Jack Lowden

Jack Lowden
Lowden in August 2017
Born Jack Andrew Lowden[1]
(1990-06-02) 2 June 1990[2]
Chelmsford, Essex, England[1]
Nationality British
Alma mater Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (BA)
Occupation Actor
Years active 2010–present
Awards Olivier Award (2014)
Ian Charleson Award (2014)

Jack Andrew Lowden (born 2 June 1990) is a Scottish actor. Following a highly successful and award-winning four-year stage career, his first major international onscreen success was in the 2016 BBC miniseries War & Peace, which led to starring roles in feature films.

Lowden starred as Eric Liddell in the 2012 play Chariots of Fire in London. In 2014 he won an Olivier Award and the Ian Charleson Award for his role as Oswald in Richard Eyre's 2013 adaptation of Ibsen's Ghosts. Also in 2014, Screen Daily named him one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow.

Since 2013 he has been in British television series and feature films, including substantial roles in The Tunnel (2013) and '71 (2014), and leading roles in the BBC miniseries The Passing Bells (2014) and War & Peace (2016). His subsequent film projects have included the title role as golfing legend Tommy Morris in Tommy's Honour (2016), the starring role of Morrissey in the biopic England Is Mine (2017), a main-cast role as an RAF fighter-pilot in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk (2017), and a starring role in the Scottish Highlands thriller Calibre (2018).

In late 2016 the UK arts and entertainment magazine The List chose Lowden as one of The Hot 100 2016.[3]

Early life and education

Lowden was born in 1990 in Chelmsford, Essex, England,[1] and grew up in Oxton in the Scottish Borders in Scotland.[4] His younger brother, Calum, became a ballet dancer from a very early age, and later trained at the English National Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School in London; as of 2016 he is a first soloist at the Royal Swedish Ballet.[5][6] As a child, Jack attended dance classes as well, but found he was better at, and more suited to, acting.[7][8]

When he was 10, Lowden's parents enrolled him in the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh.[9] At age 12, he played John in a Peter Pan pantomime at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh.[9]

He attended Earlston High School, where he performed in the school's annual productions, including as Buddy Holly in Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, and he performed in various concerts as well.[10][11][12] His conviction to become a professional actor came from seeing the play Black Watch on its first run in 2007.[13][14] While in high school, he studied during summer school at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.[11] He also performed regularly at the Galashiels Amateur Operatic Society, where in 2008 he played the lead in The Boy Friend.[15][11]

Lowden received a BA in Acting from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow in 2011.[11][16][17]

Career

2009–2011

In 2009, at the age of 18, Lowden starred in a popular national television advertisement for Irn-Bru, sending up High School Musical.[18][19] In 2010 he had a small part as the character Nick Fairclough on an episode of the Glasgow-set television series Being Victor.[20][21]

In 2010–11 Lowden was the lead character, Cammy, in the National Theatre of Scotland's revival production of the Olivier Award-winning play Black Watch. The play is an incisive and topical look at the harsh reality of war, and depicts soldiers of the legendary historic Scottish Black Watch regiment serving in Iraq.[4] He and the rest of the cast underwent grueling physical training during the rehearsals period to get into military shape.[13]

The Black Watch production toured to London (Barbican), Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Belfast, and in the U.S. to New York City, Washington, Chicago, Austin, and Chapel Hill.[4][22] UK reviewers deemed Lowden "a clearly hugely promising young actor"[23] "who carries off this amazing start to his career with assurance and maturity".[24] In the U.S., the Washington Post described him as "quietly charismatic" and a "stand-out";[25] this was echoed by the Chicago Sun-Times, which called him "easily charismatic";[26] and the Chicago Tribune noted his "rich and finely detailed work".[27]

2012–2015

Lowden, Vangelis, and co-star James McArdle (r) at the Gielgud Theatre for the stage adaptation of Chariots of Fire (2012)

From 9 May 2012 to 5 January 2013, Lowden starred as Scottish runner and missionary Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, the stage adaptation of the film of the same name.[28] The Olympic-themed play, created and produced specifically in honour of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, opened at London's Hampstead Theatre and transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End in June 2012.[29][30] Lowden's performance was widely praised, including by Libby Purves in The Times,[31][32] and by Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail.[33]

