Let Us Give Thanks for Actor Josh O'Connor

Josh O’Connor has been described as a transformative actor, a shapeshifter. His career has grown slowly but with every role, he wins critical and audience acclaim. He has tremendous range, from comedy to the classics. Let’s take a look at his career so far.

O’Connor grew up in Cheltenham, one of three siblings born to a schoolteacher father and midwife mother. He discovered acting at school, where he was fascinated with the idea of getting under a character’s skin. He studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, whose alumni include Daniel Day-Lewis and Olivia Coleman.

From there, he took the pathway familiar to many British actors, working in small theaters and in bit parts on TV—Lewis, Doctor Who, Peaky Blinders, Ripper Street. He was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for a year, where he took a major role in The Shoemaker’s Holiday by Elizabethan playwright Thomas Thacker.

But his big TV break was as Larry in the heartwarming family drama The Durrells in Corfu. Louche, intellectual, and pompous, Larry is frequently exasperated by his chaotic siblings. O’Connor told the Radio Times:

Larry’s a miserable old sod—I’m desperately trying to find little nuggets of niceness in him. I did a lot of research into the real Lawrence Durrell, but I don’t think we’re trying to do a biopic here—for a start I’m twice his height. I’ve read most of his novels now, and they’re completely sex-fixated, so we’ve got that bit right.

In this clip, Leslie (Callum Woodhouse) strikes back at his supercilious older brother: