John Price was born on the 1st of June 1947 in Carmel, Flintshire, but the name Jonathan Pryce would become synonymous with global stardom. Born to a former coal miner who ran a small grocery shop, Pryce grew up in a Welsh Presbyterian household with two older sisters. His early life was not destined for the stage; at 16, he attended art college before training to be a teacher at Edge Hill College. It was during his time at Edge Hill that he participated in a college theatre production, sparking a passion that would lead him to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was awarded a scholarship to RADA, graduating in 1971 with an Acting Diploma. However, upon joining Equity, he changed his name from John Price to Jonathan Pryce because his birth name was too similar to that of another performer already represented by the union. This small alteration in identity marked the beginning of a career that would span decades, earning him two Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a knighthood in 2021 for services to drama.
The Villain Who Became A Star
Despite finding RADA strait-laced and being told by a tutor that he could never aspire to do more than playing villains on Z-Cars, Pryce joined the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool upon graduation and eventually became its artistic director. His breakthrough on the stage came with Trevor Griffiths' play Comedians, a role specially written for him. The production moved to the Old Vic Theatre in London, and Pryce reprised the role on Broadway in 1976, directed by Mike Nichols. For this performance, he won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. It was around this time that he appeared in his first film role, playing Joseph Manasse in the drama Voyage of the Damned, starring Faye Dunaway. He did not, however, abandon the stage, appearing from 1978 to 1979 in the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of The Taming of the Shrew as Petruchio, and Antony and Cleopatra as Octavius Caesar. In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him an Olivier Award, and was acclaimed by some critics as the definitive Hamlet of his generation. That same year, he had a small but pivotal role as Zarniwoop in the 12th episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, one that he reprised for the Quintessential Phase which was broadcast in 2005.
The Dystopian Dreamer
Pryce achieved a breakthrough with his role as the subdued protagonist Sam Lowry in the Terry Gilliam science fiction dystopian dark comedy, Brazil, released in 1985. After Brazil, Pryce appeared in the historical thriller The Doctor and the Devils, also in 1985, and then in the Gene Wilder-directed film Haunted Honeymoon in 1986. During this period, he continued to perform on stage, gaining particular notice as the successful but self-doubting writer Trigorin in a London production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in late 1985. From 1986 to 1987, Pryce played the lead part in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth, which also starred Sinéad Cusack as Lady Macbeth. He worked once again with Gilliam in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in 1988, playing The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson. The film was a notorious financial fiasco, with production costing more than $40 million when the original budget was $23.5 million. The following year, Pryce appeared in three of the earliest episodes of the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, alongside Paul Merton and John Sessions, and in Uncle Vanya, again a play by Chekhov, at the Vaudeville Theatre.
Pryce successfully returned to the stage in 1990, originating the role of The Engineer, a Eurasian pimp, in the West End musical Miss Saigon. His performance was praised in England where he won the Olivier and Variety Club awards, but when the production transferred to Broadway, the Actors' Equity Association tried to stop Pryce from portraying The Engineer. According to the union's executive secretary, the casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian was an affront to the Asian community. The London production featured Pryce in yellowface, wearing prosthetics to alter the shape of his eyes and makeup to alter the colour of his skin. The show's producer, Cameron Mackintosh, decided to cancel the $10 million New York production. Realising that its decision would result in the loss of many jobs, and after Pryce received much support from fellow actors, including Charlton Heston and John Malkovich who threatened to leave the union if Pryce was not allowed to perform, the AEA decided to make a deal with Mackintosh, allowing Pryce to appear in the production. He won a Tony Award for his performance in 1991. The controversy over Pryce's casting in Miss Saigon provided playwright David Henry Hwang the inspiration for his plays Face Value and Yellow Face. In the same period, Pryce starred in the ITV mini-series Selling Hitler as Gerd Heidemann and returned to the London stage to star for one night only at the Royal Festival Hall for an AIDS charity alongside Elaine Paige and Lilliane Montivecchi in the 1992 revival of the Federico Fellini-inspired musical Nine.
