Robert Hardy

His ex-wife, Sally Pearson , is Gladys Cooper s daughter.

He became an expert on the longbow when he played Henry V at Stratford. He became a longbow/weapons consultant for the Mary Rose Trust when that 16th-century warship was recovered at Portsmouth, England, UK.

He was awarded the CBE in the 1981 Queens Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.

He spoke at the funeral of James Herriot. Herriot was the pseudonym of Alf Wight (due to legal requirements of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) and Hardy and Wight became close friends over the years of the "All Creatures Great and Small" series, adapted from Wights books.

He was one of the patrons of the Wensleydale Railway, a group that has been set up to re-open the mainly derelict line between Northallerton and Garsdale in Yorkshire, because of his connection with the area from when he played Siegfried Farnon in "All Creatures Great and Small" .

He has played British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in six separate films ( "Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years" , The Woman He Loved , "War and Remembrance" , "Bomber Harris" , "Agatha Christies Marple" {The Sittaford Mystery } , Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain ) as well as the fictitious Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter series. He has also twice played Winston Churchill s World War II ally and friend, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Father of three children: son Paul Hardy, from his first marriage; daughters Emma Hardy (actress and photographer) and Justine Hardy (journalist and author) from his second marriage.

He is one of two actors to play Winston Churchill in several movies. The second was Timothy Spall , who played the role in Jackboots on Whitehall and The Kings Speech . The latter concerned itself with King George VIs speech problems, and with the scandal involving his brother Edwards VIIIs relationship with a married American woman. Hardy has been in two films about this period: The Woman He Loved and Bertie and Elizabeth , playing Franklin D. Roosevelt in the latter. He and Spall both appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .

Hardy revealed he was written out of the Harry Potter films because he became too expensive to insure due to his age.

He was considered to play Dr. Fendelman (played by Denis Lill ) in "Doctor Who" {Image of the Fendahl: Part One (#15.9)} and Captain Rorvik (played by Clifford Rose ) in "Doctor Who" {Warriors Gate: Part One (#18.17)} .

He was considered for the roles of Dr. Armstrong and Sir Percy in Lifeforce .

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , Hardys last line as Cornelius Fudge ("Hes back!") was repeated, as an uncredited voice-over, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .

At university, his professors included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

In common with the American character actor John Lithgow , he played both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt on screen.

Won a Best Actor Television award for his role in "All Creatures Great and Small" .

His co-star in "All Creatures Great and Small" , Peter Davison , claimed he learned more from working with Hardy than anyone else in his career.

Playing villains is half the fun, and you may not be an absolute villain,yourself, but finding something in the villain, the horrid creature,that you enjoy.

Thanks to those films I get the most extraordinary amount of fan mail,from all over the world, even China.