Onscreen, in 2012 he appeared in the ITV drama Mrs Biggs as Alan Wright, who has an affair with Charmian Biggs and gets her pregnant. In 2013, he played the pivotal role of the lead character's son, Adam, in the television series The Tunnel.[34] The series is a British/French crime-drama co-production, and aired in the UK and in France; in the summer of 2016 it aired on PBS in the U.S. He also had a sizable role as a young British soldier in the award-winning 2014 film '71, which takes place in Belfast in 1971 during the Northern Ireland conflict.[35]

In 2014, Lowden received both the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and also the Ian Charleson Award, for his role as Oswald in Richard Eyre's adaptation of Ibsen's Ghosts.[36][37][38] The production ran from September 2013 to March 2014, opening at the Almeida Theatre and then transferring in December to the West End at Trafalgar Studios. A filmed February 2014 performance of the production screened in more than 275 UK and Irish cinemas on 26 June 2014.[39][40][41] The entire filmed performance is viewable online.[41][42]

In June 2014 Screen Daily named Lowden one of the UK Stars of Tomorrow.[34][43]

He performed Orestes in Electra at the Old Vic in the autumn of 2014. The production starred Kristen Scott Thomas as his sister Electra, and Diana Quick played their mother Clytemnestra. Previews began 22 September, the official opening was 1 October, and the run continued in a limited engagement through to 20 December 2014.[44][45]

On television, he starred as one of the two leads in the 2014 World War I BBC drama series The Passing Bells. It is the story of two youths, one from Germany and one from the UK, who enlist as soldiers at the beginning of the war.[46][47]

2016–present

Lowden portrayed Nikolai Rostov, one of the main characters, in the 2016 BBC miniseries War & Peace.[5][48][49] The 6-part miniseries, which was broadcast around the world and positively reviewed,[50][51] garnered Lowden the most exposure he had had thus far in his career.[5][52]

In film, he played the title role in Tommy's Honour (2016), about legendary Scottish golfing champion Old Tom Morris, played by Peter Mullan, and his complex and bittersweet relationship with his son Tom "Tommy" Morris, Jr.; Lowden was nominated for Best Film Actor at the 2016 BAFTA Scotland Awards for his performance.[53][54][55] He also portrayed British politician Tony Benn in a supporting role in A United Kingdom, a 2016 film about Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama. In another supporting role, he was one of star Rachel Weisz's character's attorneys in Denial (2016), a fact-based legal-drama film about Holocaust denial which also starred Andrew Scott.[56]

In April 2016, he was a finalist in the entertainment category at the 11th Young Scot Awards.[57] In November 2016 the UK arts and entertainment magazine The List featured Lowden as one of The Hot 100 2016.[3]

He played a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, one of the leading roles, in Christopher Nolan's World War II film Dunkirk, released in July 2017.[58][59][60] And he portrayed Morrissey in a biopic of the singer titled England Is Mine, written and directed by Mark Gill;[61][62][63] the film, which co-stars Jessica Brown Findlay, premiered at the closing gala of the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 2 July 2017 and went into wide release in August 2017.[64]

He co-stars with Martin McCann in a Scottish thriller, Calibre (2018), which began filming in November 2016, debuted at the 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and was released globally on Netflix on 29 June 2018.[65][66][67] Guy Lodge in Variety wrote of his performance, "[A] lead performance of through-the-wringer commitment by rising Scots star Jack Lowden. ... An Olivier Award-winning stage actor now settling into a quietly potent, empathetic screen presence, Lowden impressively holds it together through all these key changes, even when his character emphatically does not."[68]

Lowden will portray Lord Darnley in the forthcoming film Mary Queen of Scots (2018), opposite Saoirse Ronan.[69] He will also play Zak "Zodiac" Bevis in the 2019 comedy-drama WWE film Fighting with My Family.

