David Rintoul

Thanks to actors like David Rintoul, the television miniseries has become a formidable art form. Unencumbered by the time limitations of the typical film, television movie, or stage play, the TV miniseries can take four, eight, or even 12 hours to develop themes, characters, and plots -- often based on classic literary works. Characters have time to grow, learn, make mistakes, and recite lines from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Victor Hugo. Consequently, miniseries attract good actors, good scripts, and, of course, big audiences. David Rintoul has made a career out of performing roles in miniseries, some of them among the best ever made. In 2001, he played the ship's surgeon, Dr. Clive, in the celebrated Horatio Hornblower series, appearing in Hornblower: Retribution and Hornblower: Mutiny. Rintoul began appearing in miniseries in 1975, when he played Jock Graham in Lord Peter Wimsey: Five Red Herrings. Three years later, he took on roles in two more miniseries, Prince Regent and the acclaimed Lillie, a biodrama about British actress and socialite Lillie Langtry. In 1979, Rintoul became Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, a miniseries that helped whet the appetite for the Jane Austen films and miniseries of the 1990s. In 1985, Rintoul went back in time to play Linus in the ten-hour miniseries A.D. (also know as A.D.: Anno Domini), which chronicled the lives of Christ's apostles as they spread the gospel in the Roman Empire of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. Rintoul also performed in many continuing TV series, as well as plays performed throughout England. For example, he starred as Macbeth in a touring Old Vic production and as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Pt. I and Henry IV, Pt. II in Royal Shakespeare Company productions. Rintoul received his training at Edinburgh University and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then worked in repertory productions. After his acting had developed "bite," he portrayed a werewolf in a 1975 film, Legend of the Werewolf, working with Christopher Lee and Hugh Griffith.