Tom Hopper

Not to be confused with Tom Hooper.
This article is about the British actor. For the English footballer, see Tom Hopper (footballer).

Tom Hopper
Hopper in 2022
Born
Thomas Edward Hopper

(1985-01-28) 28 January 1985 (age 39)
Coalville, Leicestershire, England
OccupationActor
Years active2007–present
Spouse
Laura Higgins
​
​
(m. 2014)​
Children2

Thomas Edward Hopper (born 28 January 1985) is an English actor. He has appeared as Percival in Merlin (2010–12), Billy Bones in Black Sails (2014–17), Dickon Tarly in Game of Thrones (2017), and Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024).

Early life

Thomas Edward Hopper was born on 28 January 1985 in Coalville, Leicestershire. He attended Ashby School, where he first developed an interest in acting. He enrolled in a drama class and appeared in a production of the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet.[1][2] He studied acting at Rose Bruford College.[3]

Career

Hopper was cast in As You Like It at the Watford Palace Theatre[4][5] and has appeared in various television programmes and films including Saxon, Casualty, Kingdom and Doctors. Hopper portrayed Marcus in the comedy-horror film, Tormented about a bullied teenager who comes back from the dead to take revenge on his classmates. The film was released in May 2009.

In 2010, he was in an episode of Doctor Who.[6] Hopper played Sir Percival in the BBC series Merlin. He joined the series in the third season in 2010, and was a regular for the next two seasons.[6] After Merlin ended in 2012, he featured in Good Cop in 2012.[7] In 2013, Hopper starred in Cold, directed and written by his Merlin co-star Eoin Macken. The film was later released in the United States as Leopard.[8] In 2014, Hopper starred as Asbjörn in Northmen: A Viking Saga.[9]

Hopper became the first actor to join the Starz series Black Sails, in which he portrayed Billy Bones. The pirate drama serves as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.[10] Hopper deliberately chose to play Bones as a "selfless person, looking out for his crew", believing that the character would have changed dramatically in the time period between Black Sails and Treasure Island.[11] The show was filmed on location in South Africa.[12]

In 2016, Hopper appeared in the thriller Kill Ratio and an episode of Barbarians Rising.[13][14] The following year, he joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones in season 7 as Dickon Tarly, replacing Freddie Stroma who had previously appeared in the role in season 6.[15] In 2018, Hopper appeared alongside Amy Schumer in I Feel Pretty.[16] In 2019, Hopper appeared as Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy.[17] For the role, Hopper wore a muscle suit to achieve the correct look and underwent martial arts training.[18]

Hopper appeared in the 2020 film SAS: Red Notice. In March 2019, he joined the cast of Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, which was released in 2021.[19] Hopper starred in the Netflix film Love in the Villa which premiered 1 September 2022.[20]

In 2021, he starred as Captain Albert Wesker, leader of S.T.A.R.S., and secondary antagonist of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City. An adaptation of the popular Resident Evil franchise's early stories, it included elements from the mansion incident, Raccoon Police Station attack, and bombing of Raccoon City from the first Playstation games. [21] He has expressed interest in returning to the role, stating in an interview about the film's reception, "I certainly hope to go back and play Albert Wesker again. It ended in a way where I was like 'Oh, I can get used to this guy.'"[22]

Personal life

Hopper married actress Laura Higgins in 2014.[14][23] They have a son and daughter.[23]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2007 Saxon Fishmonger
2009 Tormented Marcus [24]
2013 Cold Tom Also known as Leopard [8]
Knights of Badassdom Gunther Credit only
2014 Northmen: A Viking Saga Asbjörn
2016 Kill Ratio James Henderson
2018 I Feel Pretty Grant LeClair
2019 Terminator: Dark Fate William Hadrell
2021 SAS: Red Notice Declan Smith
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard Magnusson
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Albert Wesker
2022 Love in the Villa Charlie Fletcher
2023 Place of Bones Bear John
2024 Space Cadet Logan O'Leary