In October 2017 he was selected, along with Bill Nighy, to star in a feature-length comedy, Made in Italy, written and to be directed by James D’Arcy.[70][71][72][73] In March 2018 he was cast as FBI agent Crawford in the Al Capone biopic Fonzo, starring Tom Hardy.[74] In late June 2018 he was in the Dominican Republic with co-stars Tamara Lawrance and Hayley Atwell, filming in a three-part BBC adaptation of Andrea Levy's novel The Long Song, about a slave on a sugar plantation in 19th-century Jamaica.[75][8][76]

On stage, from 28 September to 24 November 2018, Lowden is starring opposite Hayley Atwell in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, at the Donmar Warehouse in London. It is a unique gender-reversal production of the work, and he and Atwell alternate the roles of Angelo and Isabella during the play.[77][78][79]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2014 '71 Thompson
Ghosts Oswald Filmed performance of West End play
2016 Tommy's Honour Tom Morris, Jr. Nominated for Best Film Actor at the 2016 BAFTA Scotland Awards
A United Kingdom Tony Benn
Denial James Libson
2017 Dunkirk Collins
England Is Mine Morrissey
2018 Calibre Vaughn Nominated for Best Film Actor at the 2018 BAFTA Scotland Awards
Mary Queen of Scots Lord Darnley (completed)
2019 Fighting with My Family Zak Bevis (completed)
Fonzo Crawford (post-production)

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2010 Being Victor Nick Fairclough Episode: #1.3
2012 Mrs Biggs Alan Wright 2 episodes
2013 The Tunnel Adam Roebuck Recurring (10 episodes)
2014 The Passing Bells Michael Miniseries
2016 War & Peace Nikolai Rostov Miniseries
2019 The Long Song Robert Goodwin TV movie (post-production)

Theatre credits

Year Title Role Director Playwright Theatre
2010–11 Black Watch Cammy John Tiffany Gregory Burke National Theatre of Scotland touring UK/U.S.
2012 Chariots of Fire Eric Liddell Edward Hall Mike Bartlett, Colin Welland Hampstead Theatre; Gielgud Theatre
2013–14 Ghosts Oswald Richard Eyre Henrik Ibsen Almeida Theatre; Trafalgar Studios
2014 Electra Orestes Ian Rickson Sophocles Old Vic
2018 Measure for Measure Angelo
Isabella		 Josie Rourke Shakespeare Donmar Warehouse

Awards

Year of
performance		 Year
received		 Award Production Role
2013 2014 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Ghosts Oswald
Ian Charleson Award

References

  1. 1 2 3 Birth Registry, Chelmsford Registration District, County of Essex, April–June 1990, Volume 9, p. 2807.
  2. ↑ "Born on June 2, 1990". Jack Lowden on Facebook. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  3. 1 2 "The Hot 100 2016: 100–91". The List. 2 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Piepenburg, Erik. "Sons of Scotland: A Closer Look at Black Watch" (video). New York Times. 21 April 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 Swerling, Gabriella. "Borders brothers on stage and screen tell of inspirations". The Times. 22 January 2016.
  6. ↑ Miller, Phil. "The Borders brothers lighting up stage and screen: Jack and Calum Lowden, on their fraternal fame". The Herald. 20 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "Jack Lowden Bio: In His Own Words [Exclusive Video]". NewsDog. 28 April 2017.
  8. 1 2 Jamieson, Teddy. "Jack Lowden is Scotland's next big thing. And it's all because of Riverdance". The Herald. 24 June 2018.
  9. 1 2 "It's Fizzy, It's Ginger, It's a Phenomenal Show". The Southern Reporter. 5 May 2009.
  10. ↑ Brown, Alexa. "It's Phenomenal!". Border Telegraph. 6 May 2009.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Week Ended 7th March 2008: Jack's Success". Earlston High School News Archive 2008.
  12. ↑ "Week Ended 26th October 2007: Buddy". Earlston High School News Archive 2006/07.
  13. 1 2 "Black Watch: 'One of the Two Great Scottish plays of the Past 500 Years' Returns, But the All-New Cast Are Determined Not to Coast on That Reputation". The Scotsman. 15 September 2010.
  14. ↑ English, Paul. "Cast of Scottish Play Black Watch Set for their Toughest Challenge Yet... Hitting the Stage in Belfast". Daily Record. 16 September 2010.
  15. ↑ Frater, Jill. "A Real Foot-Tapping, Hand-Clapping Show" Archived 18 January 2013 at Archive.is. Border Telegraph. 5 Mar 2008.
  16. ↑ Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama – Acting Showcase: Class of 2011. Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  17. ↑ "High School Bru-sical Debut Made". BBC News. 6 May 2009.
  18. ↑ Irn-Bru Musical advert
  19. ↑ Donohue, Graeme. "Irn School Musical". The Sun. 30 April 2009.
  20. ↑ Being Victor – Season 1: Episode 3 of 6 (aired 19 October 2010). TVpixie.com. 21 October 2010.
  21. ↑ Being Victor – Web episode 10 (TV episode 3). True Tube. 2010.
  22. ↑ "All New Cast for Black Watch set to tour UK, U.S.". National Theatre of Scotland. 7 September 2010.
  23. ↑ Scott, Robert Dawson. "Black Watch Returns with New National Theatre of Scotland Cast". STV. 20 September 2010.
  24. ↑ Anderson, Alison. "Review of Black Watch by National Theatre of Scotland". Perthshire Advertiser. 24 September 2010.
  25. ↑ Marks, Peter. "Black Watch Review: Scottish Battalion's Iraq Story Is Authentic, Astonishing". Washington Post. 30 January 2011.
  26. ↑ Weiss, Heidi. "Superb Black Watch Is Riveting 'Theater of War'". Chicago Sun-Times. 31 March 2011.
  27. ↑ Jones, Chris. "Battles Blaze at Armory: National Theatre of Scotland Tells the Story of the Black Watch". Chicago Tribune. 31 March 2011.
  28. ↑ "Jack Fired Up as he Follows in Flying Footsteps of Olympics Legend Liddell". The Southern Reporter. 21 May 2012.
  29. ↑ Girvan, Andrew. "Black Watch's Lowden plays Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire". What's On Stage. 9 March 2012.
  30. ↑ "Chariots of Fire to Transfer to West End from June – Starring Jack Lowden as Eric Liddell". BroadwayWorld.com. 18 April 2012.
  31. ↑ Purves, Libby. "Chariots of Fire at the Hampstead Theatre, NW3". The Times. 24 May 2012.
  32. ↑ "4 Stars from The Times for Chariots of Fire". HampsteadTheatre.com. 24 May 2012. (Excerpt of The Times review by Libby Purves, 24 May 2012)
  33. ↑ Letts, Quentin. "Chariots of Fire: Gold Medals All Round for this Adaptation of the Celebrated Film". Daily Mail. 22 May 2012.
  34. 1 2 Halligan, Fionnuala. "Jack Lowden, UK Stars of Tomorrow 2014". Screen Daily. 5 June 2014.
  35. ↑ "Jack O’Connell, Jack Lowden and Yann Demange on '71". BFI. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  36. ↑ "Oxton actor says Olivier Award win is ‘surreal’". The Southern Reporter. 17 April 2014.
  37. ↑ Wise, Louis. "Haunting brilliance". Sunday Times. 4 May 2014.
  38. ↑ "Jack Lowden Wins Ian Charleson Award". WestEndTheatre.com. 27 April 2014.
  39. ↑ West End Theatre Series – Ghosts. CinemaLive.com. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  40. ↑ Billington, Michael. "Let's stop pretending that theatre can't be captured on screen". The Guardian. 18 June 2014.
  41. 1 2 "Richard Eyre's GHOSTS, Starring Lesley Manville and Jack Lowden, Out Online Sept 18". Broadway World. 19 August 2014.
