Geraint Wyn Davies

Geraint Wyn Davies ( , ; born 20 April 1957) is a British-American stage, film and television actor. Born in Wales and educated in Canada, he became a citizen of the United States on 13 June 2006, having been sworn in by then Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. His most famous role as the vampire-turned police detective Nick Knight in the Canadian television series ''Forever Knight''.

Early life and training

Geraint Wyn Davies was born on 20 April 1957 in Swansea, Wales, the son of a Congregationalist Christian preacher and a school teacher. At the age of 7 he moved with his family from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire to Canada, where he attended Upper Canada College. He first acted at age 12, appearing in a school production of ''Lord of the Flies''. He went on to study at the University of Western Ontario, where he studied economics before dropping out to pursue an acting career.

Career

Acting

His professional stage debut was in 1976 in Quebec City, when at age 19 he appeared in ''The Fantasticks'', '' Red Emma'', and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. He relocated from Quebec to London's Centre Stage theatre company, and later played the lead in ''The Last Englishman'' with the British Actors Theatre Company. He spent two seasons with Theatr Clwyd, touring Britain in ''Enemy of the People'' and ''Hamlet'' (for which he received the Regional Theatre Best Actor award), and a season with the Chichester Festival, in ''Henry VIII''. In Canada, he appeared over several seasons with the Shaw Festival and Stratford Festival of Canada. He gained a reputation for his performances in ''The Music Cure'', ''Candida'', ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', ''The Vortex'', ''Goodnight Disgrace'', '' Henry V'', and ''The Three Musketeers''. He sang his way through the Rodgers and Hart musical ''The Boys from Syracuse''. Other stage performances include ''My Fat Friend'' in Los Angeles and '' Sleuth'' (with Patrick Macnee) in Toronto. In 2004, he appeared in Washington, D.C., in the title role of ''Cyrano de Bergerac''.

In April 1996, Davies appeared as Petruchio in Shakespeare's ''The Taming of The Shrew'', directed by Patrick Tucker of the Original Shakespeare Company. This three-performance run was presented as Shakespeare's own players may have done—with sparse rehearsal, eclectic costuming, and rotating roles. In Spring 1998, he appeared in the Moises Kaufmann production ''Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde'' at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. ''Gross Indecency'' earned the Garland Award for "Best Ensemble Cast from Backstage West" that year. In August 1999, he starred in Leon Pownall's one-man show ''An Evening with Dylan Thomas'' at the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Nova Scotia, Canada. The following summer he returned to the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Pownall's ''Dylan Thomas and Shakespeare: In the Envy of Some Greatness''. August 2001 saw the completion of Pownall's Dylan Thomas trilogy with ''Stranger in Paradise''. In mid-2002, he returned to the Stratford Festival Theatre's main stage in ''My Fair Lady'', as Henry Higgins, a role he alternated with Colm Feore. He reprised the role of Dylan Thomas at the Festival's Studio Theatre, and returned to the Atlantic Theatre Festival in August 2003 to perform '' Hughie'' (a one-act play by Eugene O'Neill). The evening was topped off by a presentation of ''The Sermon'' by David Mamet.

In 2004, Davies performed at the Lincoln in New York City as Edmund to Christopher Plummer's ''King Lear''. In the summer of 2004, he starred in the title role of ''Cyrano'' in Barry Kornhauser's adaptation of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., for which he won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Play. The next year, in 2005, he played Dylan Thomas for seven weeks in ''Do Not Go Gentle'' at the Arclight Theatre in New York City. While there, he did a reading of Tennessee Williams's letters at the New York Public Library, and performed in a reading of Eugene O'Neill's ''Days Without End''. In September 2005, he joined in a reading of R. L. Stevenson's ''Treasure Island'' in Washington, D.C., and in October, took part in a staged reading of a new play by Austin Pendleton entitled ''H6R3'', which blends Shakespeare's plays '' Henry VI'' and ''Richard III''.

In 2006, he returned to The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., to perform Don Armado in Michael Kahn's 1960s version of Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost''. Following the American run, the play moved to the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-Upon-Avon in the UK for a limited run. He was nominated but did not win The Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, Resident Play for Don Armado. While in D.C., he participated in a reading of ''London Assurance'' by Dion Boucicault.

Early in 2007, Davies headlined as ''Richard III'' by Shakespeare at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. He, along with friend Brent Carver, opened Toronto's CanStage production of ''The Elephant Man'' in mid-October. In 2008, he returned to Ontario's Stratford Festival to appear in ''Hamlet'' (as Polonius) and ''Fuente Ovejuna'' (as the King). He followed the Stratford season playing the Duke at the Red Bull Theater (NYC) production of ''Women Beware Women''. He returned to Stratford in 2009, playing Duncan in ''Macbeth'', Caesar in ''Julius Caesar'' and Bottom in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. For the 2010 Stratford Festival season, he portrayed King Arthur in '' Camelot'' and Falstaff in ''Merry Wives of Windsor''. The 2011 season featured him again in a singing role as King Arthur.

For the Stratford Festival's 60th season in 2013, Davies portrayed Duke Vincentio in ''Measure for Measure'' and the Earl of Leicester in '' Mary Stuart''. The following year, he continued at the Stratford Festival, portraying Antony in '' Antony & Cleopatra'' and the Cook in '' Mother Courage''. For the 2015 season, he portrayed Claudius in ''Hamlet'', and Johann Wilhelm Mobius in '' The Physicists''. He played Prospero in ''The Tempest'' in the 2014-2015 season of The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C.

Audiobooks

He has voiced two audiobooks: ''Great American Suspense: Five Unabridged Classics'' and ''Great Classic Hauntings: Six Unabridged Stories''.

Directing

Davies has directed several episodes of ''Forever Knight'', ''Black Harbour'', ''Pit Pony'', ''Power Play'' and ''North of 60''.

Music performance

In ''Forever Knight'', Wyn Davies played the piano in the loft and co-wrote a song for the "Baby Baby" episode; he was featured in one of the selections on the first ''Forever Knight'' CD.

Davies produced a CD of his own works, ''Bar Talk'', which is sold through his fan club with the proceeds going to a variety of charities such as Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, Children's Hospital Foundation in Washington, D.C., the Atlantic Theatre Festival of Wolfville and The Stratford Festival's Shakespeare School in Stratford, Ontario.

Personal life

Wyn Davies was married to Canadian artist Alana Guinn from 1985 to 2006. They have two children. In August 2011, he married actress Claire Lautier.

Filmography

Davies made his film debut in ''Deadly Harvest'' in 1977, and has since appeared in many films, among them '' RoboCop: Prime Directives'' (2000). In 2007 he appeared in a cameo in ''Nancy Drew'' and filmed a made-for-TV movie, ''Post Mortem'' for Lifetime.

*'' Deadly Harvest'' (1977) - Michael Franklin
*''D.O.A.'' (1978) - Jon
*''A Paid Vacation'' (1979) - Rick Jarrell
*''The Boys from Syracuse'' (1986) - Antipholus of Syracuse
*''Learning to Fly'' (1986) - Young pilot
*''IKWE: Daughters of the Country'' (1987) - Angus
*''The Taming of the Shrew'' (1988) - Hortensio
*'' Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman'' (1989) - Allan Devlin
*' (1992) - Anton/Tony
*''Hush Little Baby'' (1993) - Dr. Martin Nolan
*''Other Women's Children'' (1993) - Matt Stewart
*''Ghost Mom'' (1993) - Martin Mallory
*'' Dancing in the Dark'' (1995) - Dr. Lambert
*''The Conspiracy of Fear'' (1996) - Timothy Straker
*'' Trilogy of Terror II'' (1996) - Ben
*'' One of the Hollywood Ten'' (2000) - Michael Wilson
*'' Trudeau'' (2002) - Premier William G. Davis
*'' American Psycho 2'' (2002) - Daniels
*'' Cube 2: Hypercube'' (2002) - Simon Grady
*'' The Wild Dogs'' (2002) - Colin
*''Some Things That Stay'' (2004) - Mr. Murphy
*''I Know What I Saw'' (2007) - Detective Morgan
*''Pavane'' (2008) - Phil
* ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (2015) — Antony
*''Hamlet'' (2016) - Claudius
*''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (2020) - Falstaff
*''The Scottish Play'' (2020) - Hugh Painter

Television

Davies was a regular in the cast of ''To Serve and Protect''. Since ''Forever Knight'' he has appeared in several series. He has guest-starred in episodes of '' Katts and Dog'', '' Highlander: The Series'', '' Kung Fu: The Legend Continues'', '' The Outer Limits'', '' RoboCop: The Series'', ''Diamonds'', '' Sweating Bullets'', '' 1-800-Missing'', among others.

*'' Hangin' In'' (1982) as Drake/Jonathan (2 episodes)
*'' The Littlest Hobo'' (1982–83) as Adam Coulter/David Barrington (3 episodes)
*'' The Judge'' (1986) as Allan Pearson (6 episodes)
*''Airwolf'' (1987) as Major Mike Rivers (24 episodes)
*'' Dracula: The Series'' (1990–91) as Klaus Helsing (5 episodes)
*'' Highlander: The Series'' (1993) as Michael Moore/Quentin Barnes
*''Forever Knight'' (1992–96) as Det. Nicholas 'Nick' Knight/Nicholas de Brabant (70 episodes)
*'' RoboCop (Canadian TV series)'' (1994) as Martin (episode: "Provision 22")
*'' Black Harbour'' (1996–99) as Nick Haskell (34 episodes)
*'' The Outer Limits'' (1996–2001) as David / Sheriff Grady Markham (2 episodes)
*'' Robocop: Prime Directives'' (2001) (TV mini-series) as Dr. David Kaydick
*'' Tracker'' (2001–2002) as Zin (12 episodes)
*'' Slings and Arrows'' (2005) as Henry Breedlove (5 episodes)
*'' 24'' (2006) as James Nathanson (6 episodes)
*'' ReGenesis'' (2007–2008) as Carleton Riddlemeyer (18 episodes)
*''Murdoch Mysteries'' (2008, 2013) as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3 episodes)Murdoch Mysteries infosite
thefiveeight.com; accessed 2 December 2015.
*'' Frankie Drake Mysteries'' (2021) as Ned Drake (one episode)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Geraint Wyn
1957 births
Living people
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
British male film actors
British male stage actors
British male television actors
British people of Welsh descent
Welsh emigrants to Canada
Welsh expatriates in Canada
Welsh emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
Actors from Haverfordwest
Male actors from Swansea
Upper Canada College alumni
20th-century British male actors
20th-century Welsh male actors
21st-century British male actors
21st-century Welsh male actors
21st-century American male actors
Male actors from Pembrokeshire