During his 30-year career, Ray Stevenson has played a wide variety of roles in television and film, including the talkative soldier in the HBO historical drama Rome, the pirate Blackbeard in the Starz series Black Sails, and Asgard. Warriors are also included. Volstagg, who starred in the fantasy movie Thor, died Sunday. he was 58 years old.
His publicist Nicky Fioravante confirmed his death but did not provide further details.italian newspaper La Repubblica Stevenson said he died in Ischia, Italy, while the film was being filmed.
Stevenson was born on May 25, 1964 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, according to the Internet Movie Database. He decided to try his hand at acting in his mid-twenties and began his interior design career. In the early 1990s, John Malkovich saw Ranford Wilson’s play Burn This in London’s West End.
“I was stunned by John’s performance,” he told California newspaper The Fresno Bee in 2008. In that moment, I knew there was something very valid about being an actor. “
He studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School in England and played the title role in the production of ‘Macbeth’ in 1993. Before the year was over, he would make a regular appearance in the British mini-series The Dwelling Place. Since then he has worked more or less steadily.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Stevenson appeared in various British television series, including the crime drama Band of Gold. He scored his first significant film role in 2004, playing Knight Dagonette in ‘King Arthur’ starring Clive Owen in the title role.
Next came “Rome,” which played a groundbreaking role in the big-budget HBO series about ancient Rome, the second most talked-about series after “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos.” It was HBO’s attempt to make a
Stevenson’s Titus Pullo was, as Alessandra Stanley put it in her 2005 New York Times book review, “a drunken womanizer thug, a soccer hooligan in sandals.” Titus Pullo’s friendship with another Roman soldier played by James Purefoy is one of the show’s most compelling subplots, and the 6-foot-4-inch giant Mr. Stevenson has something big going on. It looked like it was.
“He’s like George Clooney on steroids,” wrote Chase Squires of the St. Petersburg Times, Florida, in 2005. “By the time ‘Rome’ rolls over, this Irish-born British actor will probably be a star and a very popular actor.” A real candidate to replace Russell Crowe when he’s sick of the bad. “
But “Roma” went up in flames after two seasons, and Stevenson never reached his Clooney-esque status. However, he has appeared in three movies from the Marvel Comics universe: Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). ), and won numerous key roles in lavish projects. . All three were box office hits.
He often refers to the Thor story as “Vikings in Space,” and in 2020, he joined the cast of the History Channel’s long-running series, “Vikings,” to get a taste of an Earth-bound version of that life. . He appeared throughout the sixth season.
He also played a gangster in the 2011 film Kill the Irishman and a British colonial officer in the Indian film RRR (2022). He also played vigilante Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, another character based on the comics. Dolph Lundgren played Castle in the 1989 film and Thomas Jane played it in 2004 before accepting the role in Punisher: War Zone in 2008.
As AO Scott pointed out in his book review for The Times, the 2008 film was an orgy of violence.
“Men get their heads blown off, cut off, impaled with chair legs, smashed with fists. That’s what they come for and what the fanbase pays to see it.” That’s why,” he wrote.
Stevenson told The Oklahoman that his character was supposed to be an antihero, not a hero.
“He’s really taken a one-way street and is in hell,” he said. “You don’t want to be Frank Castle.”
Stevenson’s marriage to actress Ruth Gemmell ended in divorce. He had three children with his partner Elisabetta Caraccia.