  42. ↑ "Ghosts, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted and directed by Richard Eyre" Archived 16 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine.. DigitalTheatre.com. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  43. ↑ "Screen unveils 2014 UK Stars of Tomorrow". Screen Daily. 5 June 2014.
  44. ↑ Millward, Tom. "The Old Vic announces further casting for Electra". London Theatre Guide. 24 June 2014.
  45. ↑ Stanbury, Kate. "Jack Lowden Joins Old Vic's Electra". Official London Theatre. 24 June 2014.
  46. ↑ "Rising talent to lead BBC One's First World War drama Passing Bells". BBC. 8 May 2014.
  47. ↑ Crisp, Lyndall. "Grand Designs showcases unusual homes in rural Australia: Pay-TV Quick Bites". The Australian. 30 May 2015.
  48. ↑ "The new generation of War & Peace: Stellar cast revives Tolstoy's masterpiece". 5050 London. 3 January 2016.
  49. ↑ Lockyer, Daphne. "'Hollywood beauty isn't everything': War and Peace star Aisling Loftus reveals why she's finally ready to take on Tinseltown". Daily Mail. 26 December 2015.
  50. ↑ Middleton, Richard. "Russia takes BBCWW's War and Peace". C21 Media. 8 February 2016.
  51. ↑ War & Peace on Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  52. ↑
  53. ↑ British Academy Scotland Awards: Nominees in 2016. 2016 BAFTA Scotland. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  54. ↑ Tommy's Honour at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  55. ↑ Wiseman, Andreas. "Peter Mullan, Jack Lowden to star in golf drama Tommy's Honour". Screen Daily. 17 July 2015.
  56. ↑ Rosser, Michael. "Andrew Scott joins Rachel Weisz in Denial as shoot begins". Screen Daily. 9 December 2015.
  57. ↑ "Young Scot Awards 2016: Schoolgirl hailed for refusing to let illness stop her helping others". Daily Record. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  58. ↑ Jaafar, Ali. "Jack Lowden & Aneurin Barnard In Talks For Major Roles In Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk". Deadline. 11 March 2016.
  59. ↑ Kroll, Justin. "Christopher Nolan to Direct Action Thriller Dunkirk for Warner Bros.". Variety. 28 December 2015.
  60. ↑ Maytum, Matt; Crowther, Jane (Summer 2017). "Dunkirk". Total Film. No. 260. pp. 56–65.
  61. ↑ Wright, Tolly. "Unauthorized Morrissey Biopic Now Titled England Is Mine". Vulture. 4 March 2017.
  62. ↑ Bamigboye, Baz. "Jack's the lad to play Morrissey in new film called Steven". Daily Mail. 17 March 2016.
  63. ↑ Ojomu, Nola. "This Charming Man! War & Peace star Jack Lowden transforms into a young Morrissey as he films new biopic Steven". Daily Mail. 8 May 2016.
  64. ↑ "Summer 2017's best movies: from Scarlett Johansson's hen night to Morrissey's teen years". The Guardian. 15 June 2017.
  65. ↑ Dalton, Ben. "Edinburgh Film Festival announces Scotland celebration for 2018 edition". Screen Daily. 14 May 2018.
  66. ↑ Grater, Tom. "Beta Cinema picks up Calibre". Screen Daily. 11 February 2016.
  67. ↑ Miller, Phil. "New high-Calibre drama begins shoot in Scotland". The Herald. 11 November 2016.
  68. ↑ Lodge, Guy. "Edinburgh Film Review: Calibre". Variety. June 23, 2018.
  69. ↑ Tartaglione, Nancy. "Jack Lowden Joins ‘Mary Queen Of Scots’ Opposite Saoirse Ronan & Margot Robbie". Deadline Hollywood. 13 June 2017.
  70. ↑ Busch, Anita. "Bill Nighy, Jack Lowden Step Into Made In Italy". Deadline Hollywood. October 18, 2017.
  71. ↑ McNary, Dave. "Film News Roundup: Bill Nighy, Jack Lowden to Star in Comedy Made in Italy". Variety. 18 October 2017.
  72. ↑ White, James. "Bill Nighy And Jack Lowden Join Made In Italy". Empire. 18 October 2017.
  73. ↑ Parfitt, Orlando. "Bill Nighy, Jack Lowden join James D'Arcy directing debut Made In Italy". Screen Daily. 18 October 2017.
  74. ↑ Tartaglione, Nancy. "Fonzo: Jack Lowden Joins Al Capone Biopic Starring Tom Hardy". Deadline Hollywood. 22 March 2018.
  75. ↑ Bamigboye, Baz. "BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Cressida Bonas's big break as tragic model Bambi in a major ITV drama". Daily Mail. 28 June 2018.
  76. ↑ "BBC One announces cast for adaptation of Andrea Levy’s The Long Song". BBC. 13 July 2018.
  77. ↑ Brown, Mark. "Measure for Measure gender swap may be theatrical first". The Guardian. 24 April 2018.
  78. ↑ Snow, Georgia. "Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden to swap roles in Donmar Warehouse Measure for Measure". The Stage. April 24, 2018.
  79. ↑ https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/measure-for-measure-at-donmar-warehouse-first-look-at-hayley-atwell-and-jack-lowden-in-rehearsals-a3943796.html
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