Ian Richardson

Ian William Richardson CBE (born April 7, 1934) is a Scottish actor best known for playing the Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards trilogy for the BBC. The series was shown on Masterpiece Theatre in the U.S., where he is also familiar to television viewers as the man in the Rolls Royce who asks "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" in the Grey Poupon commercials.

He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after going to George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, he studied at Glasgow's College of Dramatic Arts and subsequently appeared often on the British stage including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has also worked in American theatre, acting in and directing Peter Brook's Marat/Sade on Broadway in 1965. He would play the part of Jean-Paul Marat again in the 1967 film version. He played Professor Harold Hill in the 1976 revival of The Music Man and received a Tony nomination. He also appeared on Broadway in 1981 in the original production of Edward Albee's play Lolita, an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book.

He has made many film appearances, the best known being in Dark City (1998), but include such diverse roles as Polonius in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) and Martin Landau's butler in the Halle Berry film B*A*P*S (1997).

Richardson's memorable TV performances as "Tailor" in the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and the Master of Porterhouse in ITV's adaptation of Porterhouse Blue. He has also starred in several installments of Murder Rooms (a BBC production also screened in PBS's Mystery! strand in the United States), playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle. In 2003 he played the recurring role of the villainous Canon Black in the short-lived BBC fantasy series Strange.

He was made a CBE in 1989.

In the early 2000s Richardson joined Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Donald Sinden and Dame Diana Rigg in an international tour of The Hollow Crown.

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