Dexter Fletcher

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Dexter Fletcher (born 31 January 1966) is an English film director and actor. He has appeared in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as well as in television shows such as the comedy drama Hotel Babylon and the HBO series Band of Brothers and, earlier in his career, starred as Spike Thomson in the comedy drama Press Gang. His earliest acting role was playing Baby Face in the 1976 film Bugsy Malone.

Fletcher made his directorial debut with Wild Bill (2011), and also directed Sunshine on Leith (2013) and Eddie the Eagle (2015). He replaced Bryan Singer as director of Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about the band Queen, released in October 2018; due to DGA rules, he received executive producer credit. In 2019, he directed Rocketman, a biographical film based on the life and music of performer Elton John.

Career

Fletcher trained at the Anna Scher Theatre.<ref name="bbcbio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His first film part was as Baby Face in Bugsy Malone (1976). He made his stage début the following year in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. As a youth actor he was regularly featured in British productions in the early 1980s, including The Long Good Friday, The Elephant Man and The Bounty. In 1987 Fletcher was cast in Lionheart. As an adult he appeared on television as the rebellious teenager Spike Thomson in Press Gang and in Murder Most Horrid (1991) with Dawn French. He has also starred in the films Caravaggio (1986), The Rachel Papers (1989), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Layer Cake (2004), AffirmFilm's Solomon as Rehoboam and Universal's Doom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He appeared as Puck in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1981 at Glyndebourne Opera and on their autumn tour,<ref>Blyth, Alan. Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Apollo Theatre in Oxford. Opera, December 1981, Vol.32 No.12 p1294.</ref> and then again in 1990 in an Opera London production at Sadler's Wells,<ref>Goodwin, Noel. Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Opera, Vol.41 No.12 p1502-03.</ref> subsequently recorded by Virgin Classics.<ref>CD Review Benjamin Britten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op. 64, Virgin Classics 3818322. accessed 4 March 2024.</ref>

On television Fletcher has appeared in the major HBO drama, Band of Brothers and in a supporting role in the BBC One historical drama The Virgin Queen (US PBS 2005, UK 2006). He also appeared in Kylie Minogue's music video for "Some Kind of Bliss" (1997). He starred on BBC One in a series based on Imogen Edwards-Jones's book Hotel Babylon that ran for four series before being cancelled in 2009.<ref name="bbcbio"/> He also appeared in "The Booby and the Beast", an episode in the second series of the BBC's series Robin Hood and in the 2008 radio series The Way We Live Right Now. He appeared in the Bo' Selecta! spinoff A Bear's Tail as The Scriptwriter. He played a brief role in the BBC series New Tricks, in the episode "Final Curtain", as an actor named Tommy Jackson. In 2009, he also appeared in Misfits as Nathan Young's dad, reprising the role in 2010 for the second series.

Fletcher has been the voice for McDonald's television adverts and (feigning a US accent) is the narrator of The Game audio book written by Neil Strauss. He also narrated the Five series Airforce Afghanistan, as well as the Chop Shop: London Garage series on the Discovery Channel. In 1993, he was the voice of Prince Cinders in the short animated comedy of the same name. Also in 1993, he was the uncredited UNIT soldier narrator of the UNIT Recruiting Film – a five-minute spoof piece that preceded a BBC1 repeat of the sixth and final episode of Doctor Who story Planet of the Daleks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2014 he narrated the BBC1 show Del Boys and Dealers. In 1998, Fletcher featured on the song "Here Comes the Flood" from the album Fin de Siecle by The Divine Comedy.

Directing

Fletcher's debut as a director was for a script he co-wrote, Wild Bill,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which was released on 20 March 2012. His second film as director is a musical film by Stephen Greenhorn, Sunshine on Leith based around the popular Proclaimers songs which were released on 4 October 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2015, he directed the feature film Eddie the Eagle. In December 2017, Fletcher was announced as Bryan Singer's replacement director on the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. The film was released in November 2018. While Fletcher had helped finish the film, Singer received sole directing credit and he received executive producer credit.<ref>Dexter Fletcher Replaces Bryan Singer On 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Deadline. Retrieved 6 December 2017.</ref> Fletcher directed the 2019 biopic Rocketman about the life and music of Elton John. In February 2020, he signed on to direct a reboot of The Saint for Paramount Pictures.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also directed the Apple TV+ feature film Ghosted, which was released in April 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>[1]</ref>

