Richard Colin Brake (born 30 November 1964) is a Welsh and American actor. Following his film debut in Death Machine (1994), Brake had a supporting role as Joe Chill in Batman Begins (2005). He subsequently appeared in numerous horror films such as Doom (2005), Hannibal Rising (2007), Mandy (2018), and Barbarian (2022), as well as his first lead role in Perfect Skin (2018). A frequent collaborator of Rob Zombie, Brake has appeared in four of his films: Halloween II (2009), 31 (2016), 3 from Hell (2019), and The Munsters (2022).
Brake is best known for his recurring roles as the Night King on the fourth and fifth seasons of the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2014–15), Vlad on the fourth season of the Showtime crime drama series Ray Donovan (2016), and Merle Callahan on the third season of the Paramount+ crime thriller series Mayor of Kingstown (2024–present). He is also known for his lead role as Conrad Harlow on the first season of the Amazon Prime Video crime thriller series Absentia (2017).
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Early life
Brake was born on 30 November 1964 in Ystrad Mynach, Wales. In 1967, he and his family immigrated to the United States, where they first settled in Atlanta. He then grew up in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio, attending Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Brake studied acting under Sam Kogan, at his Academy of the Science of Acting and Directing in London, and Beatrice Straight, at the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City. Despite growing up in the United States, Brake still considers himself Welsh.
Career
In 1993, he made his screen acting debut as a reporter on an episode of the British comedy series Jeeves and Wooster. In 1994, Brake and actress Rachel Weisz both made their film debuts in the science-fiction horror film Death Machine, which starred Brad Dourif. Following supporting roles in a few low-budget films (including Subterfuge, co-starring Matt McColm), Brake did not appear in a single film until six years later when he landed his first role by a major film distributor in Anthony Minghella's civil war film Cold Mountain. He played the leader of a group of Union foragers who attempts to rape the young widow Sara (played by Natalie Portman). The film was released on Christmas Day 2003 and was a critical and commercial success, receiving seven Academy Award nominations.
In 2005, Brake finally achieved recognition from mainstream audiences in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. He played Joe Chill, the man responsible for murdering the parents of Bruce Wayne. Brake appeared as the warped and perverted space Marine Dean Portman in Doom, a live action adaptation of the video game series, with Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson. He appeared as a hostile American man in Steven Spielberg's Munich, a cinematic retelling of the Munich massacre in the midst of the 1972 Olympic Games. In that same year, Brake also provided the voicework in the video game Juiced as T. K., the leader of the Urban Maulerz crew.
In 2006, Brake appeared in the music video for Muse's Knights of Cydonia, playing a villainous sheriff in a strange futuristic western. Brake played paroled convict Bobby DeWitt in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, a fictional account of the murder of actress Elizabeth Short. Despite being a critical and commercial failure, the film received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, losing to Pan's Labyrinth. In 2007, he had a supporting role in Hannibal Rising, which was based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris. He played Enrikas Dortlich, one of the war criminals who murders Mischa Lecter, the younger sister of psychiatrist-turned-cannibalistic killer Hannibal Lecter (played by Gaspard Ulliel) .
In 2008, he played ex-Marine Prior in the horror film Outpost. In 2009, following a guest appearance on the crime drama Cold Case and a supporting role as the titular character in Perkins' 14, he appeared in Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the sequel to his remake of Halloween. He plays Gary Scott, a sleazy and perverted coroner who is brutally decapitated by Michael Myers following a car crash that kills his co-worker. Brake garnered the role based on a personal recommendation to Zombie from actor Sid Haig. Brake made a cameo in the thriller Cuckoo, which premiered at the Cambridge Film Festival on 25 September 2009.
Personal life
Brake has two children from a previous marriage.