in film and television. For his services to drama, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006. He made his directorial film debut with the drama film Ladies in Lavender (2004), which he also wrote and executive produced.

Charles Dance

Alfred Pennyworth
for Alfred Pennyworth in THE BATMAN
Suggested by miguelrodriguez

Gotham City breathes in shadows. The film opens in silence and rain as Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne are murdered in a dark alley after a night at the theater. A young Bruce Wayne watches helplessly as his world collapses—an image that will haunt him long after Gotham forgets. Years later, Gotham is rotting from the inside out. A brutal wave of executions sweeps through the city’s criminal underworld. Each victim is found grotesquely mutilated, marked with ritualistic precision. The killings are soon traced to Victor Zsasz, a sadistic serial killer leaving scars not only on his own flesh, but on Gotham itself. Yet Zsasz is only the blade—not the hand guiding it. Behind the violence stands Black Mask, Roman Sionis, a calculating crime lord who uses fear, spectacle, and chaos to consolidate power. With the city’s mob families fractured, Black Mask seizes control, using Zsasz as his enforcer while hiding behind legitimate fronts and political connections. Working the case from the shadows is Batman—early in his war on crime, obsessive and methodical. His uneasy alliance with James Gordon, a weary but honest detective, allows him access to crime scenes the GCPD would rather keep sealed. Together, they uncover a conspiracy tying Gotham’s elite, its justice system, and organized crime into one festering wound. As the body count rises, a third player enters the hunt: Deadshot, a precision assassin hired to eliminate loose ends—including Zsasz himself. Deadshot’s presence turns Gotham into a battlefield, forcing Batman to confront an enemy who kills not out of madness, but professionalism. At the center of the web is Carmine Falcone, the aging crime patriarch who has survived every purge Gotham has ever seen. Falcone’s past dealings intertwine with the Waynes, raising uncomfortable questions for Bruce about his family’s legacy—and whether Gotham’s corruption was ever truly fought, or merely managed. Bruce’s only emotional anchor is Harvey Dent, his closest friend and an idealistic district attorney determined to save Gotham through the law. Their bond is genuine, hopeful—and fragile, strained by secrets Bruce cannot share and truths Harvey is not ready to face. A brief encounter with Selina Kyle, a thief navigating Gotham’s underbelly for her own survival, offers Bruce a glimpse of a different path—one driven not by vengeance, but escape. As Black Mask’s empire closes in on total control and Deadshot’s contract nears completion, Batman must choose what kind of symbol he will become. Not just a weapon in the dark—but a warning. The film concludes not with victory, but with realization: Gotham cannot be saved overnight. Justice here is slow, painful, and incomplete. And Batman is only just beginning.