Personal life

Fletcher was born in Enfield, the youngest of three boys, in north London, and grew up with his brothers in Woodford Green and Palmers Green; his parents were teachers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1997, he married Lithuanian film and theatre director Dalia Ibelhauptaitė in Westminster.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His best man was fellow actor Alan Rickman.<ref name="bbcbio"/> Dexter's brothers were also actors; Graham Fletcher-Cook<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 282147

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Filmography

Acting credits

Key

Template:Dagger

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1973	Steptoe and Son Ride Again	Small Boy
1976	Bugsy Malone	Babyface
1979	The Long Good Friday	The boy who asks for money to watch Harold's car
1980	The Elephant Man	Bytes' Boy
1984	The Bounty	Able Seaman Thomas Ellison
1985	Revolution	Ned Dobb
1986	Caravaggio	Young Caravaggio
1988	Didn't You Kill My Brother?	Bike thief
	The Raggedy Rawney	Tom
1989	The Rachel Papers	Charles Highway
	Twisted Obsession	Malcolm Greene
1991	All Out	Angelo
1993	Prince Cinders	Prince Cinders
1996	Jude	Priest
1997	The Man Who Knew Too Little	Otto
1998	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	Soap
1999	Topsy-Turvy	Louis
	Tube Tales	Joe	Segment: Mr Cool
2000	The Patriot	Cornwallis' tailor/valet
2002	Below	Kingsley
2003	Stander	Lee McCall
2004	The Secret of Year Six	Mike
	Layer Cake	Cody
2005	Doom	Marcus "Pinky" Pinzerowski
2006	Tristan & Isolde	Orick
2007	Stardust	Skinny Pirate
2008	Autumn	Michael
2010	Kick-Ass	Cody
	Amaya	Frenchman
	Dead Cert	Eddie Christian
2011	Jack Falls	Detective Edwards
	Fedz	Hunter
	The Three Musketeers	D'Artagnan's father
	Wild Bill	Mysterious Barry
2012	Coven	Mr. Sheers
	St George's Day	Levi
2014	Muppets Most Wanted		Cameo; deleted scenes
	Respectable: The Mary Millington Story	Narrator
2016	Smoking Guns	Paul McVeigh
2018	Terminal	Vince
	Sherlock Gnomes	Reggie	Voice role
2023	Ghosted	Raoul
2023	Love at First Sight	Val

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Les Miserables	Gavroche	TV film
1989	The Bill	Tony Gillespie	Episode: "The Strong Survive"
1989-1993	Press Gang	James (Spike) Thomson	Main role; 43 episodes
1991	Murder Most Horrid	Colin	Season 1, Episode 5 "Murder at Tea Time"
1993–1994	GamesMaster	Presenter	Season 3
1997	The Famous Five	Lou
	Solomon	Rehoboam
2001	Band of Brothers	John Martin
2003	The Deal	Charlie Whelan	TV film
2004	The Virgin Queen	Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex
2006–2009	Hotel Babylon	Tony Casemore	32 episodes
2007	Robin Hood	Count Friedrich	1 episode
2008	New Tricks	Tommy Jackson	Episode: "Final Curtain"
2009	Misfits	Mike Young
2011	White Van Man	Ian
2013	Death in Paradise	Grant, The Cabin Barman
2014	Rev.	Mike Tobin	Episode: 3.3
	Mount Pleasant	Gus
2020	I Hate Suzie	Benjamin

Filmmaking credits

Year	Title	Director	Executive producer	Writer	Notes
1999	Let the Good Times Roll	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Short film
2010	Just for the Record	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Dead Cert	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2011	Wild Bill	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
2013	Sunshine on Leith	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2015	Eddie the Eagle	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2018	Bohemian Rhapsody	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No wrap for the final two weeks of filming; Received credit as executive producer in accordance with DGA rules
2019	Rocketman	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2022	The Offer	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Directed 2 episodes
2023	Ghosted	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No

Bibliography

• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 358–360.

External links

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• Interview with Dexter Fletcher