Iain Glen

Iain Glen's usual position on screen is a pace behind whoever holds the power, watching. As Sir Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones (2011–2019) he was the exiled knight and adviser to Daenerys Targaryen for all eight seasons, and he played devotion quietly, so that the loyalty was in where he stood and how long he stayed. He is cast again and again as the authoritative or morally complex man at the edge of the frame, in prestige drama and in genre alike, and as the outright villain when a franchise needs one: Dr Alexander Isaacs across three Resident Evil films, beginning with Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004).

That was not the shape of the career at the start. After RADA he began in theatre and film in the mid-1980s, took a part in Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and had his breakthrough as Larry Winters in Silent Scream (1990), a leading role. The stage stayed with him: Henry V (1995), The Crucible (2006), leading Shakespeare parts through the years when television knew him as Mr Preston in the BBC's Wives and Daughters (1999). Profiles note the turn after the 1990s towards supporting and genre roles, and it is fair to note it. Kick-Ass 2 (2013), in which he is Uncle Ralph, is a film we scored 46 and would not send anyone to for his sake.

Then Westeros, and after it Downton Abbey, Titans, The Rig and Silo, a run of series work that suits him. The long form is where his kind of acting pays out. A supporting player in a two-hour film gets one scene to establish who he is; across eight seasons Glen could let Jorah be dull, patient and slightly embarrassing in his love, and trust that it would add up. It did. We found, somewhere in the middle seasons, that we minded when he was off screen more than we minded the absence of characters the show plainly thought more important, and the reason was simple: he never once asked us to feel sorry for the man.

Our own reviews of Game of Thrones and Kick-Ass 2 did not stop to name him, and that is the honest caveat. He is not an actor who bends a film around himself; he holds his corner of it up. The classical training shows in the voice, the stillness and a refusal to hurry, which is a virtue in a knight and a liability in a comic-book uncle.

He has said that success is "making active choices about what you want to do, not being forced to do an advert because you need to earn something", and the choices since 2011 have leaned towards the steady television part. We would take one more leading role, of the kind Silent Scream was, before the franchises claim him for another villain.