Anton Lesser was born in Birmingham[3] on 14 February 1952,[4] the son of David Lesser and his wife Amelia Cohen.[citation needed] He is of Jewish background.[5]
Lesser went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1974 until 1976,[3] and on graduation in 1977[8] was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year. His final performance there was as Gethin Price in Comedians by Trevor Griffiths.[3]
Career
Lesser was spotted in Comedians and offered a contract by the casting director for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[3]
When he moved down to London, the reviews were less flattering than he had become accustomed to at the RSC. However he continued to win roles on stage, including as Stanley in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Rover in Wild Oats and Brutus in Deborah Warner’s Julius Caesar in 1975.[3]
In 2013, during the third season of the HBO Max series Game of Thrones, Lesser began playing the recurring role of Qyburn, an enigmatic mad scientist who served as part of the retinue of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Qyburn, and Lesser's portrayal of him, were popular with fans, particularly as the series went on and the character appeared more frequently and had greater influence over the narrative.[12][13]The Ringer described him as "the last curious man in Westeros" and noted that the character "refuses to seem like a MacGuffin, despite totally being one."[14] The character returned across the remainder of the series run until the penultimate episode in 2019; Qyburn was one of the characters who perished in the episode, which led to many fans producing memes about his abrupt death.[15]
In 2022, Lesser played Major Partagaz, a supporting antagonist in the Star Wars spinoff Andor. His performance of Partagaz, a ranking member of the Empire's intelligence agency, the Imperial Security Bureau, was noted by critics. Digital Spy noted that Lesser delivered dialogue on Imperial bureaucracy with "powerful coolness."[18]
Personal life
With his wife Madeleine Adams, Lesser has two children, Harry and Lily. Lily Lesser is an actress and has acted alongside her father in Endeavour and Wolf Hall.[19]
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