Paul Ritter Biography

Paul Ritter started his career with small roles on stage and television. Amongst his notable early-stage work was Snoo Wilson's play Darwin's Flood (1994). He soon started working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. For the former, he worked in numerous classical plays like Troilus and Cressida and The White Devil (both 1996). For the latter, he worked in All My Sons (2000), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Coram Boy (2005-2006), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (2006) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2012). For his work in Coram Boy, he won a nomination at the Olivier Award. He won a Tony award nomination for playing a laid-back real estate agent, Reg, in the Old Vic's company’s 2009 Broadway revival of Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests trilogy. In 2013, he portrayed the former UK Prime Minister, John Major in the royal drama The Audience on the West End stage. His last work on stage was the 2016 Old Vic revival of Art.

His screen career started in 1992 with television series The Bill. His first regular television role, though, came fifteen years later in 2007 with comedy series City Lights wherein he played gangster Scott Sweeny. Thereafter, he appeared in a host of other television series playing different characters. He was a farm hand in Land Girls (2011), an irreverent forensic pathologist in the crime drama Vera (2011-2013), yet again a forensic expert in the police series No Offence (2015-2018), a Swiss company’s CEO in the comedy Hang Ups (2018) and the eccentric father of a London Jewish family in the comedy family sitcom Friday Night Dinner (2011-2020). As Martin Goodman in the last series, Paul Ritter gave an impressive performance and earned a lot of fame.

His television credits also include miniseries and television movies. In 2011, he portrayed the role of legal clerk Wemmick in the miniseries Great Expectations and the following year played the role of Pistol in another miniseries The Hollow Crown. In 2014, he played a sinister intelligence officer Bobby Waterhouse in the six-part cold war spy series The Game. In 2019, he played Dublin Castle’s chief of intelligence in the Irish War of independence drama miniseries Resistance. The same year he played the ill-fated nuclear plant engineer Anatoly Dyatlov in the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning HBO-Sky history drama miniseries Chernobyl. In 2020, he appeared in another historical drama limited series Belgravia where he played Turton.

His significant work in television movies came in 2014 and 2015 when he portrayed two real life personalities in Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This and We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story. In the former, he played comic actor Eric Sykes while in the latter, he portrayed comedian/scriptwriter Jimmy Perry.

His feature film career began in 1999 with a supporting role in Greenwich Meantime. Thereafter he worked in numerous film projects, notable amongst which are the spy film Quantum of Solace (2008) and the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). In the former, a James Bond movie, he essayed the role of a devious political operative Guy Haines while in the latter, he played the wizard Eldred Worple. His other notable films include Nowhere Boy (2009), Son of Rambow (2007), The Eagle (2011) and The Limehouse Golem (2016).

Ritter also appeared in other stage, television and film projects during his career. His final appearance will be in the war drama film Operation Mincemeat.

Paul Ritter was born on 20 December 1966 in Gravesend, Kent, England as Simon Paul Adams. He was the youngest child of his parents Kenneth and Joan Adams and has four older sisters. His father worked as fitter and turner in power stations while his mother was employed as a school secretary.

He developed an interest in acting from a very young age and obtained an A Level in Theatre Studies from Gravesend Grammar School. Thereafter, he pursued studies in Modern and Medieval Languages at St John's College, Cambridge. He next spent a year at the German National Theatre, Hamburg. Upon returning, he took up the new name – Paul Ritter.

In 1996, he wedded Polly Radcliffe, a research fellow at King's College London. The couple have two sons together – Frank and Noah.

On April 5, 2021, at the age of 54, he passed away after battling with brain tumor.