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2007 Casualty Hugh "Chewy" Mullen Episode: "Stitch"
2008 Doctors Josh Mullen Episode: "Don't Try This at Home"
Kingdom Soldier Episode #2.3
2010 Doctor Who Jeff Episode: "The Eleventh Hour"
2010–2012 Merlin Sir Percival Guest role (series 3); recurring role (series 4–5)
2012 Good Cop Andy Stockwell 3 episodes
2014–2017 Black Sails William "Billy Bones" Manderly Main role
2016 Barbarians Rising Arminius 2 episodes
2017 Game of Thrones Dickon Tarly 4 episodes
2019–2024 The Umbrella Academy Luther Hargreeves / Number One 36 episodes
2020 Robot Chicken Eddie Brock, Solid Snake, John Rolfe (voice) Episode: "Gracie Purgatory in: That's How You Get Hemorrhoids"
TBA The Terminal List: Dark Wolf Raife Hastings In production

References

  1. ^ Jarvis, Jacob (26 July 2017). "New Game of Thrones actor is . . . Tom from Coalville". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  2. ^ Schrodt, Paul (15 February 2019). "Tom Hopper From Netflix's Umbrella Academy Shares His Superhero Workout Tips". Men's Health. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Notable alumni". Rose Bruford College. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  4. ^ As You Like It – Watford Palace Theatre "Main Cast List", Watford#Watford Palace Theatre, Retrieved on 13 May 2009. Archived 16 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ As You Like It – VocalEyes Introduction "Introduction Transcript", Retrieved on 13 May 2009. [dead link‍]
  6. ^ a b Dodd, Kate (5 November 2012). "BBC role a dream come true for Tom Hopper". The Toowoomba Chronicle. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  7. ^ Smith, Neil (30 August 2012). "BBC police drama tries not to be uniform". BBC. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Fuamoli, Sosefina (15 October 2016). "Interview: Eoin Macken talks The Night Shift & the challenges of indie filmmaking". The Iris. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  9. ^ McCormack, Kirsty (6 February 2014). "Exclusive: First look at Tom Hopper in upcoming film 'Northmen: A Viking Saga'". Daily Express. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  10. ^ Morgan Jeffery (11 September 2012). "'Merlin' star Tom Hopper joins Starz pirate drama 'Black Sails'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  11. ^ Perigard, Mark (9 February 2014). "Star Tom Hopper shows a different side to 'Treasure Island' character in Starz drama". Boston Herald. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  12. ^ Telling, Gillian (21 January 2016). "Black Sails season 3: Tom Hopper talks surviving a hurricane in Scene Breakdown". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  13. ^ Rechtstaffen, Michael (8 December 2016). "Ridiculous political thriller 'Kill Ratio' does Eastern Europe on the cheap". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  14. ^ a b Zeeman, Kyle (26 February 2016). "We had a chat with that smokin' hot pirate from Black Sails!". Channel 24. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  15. ^ "Game of Thrones season 7: release date, cast, trailers, spoilers & more". NME. 17 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  16. ^ Busch, Anita (30 August 2017). "Lauren Hutton, Tom Hopper Join 'I Feel Pretty' With Amy Schumer". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  17. ^ Deckelmeier, Joe (14 February 2019). "Tom Hopper, Emmy Raver-Lampman & David Castaneda: Umbrella Academy". Screen Rant. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  18. ^ Dibdin, Emma (19 February 2019). "Tom Hopper's arm have their own instagram account". Elle. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  19. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (26 March 2019). "'The Umbrella Academy's Tom Hopper Joins The Hitman's Bodyguard Sequel At Lionsgate". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  20. ^ Kroll, Justin (20 September 2021). "Tom Hopper And Kat Graham To Star in Netflix's Love In The Villa". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  21. ^ "Resident Evil: Tom Hopper Says His Albert Wesker Isn't A 'Stereotypical Villain'". 30 October 2021.
  22. ^ "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Sequel Chances Addressed by Star". Screen Rant. 20 June 2022.
  23. ^ a b Fernandez, Alexia (9 July 2018). "GoT's Tom Hopper Welcomes a Daughter, Posts Poignant Photo Sharing Skin-to-Skin Contact with Baby". People. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  24. ^ Tormented Cast Pages. "Tom's Cast List Page", Tormented, Retrieved on 13 May 2009.