Hans Matheson

Hans Matheson (born 7 August 1975) is a Scottish actor and musician. In a wide-ranging film and television career he has taken lead roles in diverse films such as Doctor Zhivago, Sherlock Holmes, The Tudors, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Clash of the Titans and 300: Rise of an Empire. In addition to acting, Matheson sings and plays guitar, violin and harmonica, and released an album of his songs in 2019. Biography Matheson was born in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. His parents were Sheena, a therapist, and Iain (Ado), a folk musician and painter. His late younger brother, William Matheson, was also an actor. The family soon moved to Kent, where he has since been based, though with regular visits back to the north of Scotland. He disliked school and prompted by his mother enrolled and studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, London. His first screen appearance was as a youth being interviewed by the police in an episode of The Bill in 1995; he was then cast in other UK TV dramas before he made his feature film debut as Johnny Silver in Jez Butterworth's directorial debut, Mojo. He had created the same role in the stage premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in July 1995. He followed the film Mojo with Stella Does Tricks, playing a young male prostitute hooked on drugs who befriends Stella, a 15 year old prostitute. Matheson then played Marius in Bille August's film version of Les Misérables, appearing alongside Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Claire Danes, where he "was determined to play him as a heartfelt revolutionary, demanding power for the people". When he went to New York it was the first time he had left the UK in what he described shortly after as "an unbelievable turn of events". The same year, Matheson played guitar for the role of Luke Shand, a youthful rocker helping to invigorate an old band in the film Still Crazy.