Miles Richardson is a British actor, born in Battersea, London to parents Ian Richardson and Maroussia Frank, both founder members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was educated and brought up in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and New York. He graduated from Arts Educational Schools in 1982, where he won the award for Best Actor. Previously he had worked as a child actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2009, he placed his father's ashes in the newly refurbished Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
His West End credits include Another Country, An Evening with Gary Lineker, The Invisible Man, All's Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. He has toured in the Far East and the United States of America, most notably in the Almeida Theatre's production of Lulu. He appeared in Anjin, an Anglo-Japanese co-production in 2009–10 in Tokyo and Osaka and again in 2012–13 in Tokyo and London; both productions were directed by Gregory Doran. From November 2013 until March 2014, he appeared as "Juror 10" in Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre. From September 2014, he appeared as James Reiss in King Charles III at the Wyndhams Theatre. In 2015 the show won the Olivier Award for Best New Play. Due to Tim Pigott-Smith sustaining a broken collarbone, he took over the lead role of Charles for 5 weeks until Pigott-Smith returned. He was in the same production at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway and the radio version for the BBC.
Royal Shakespeare Company
From 2003 to 2008, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in All's Well That Ends Well with Dame Judi Dench. He had already played with Dench in Sir Peter Hall's film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1967. He took part in the RSC's Histories Ensemble playing in Henry IV, part 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI, part 1, 2, and 3 and Richard III which won three Olivier Awards in 2009 for Best Company Performance, Best Revival and Best Costume Design. He returned in 2015 to play Voltore in Volpone with Henry Goodman.
Film and television work
He has carved himself a niche in film and television work, normally playing nasty upper class cads, butlers, priests and barristers. He acted alongside his father in Channel Four's adaptation of Porterhouse Blue in 1987, and in the BBC'sThe Final Cut in 1995, alongside his father. He appeared in three episodes of Midsomer Murders, he has had parts in Allo 'Allo, Doctors, Maurice, The Remains of the Day, ', Hope it Rains and Dirk Gently. He was Tony Slattery's butler in Ps & Qs and Sir Roger Moore's butler in A Princess for Christmas. He voiced "Father" in Flushed Away. He was the head of the assassins' league in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. He played Charles I in The Regicides and has played his son, Charles II, twice, once on stage and once on television. He played the Duke of Kent for the Japanese television production of Jiru and John Jacob Astor in Lord Julian Fellowes' Titanic miniseries. He appeared as Harry Thornton in Stephen Poliakoff's Dancing on the Edge, The Crown, Genius, A Quiet Passion, Peterloo, Outlander and as Nick Frost's boss in Sick Note. In 2018, Richardson had a cameo role in , playing an Imperial governor who is executed by the film's antagonist. Richardson also plays Irving Braxiatel in the long-running Bernice Summerfield and Gallifrey audio dramas by Big Finish Productions. He has provided his voice for over 100 films and video games as an ADR artist, including the 2011 From Softwarevideo gameDark Souls, in which he voiced the characters Siegmeyer of Catarina and Itinerant Merchant. Richardson reprises his role in Dark Souls III where he plays Siegward of Catarina, a very similar looking and sounding character to Siegmeyer of Catarina. Richardson has also had roles in the independent spin-off films Downtime and Daemos Rising'', in both instances playing alongside his then-wife Beverly Cressman.
Other work
As well as acting, he has also directed theatre and film productions, been a screenwriter, freelance journalist, lecturer and teacher, specialising in the works of Shakespeare.