Jim Carter (actor)

James Edward Carter (born 19 August 1948) is an English actor.

He appeared in Howard Brenton's Winter Daddykins in July 1968 for the Brighton Combination.

It was directed by Barry Edwards, and Carter performed with Fiona Baker and Lily Sue Todd.

This is probably the play referred to in Jenny Harris's website that took place on 9 July 1968 in the Brighton Combination's cafe.

Jenny Harris was one of the initiators of the Brighton Combination.

Carter mentioned her in one interview as one who started the Brighton Combination.

She was then head of the National Theatre's education department.

The play was first produced by the Brighton Combination (in Brighton) in 1969.

He began acting professionally in the early 1970s.

When asked, "If you hadn't become an actor, what would you have done professionally?"

he answered, "I wouldn't have pursued law—I'd actually dropped out of law into English, I'd even changed my course. But when the offer came from this fringe theatre group, the Brighton Combination, to leave university and join them for five quid a week, it was like a door opening, and there wasn't a moment's hesitation. I walked through that door and never looked back. I have never earned a penny from doing anything apart from acting. I have never had another job."

His first paid job for £5 a week with free board and lodging was in a play called Gum and Goo by Howard Brenton for the Brighton Combination.

In 1970, he performed in the show Come Together at London's Royal Court Theatre together with the Brighton Combination and the Ken Campbell Roadshow along with other theatre personalities and groups.

The Royal Court's Come Together Festival was on the cover page of Plays and Players magazine issue of December 1970.

Scenes from this festival are also featured in this issue.

The Come Together festival opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 21 October 1970 and contributed to one of the Royal Court's best years.

The festival brought the avante-garde like the Brighton Combination and Ken Campbell into the Court.

The Brighton Combination presented "The NAB Show", a politically oriented account of the National Assistance Board.

Later he joined the Newcastle University Theatre where he played, among other parts, Estragon in Waiting for Godot.

He was a member of The Madhouse Company of London, a comedy troupe which performed in Boston in the 1970s, together with the late Marcel Steiner (1931–1999), Marc Weil and Tommy Shands.

Ken Campbell was also associated with the group.

The Madhouse Co. was an offshoot of the Ken Campbell's Roadshow that came to New York City and Boston.

From 1974 to 1976 he toured America with the Ken Campbell Roadshow and on his return joined the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester.

In 1977 he joined the National Theatre Company where he appeared as Dom Fiollo (sic) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Cottesloe Theatre.

In 1978 he became a member of the Young Vic Company appearing as Stephano in The Tempest, Buckingham in Richard III and Mephistopheles in Faust.

In 1978 he went to America to study in a circus school where he learned juggling, unicycling and tightrope walking.

The Young Vic's Richard III production in 1978, which featured James Carter with, among others, Bill Wallis and Michael Attwell, was directed by Michael Bogdanov.

He also performed in the Young Vic production of Bartholomew Fair in 1978.

It was also directed by Michael Bogdanov.

From 21 May to 29 June 1980 he played Trebonius/Marullus/Poet in a Julius Caesar production of Riverside Studios directed by Peter Gill.

He performs magic acts in cabarets.

Carter's films include A Private Function (1984), The Company of Wolves (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), The Witches (1990), A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992), Stalin (1992), The Madness of King George (1994), Richard III (1995), Brassed Off (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Little Vampire (2000), Ella Enchanted (2004), The Thief Lord (2006), The Golden Compass (2007), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), The Good Liar (2019), and Wonka (2023).

His television credits include Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), Cracker (1994), The Way We Live Now (2001), The Singing Detective (1986), Minder (1994), Arabian Nights (2000), The Chest (1997), Red Riding (2009), A Very British Coup (1988), the Hornblower episode "Duty" (2003) and the Midsomer Murders episode "The Fisher King" (2004), and Dinotopia (2002).

He also played Captain Brown in the five-part BBC series Cranford (2007) alongside his wife, Imelda Staunton.

Carter was born in Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England.

His mother was a land girl and later a school secretary, and his father worked for the Air Ministry.

Carter attended Ashville College, Harrogate, where he was head boy in his final year, and the University of Sussex where he studied Law and appeared with the fledgling Drama Society, playing the title role in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, the first student production at the newly-built Gardner Arts Centre theatre.

He dropped out of university after two years to join a fringe theatre group in Brighton.

He is best known for his role as Mr Carson in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012–2015).

He reprised the role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).