Ian Richardson

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Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart in House of Cards.

Ian William Richardson CBE (born April 7, 1934) is a Scottish actor best known for playing the Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards trilogy for the BBC. The series was shown on Masterpiece Theatre in the United States.

Richardson was born in Edinburgh and educated at George Heriot's School in the city. He studied at Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and subsequently appeared often on the British stage, mostly with the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which he was a founder member.

He has also worked in American theatre, acting in Peter Brook's Marat/Sade on Broadway in 1965. He would play the part of Jean-Paul Marat again in the 1967 film version. He played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1976 revival of My Fair Lady and received a Tony nomination. He also appeared on Broadway in 1981 in the original production of Edward Albee's play Lolita, an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book.

He has made many film appearances, including Brazil (1985), Dark City (1998), Polonius in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Martin Landau's butler in the Halle Berry film B*A*P*S (1997) and Cruella de Vil's solicitor, Mr. Torte, in the live action movie 102 Dalmatians (2002).

Richardson also gave memorable TV performances as "Tailor" in the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Sir Godber Evans in Channel 4's adaptation of Porterhouse Blue, and as "Lord Groan" in the BBC production Gormenghast. He appeared in many roles, notably General Neuheim in the award winning Private Schulz. He has also starred in several installments of Murder Rooms (a BBC production also screened in PBS's Mystery! series in the United States), playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle. He had earlier played Sherlock Holmes in two 1980s television versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four. In 2003 he played the recurring role of the villainous Canon Black in the short-lived BBC fantasy series Strange.

Richardson won the BAFTA Best Television Actor Award for House of Cards, and was nominated for the two sequels To Play the King and The Final Cut as well as for the 1992 film An Ungentlemanly Act.

He is also familiar to American television viewers as the man in the Rolls Royce who asks Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon? in the commercials for Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard.

He was made a CBE in 1989.

In the early 2000s Richardson joined Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Donald Sinden and Dame Diana Rigg in an international tour of The Hollow Crown. A Canadian tour substituted Alan Howard for Jacobi and Vanessa Redgrave for Rigg. He has recently appeared in The Creeper by Pauline Macaulay at the Playhouse Theatre in London, and on tour.

Richardson is currently working on Sky One's adaptation of the Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather, which is due to air in the channel's Christmas schedules for 2006. He will voice the main character of the novel, Death, the Grim Reaper who has to take over the role of the Father Christmas-like Hogfather.