Steven Waddington is a British actor who frequently plays supporting parts in frock flicks, especially those of the manly variety. I’m so confused no one has figured out that this strawberry blonde, tall guy would be perfect to play Henry VIII — he got close in The Tudors, but not close enough! Let’s take a look at his many historical roles on screen:
Edward II in Edward II (1991)
Not really technically costumed historically, but we’ve mentioned it before because it’s a Christopher Marlowe play, also stars Tilda Swinton, and is about English royalty (Edward II reigned 1284-1327). And Waddington plays the lead!
Maj. Duncan Heyward in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
He’s the possible villain, no wait, he’s a good guy English soldier who escorts and fights along with the leads in this story set during the French and Indian Wars/Seven Years War.
Bartolome in 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
His character goes with Columbus to the Caribbean, and if they mean Bartolome de las Casas, then I am impressed because he’s a fascinating historical figure … dammit, no. He’s Bartolome Columbus, Christopher’s brother.
Ribold in Royal Deceit aka Prince of Jutland (1994)
An adaptation of the Danish legend of prince Amleth, which also drew on the source that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet; set in the 12th century.
Ralph Partridge in Carrington (1995)
A biopic about English painter Dora Carrington.
Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe in Ivanhoe (1997)
Sir Walter Scott’s story of a romanticized medieval England, in which a Saxon knight defends a Jewish woman. Plus stuff.
Ravens in Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)
Set in 1913, about Tarzan, and starring Casper Van Dien, which tells you a lot.
Killian in Sleepy Hollow (1999)
I admit, I don’t remember his role in this late-18th-century spooky story about Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman! He’s clearly some kind of villager?
King Prasutagus in Warrior Queen (2003)
The revolt of Boudica, queen of one of the Celtic tribes of Britain, against the Romans. Prasutagus was Boudica’s husband.
Jason McGreevy in The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (2006)
A TV movie set in 1922. Again with Casper Van Dien! Make better choices, Steve!
Duke of Buckingham in The Tudors (2007)
He plays Henry VIII’s cousin who is executed in season one of the series. WHY DIDN’T HE PLAY HENRY HE’S PERFECT FOR THE ROLE?!?
Richard the Lionheart in Richard the Lionheart (2007)
As the famous medieval English king.
Grandmaster Torroja in Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)
A Swedish movie about a fictional, you guessed it, medieval knight templar. Waddington is also listed as “Grandmaster Torroja in Arn (2010)” on IMDB, which I’m guessing was a later rerelease of this?
King Richard in Robin Hood (2007)
Richard the Lionheart in Heroes and Villains: “Richard the Lionheart” (2008)
Yes, this whole “Richard the Lionheart” is a theme with Waddington!
Forrester in Garrow’s Law (2009)
I’m guessing he played a baddie in one episode of this late-18th-century legal series.
Second Officer Lightoller in Titanic (2012)
Boat! Sinking!
Superintendent Smith in The Imitation Game (2014)
The film about Alan Turing decoding German messages during World War II.
Thierry Duras in A Little Chaos (2014)
Another small role I don’t remember in this film about a 17th-century fictional French “lady gardener.”
Fritigern in Barbarians Rising (2016)
A docudrama about peoples fighting against ancient Rome. Per Wikipedia, “Fritigern (fl. 370s) was a Thervingian Gothic chieftain whose decisive victory at Adrianople during the Gothic War (376–382) led to favourable terms for the Goths when peace was made with Gratian and Theodosius I in 382.”
Cossa in Medici (2016)
The badly-costumed TV series about the House of Medici in 15th-century Florence. “Cossa” appears to refer to Antipope John XXIII (1410-15).
Redwick in Jamestown (2017-19)
I confess that Trystan’s reviews made me avoid this show, so all I can tell you is Redwick is “Marshal of Jamestown.”
Squire Pendleton in The Reckoning (2020)
An adventure horror film about a woman accused of being a witch after losing her husband to plague.
Are you a Steven Waddington fan?
It’s okay if you don’t remember him in Sleepy Hollow; he was only on screen for about ten seconds. :)
He’s the blacksmith who gets the chop along with his wife, right?
Exactly! I’m just mad their adorable little kid got it, too.
His version of Ivanhoe is one of my comfort series. I think the costumes may not be in quite the right time period, but they’re gorgeous and I don’t care.
I need to see more of his work.
Edward II was born in 1284, but didn’t become king till 1307, so he was on the throne, technically, for roughly twenty years. He’s famous for losing the Battle of Bannockburn to the Scots and ending up with an unfortunate encounter with a red-hot poker in Berkeley Castle.
Although at least one historian – Mr Ian Mortimer – has claimed that Edward II actually escaped (or was allowed to escape) and ended his days as a monk.
Whether this is even slightly true is an interesting question.
Him escaping is unlikely, but it’s extremely likely that the poker story was later added for shock value and he was murdered in a more mundane way, as early sources couldn’t seem to agree about how he died.
You’re right about his possibilities as H8; Rhys Meyers was so terribly wrong in the role.
I’m not going to lie, seeing Mr Waddington go from Ivanhoe to Richard the Lionheart (three times over, even) is quite charmingly appropriate.
Otherwise it’s a little sad to see him perpetually condemned to be pushed to one side – THE TUDORS is an obvious case (The plotline where his character schemes to make himself king in place of King Henry might not be deliberately meta, but it’s hard to see this collision of Fake Henry & History Henry as a complete accident*), but it’s worth noting that in the literary LAST OF THE MOHICANS Major Heyward splits hero duties with Uncas (The latter as Tragic Hero, the former as Romantic hero) while Hawkeye & Chingatchook are cast more in a mentor role.
*Oddly enough, besides his not looking at all like the historic Henry VIII, I have no complaints against Mr Julian Rhys Meyers in the role: he always brought that combination of facile charm, real threat, spin and towering selfishness that I associate with ‘Great Harry’.
The first episode of THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT strongly suggests that Mr Damien Lewis has improved in the role by orders of magnitude (or perhaps we’re just getting to the most characteristic years of King Henry’s reign), so rankings may be due for a change, but for most of WOLF HALL I would have ranked Mr Lewis behind Mr Meyers in the Great Harry Rankings: he simply failed to convey the energy of man who could go from purring to gouging in an instant.
Arn was two movies here in Sweden, but also re-cut to a mini series by using both of them
I made Capt. Hayward’s uniform (uniforms. I made 3). All that gold braid is sewn on by hand. There’s no interfacing in the red wool coat… designer James Acheson wanted it to be “a piece of cloth”… but we did tack a layer of like tutu net between the red wool and blue lining in the back skirts of the coat to give the pleats a bit of body.