English actor Simon Russell Beale was BOTD in 1961. Born in Penang in Malaysia where his father was a military doctor, he was educated in England, studying at Cambridge University before attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduation, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, frequently working with Sam Mendes. Short, portly and hamster-like, he became an unlikely leading man, admired for his mellifluous voice, deft comic timing and dramatic gravitas. His many theatrical roles include Uncle Vanya, King Lear, Macbeth, Candide, Malvolio from Twelfth Night and Timon of Athens, and a celebrated production of Hamlet. He became more widely known as the hapless Kenneth Widmerpole in the 1997 television adaptation of Anthony Powell’s novel series A Dance to the Music of Time, and starred as King Arthur in the Monty Python musical Spamalot. His recent work includes playing Falstaff in The Hollow Crown, a televised series of Shakespearean history plays, the stage play The Lehman Trilogy for which he received a Tony Award, and playing poet A. E. Housman in a revival of Tom Stoppard’s play The Invention of Love. His film appearances include Orlando, The Deep Blue Sea, The Death of Stalin (for which he won a BAFTA award) and playing Robbie Ross in the Siegfried Sassoon biopic Benediction. He was knighted by another queen (Elizabeth) in 2019.