Dominic West

Dominic West

Dominic West is an actor who has enjoyed success in movies, TV and on the stage in a career that has spanned almost twenty years.

And he is back on the big screen this week in Neil Marshall's latest movie Centurion, alongside Michael Fassbender and Noel Clarke.

West made his acting debut back in 1991 in short movie 3 Joes and while he continued to make movies such as Richard III, True Blue and Surviving Picasso throughout the nineties he developed his career on the stage.

His most famous role came in 1996 when he appeared at the Old Vic in the Peter Hall directed production The Seagull.

Into the noughties and the movie roles came thick and fast as West began developing his movie career.

He joined Christian Bale, Michelle Pfeiffer, Anna Friel and Rupert Everett in Michael Hoffman's adaptation of A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1999 before going on to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 28 Days and Rock Star.

In 2002 he moved into television and gritty police drama The Wire. The role of Jimmy McNulty has gone on to be his most famous part as he stayed with the hit show until it ended in 2008.

While he was working on The Wire, which is widely regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time, he continued to work in movies as he profile continued to rise.

He mixed and matched his role moving from musical Chicago to thriller The Forgotten and horror movie Hannibal Rising.

2007 brought West one of his most famous roles as he joined Gerard Butler, Michael Fassbender, David Wenham and Vincent Regan in Zack Snyder's 300.

The movie was based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and followed King Leonidas and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

The movie was a mammoth box office hit, breaking the record held by Ice Age: The Meltdown for the biggest opening weekend in the month of March and for a Spring release.

300 went on to gross over $456 million at the global box office, easily making back it's $70 million budget.

Whilst finding success in both TV and film throughout the noughties West continued to tread the boards appearing in The Voysey Inheritance at the National theatre and Rock n Roll in the West End.

Centurion is the actor's first movie since Punisher: War Zone in 2008. Based on the legend of the Ninth Legion, an army of 3000 unstoppable Roman warriors who vanished without trace, Centurion is the tale of their vicious conflict with a murderous adversary, the Picts.

Quintus Dias (Fassbender), a Roman corporal, is taken hostage by the Pict King, Gorlacon and the Ninth are charged with bringing him home and ending Pict domination of Britain.

Led by General Virilus (West) and guided by a Pict prisoner and warrior woman named Etain (Kurylenko), the army marches towards enemy territory and finds itself in the midst of a perilous battle with a mysterious foe.

And the actor has also got a couple of projects in the pipeline as he joins Ewan McGregor and Rosamund Pike for Jackboots on Whitehall before moving onto John Carter of Mars, which he is currently filming, with mark Strong, Taylor Kitsch and Willem Dafoe.

Centurion is released 23rd April.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


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