The Voice of Authority
Between 1993 and 1997, Pryce, on a multimillion-dollar contract, became the spokesman for the Infiniti automobile marque in a series of American television commercials, in particular for the Infiniti J30 and Infiniti Q45. In one of these advertisements, Pryce appeared alongside jazz singer Nancy Wilson in a Prague nightclub. In 1994, Pryce portrayed Fagin in a revival of the musical Oliver!, and starred alongside Emma Thompson in the film Carrington, which centres on a platonic relationship between gay writer Lytton Strachey and painter Dora Carrington. For his portrayal of Strachey, Pryce received the Best Actor Award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. His film roles during this time included Evita in 1996 and Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997. During the early 2000s, Pryce starred and participated in a variety of movies, such as The Affair of the Necklace in 2001, and Unconditional Love in 2002. While the success of some of these films was variable, the 2001 London stage production of My Fair Lady and his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins was acclaimed by observers. Martine McCutcheon, who portrayed Eliza Doolittle, was sick during much of the show's run. McCutcheon was replaced by her understudy Alexandra Jay, who would also fall sick hours before a performance, forcing her understudy, Kerry Ellis, to take the lead. On her first night, Pryce introduced Ellis to the audience before the show by saying, This will be your first Eliza, my second today and my third this week. Any member of the audience interested in playing Eliza can find applications at the door. Wednesday and Saturday matinee available. Pryce performed with four Elizas during the course of 14 months.
The Pirate Governor
In April 2003, Pryce returned to the non-musical stage with A Reckoning, written by American dramatist Wesley Moore. The play co-starred Flora Montgomery and after premiering at the Soho Theatre in London was described by The Daily Telegraph as one of the most powerful and provocative new American plays to have opened since David Mamet's Oleanna. Pryce had a role in live-action Disney Studios action-adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, in which he portrayed a fictional Governor of Jamaica, Weatherby Swann, a film he has described as one of those why-not movies. Pryce portrayed Governor Weatherby Swann, the father of Elizabeth Swan portrayed by Keira Knightley. He reprised the role of Governor Weatherby Swann for the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in 2006 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007. Both were filmed at the same time but released a year apart. After Pirates, Pryce appeared in several large-scale motion pictures, such as the romantic teen comedy What a Girl Wants in 2003, and De-Lovely in 2004, his second musical film, a chronicle of the life of songwriter Cole Porter, for which Kevin Kline and Pryce covered a Porter song called Blow, Gabriel, Blow. The Brothers Grimm in 2005, Pryce's third completed film with Terry Gilliam, starred Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, and The New World in 2005, in which he had a cameo role as King James I. In 2005, Pryce was nominated for another Olivier Award in the best actor category for his role in the 2004 London production of The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, where he played Martin, a goat-lover who has to face the recriminations of his cheated-on wife, played by his real-life wife Kate Fahy.
The Resurgence of a Legend
In 2015, Pryce played Thomas Wolsey in the BBC limited series Wolf Hall. That same year, he joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones in Season 5 as the High Sparrow. Pryce admitted that one of the main reasons he took on the role was because of how influential the character is plot-wise. While initially being quite sceptical about sword and sorcery shows, Pryce later had a change of heart after his positive experiences on the Thrones sets. In 2015, he also appeared at The Globe Theatre as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. His real-life daughter Phoebe played Shylock's daughter Jessica. In 2015, he joined the cast of The Healer starring with Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Camilla Luddington, and Jorge Garcia. In 2017, he starred as Sir Stuart Strange in the series Taboo, and co-starred with Glenn Close in the film The Wife. In 2018, he portrayed Don Quixote in Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote starring Adam Driver. In 2018, Pryce starred alongside Eileen Atkins in Florian Zeller's play, The Height of the Storm at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End to rapturous reviews. The play was named best play of the year by The Guardian. The play was transferred to Broadway stage where it ran from September to November 2019 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club with Pryce and Atkins reprising their performances. The play and the performances received a strong reception from New York critics. Marilyn Stasio of Variety praised the leading actors describing Pryce's performance as an elderly man struggling with early forms of dementia as achingly sensitive, and like quicksilver.
The Pope and The Prince
Late that same year, Pryce portrayed Pope Francis, opposite Anthony Hopkins playing Pope Benedict XVI, in the acclaimed Netflix film The Two Popes, directed by Fernando Meirelles, which was released that winter on Netflix. Meirelles cast him for his striking resemblance to the real Pope Francis. The film and their performances received critical acclaim, with Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter praising their chemistry, writing in particular of Pryce, He goes head-to-head against Hopkins and matches him in subtlety as well as charismatic force. He received his first ever Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the film. In August 2020, it was announced that Pryce would portray Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the final two seasons of Netflix's The Crown. His performance in the fifth season earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series , Comedy/Musical or Drama. Pryce also received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the sixth season. From 2022 to 2024, he starred as a retired senior MI5 officer in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses. In 2025, he briefly appeared as Kitty's father, Keith Eckersley, at the end of the final episode of Riot Women. While working at the Everyman Theatre in 1972, Pryce met actress Kate Fahy; after a decades-long relationship, they married in 2015. They live in London and have three children. Pryce was raised in the Presbyterian Church of Wales but is no longer religious. In 2006, Pryce was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Liverpool. He is a fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2009 Birthday Honours. Pryce was knighted in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.