British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has been portrayed by not one, but six (and a half) Harry Potter actors.
Winston Churchill was born 142 years ago today, on November 30, 1874.
Serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, Churchill was an important and controversial figure during the Second World War and the post-war period.
His involvement with key historical events has inspired countless films, TV shows and stageplays, which means there is an entire crop of British actors out there who have (literally) walked in his shoes.
Churchill can currently be seen in the form of John Lithgow in Netflix’s The Crown, and next up is Gary Oldman, who is taking a turn in Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour next November:
Oldman, of course, also played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, but he’s not the first Marauder to take on the role of Churchill.
Here is Timothy Spall (the #wormtaily Wormtail) in The King’s Speech from 2010:
A year earlier, the Marauders’ Order of the Phoenix comrade Mad-Eye Moody, a.k.a. Brendan Gleeson, took a turn as Churchill in Into the Storm:
Meanwhile, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, alias Robert Hardy, has moonlighted as Muggle PM Winston Churchill a whopping total of six times, beginning in 1981 with Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years and most recently in the 2015 TV movie Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain:
It’s amazing that the Muggles haven’t caught on yet!
Another actor who frequently returned to the role was David Ryall, who played Churchill a total of three times throughout his career: In Bertie and Elizabeth, Two Men Went to War and the French series De Gaulle:
The actor is not someone you would necessarily associate with Harry Potter straight away, but indeed, Ryall played Dumbledore’s friend Elphias Doge in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
And that brings us to Dumbledore himself: Michael Gambon is one of the most recent British actors to bring Winston Churchill to life, starring in this year’s TV movie Churchill’s Secret:
Finally, for posterity, we should also mention that John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick) voiced Winston Churchill in a 1975 video short Decisions, Decisions — because that kind of counts, right?!
(Note that we didn’t include stageplay and radio portrayals, since this is strictly for film and TV!)