Michael Byrne Dies: ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Braveheart’, ‘Indiana Jones’ Actor Was 82
He was not on the list.
Michael Byrne, the English actor familiar to fans of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Braveheart, and such British TV series as Coronation Street and Casualty, has died. He was 82.
UK’s The Guardian announced his June 20 death on Tuesday.
Neither a cause nor a specific place of death were disclosed.
Even in supporting roles, Byrne left indelible marks on his
films. In Last Crusade he was the ruthless Nazi Ernst Vogel, whose end comes in
a run-in with a tank. In Braveheart, he played Smythe, a soldier who attempts
to rape the wife of William Wallace and gets an ax in his back for his crime.
And in 2010’s Deathly Hallows he was the elderly dark wizard Grindelwald who,
when threatened by Voldemort, rats out his old friend Dumbledore. he also
played an ill-fated German commander in the 1978 WWII film Force 10 from
Navarone.
Byrne, born November 7, 1943, in London, launched his TV career in the early 1960s and ’70s with roles on such series as No Hiding Place, NET Playhouse, New Scotland Yard, and Thriller. His (uncredited) feature film debut was in 1963’s The Crimson Blade, and subsequent films would include Vampyres, The Omen (he played a monk), and Champions.
Prolific through the ensuing decades, Byrne appeared in a
string of high-profile films throughout the 1990s, including the James Bond
film Tomorrow Never Dies and Bryan Singer’s controversial Apt Pupil.
Theater credits include roles in Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in the 1960s, and he would go on to perform in Death and the Maiden at the Royal Court, Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre, Butley at The Criterion, and also The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Romeo and Juliet, All My Sons and many others.
Byrne is survived by his ex-wife Carole Nimmons, whom The
Guardian notes “cared for him towards the end of his life,” his daughters Tara
and Bryony, and grandchildren Tom, Chloe and Jasmine.
Filmography
Year Title Role
1963 The Scarlet
Blade Lt. Hawke
The Silent Playground Roger
1969 The Image the artist
1972 Henry VIII and
His Six Wives Edward Seymour,
1st Duke of Somerset
1974 Butley Reg Nuttall
Vampyres Playboy
1975 Conduct
Unbecoming 2nd Lt. Toby Strang
1976 The Omen Monk
The Eagle Has Landed Karl
1977 A Bridge Too
Far Giles Vandeleur
Telefon Soviet
Military Officer
1978 The Medusa
Touch Sgt. Duff
Force 10 from Navarone Maj.
Schroeder
Secret Army Paul
Vercors, Communist Resistance leader
1983 The Scarlet and
the Black Reinhard Beck
1984 Champions Richard Hussey
1985 The Good Father Leonard Scruby
1986 Oedipus the
King Chorus
1988 Saracen Colonel Patrick Ansell
1989 Indiana Jones
and the Last Crusade Ernst Vogel
1994 Nostradamus Inquisitor
1994 Sharpe Major Nairn
1995 Braveheart Smythe
1996 Kavanagh QC Judge Ransome
1997 The Saint Yuri Vereshagin
The Island on Bird Street Bolek
Tomorrow Never Dies Admiral
Kelly
1998 Gunshy Lange
This Is My Father Michael
Finnegan
Apt Pupil Ben
Kramer
Hornblower, The Even Chance Captain
Keene
Heat of the Sun Ronald
Burkitt
1999 Mauá: The
Emperor and the King Richard
Carruthers
2000 Battlefield
Earth Parson Staffer
Proof of Life Lord
Luthan
2001 The Musketeer Treville
2002 The Sum of All
Fears Anatoli Grushkov
Gangs of New York Horace
Greeley
Sunday Lord
Widgery
2004 Beyond the Sea Dr. Andretti
2009 Blood: The Last
Vampire Elder
2010 Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 Gellert
Grindelwald
2012 Outpost: Black
Sun Neurath
Quartet Frank
White
2013 Diana Christiaan Barnard
2014 The First Line Richard
2015 Mortdecai The Duke
2016 Wallander,
"The Troubled Man" (TV episode) Ola
Vilkander
2018 The Last
Witness Coroner
Intrigo: Death of an Author Keller
2022 Strike Roy Phipps
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