Rory McCann (born 24 April 1969) is a Scottish actor, best known for portraying Sandor "The Hound" Clegane on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'', Michael "Lurch" Armstrong in

Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical Film genre, genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zo ...

's crime-comedy ''

Hot Fuzz ''Hot Fuzz'' is a 2007 buddy cop action comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the film with Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Nicholas Angel, an elite London police officer, whose proficiency makes the rest of his team look bad, causing hi ...

'' (2007), Jurgen the Brutal in the adventure comedy '' Jumanji: The Next Level'' (2019) and the voice of

Megatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a villaino ...

in '' Transformers: EarthSpark''.

Early life

McCann was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. He has a sister, Sally-Gay McCann, born in 1972. Before becoming an actor, McCann was a painter who studied at the Scottish School of Forestry near

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

. He also worked as a bridge painter (on the

Forth Road Bridge The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in Central Belt, east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the List of longest suspension bridge spans, longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. ...

), landscape gardener and carpenter. Rory McCann was first trained as an actor by writer-artist Robert Parsifal Finch in The Actor's Workshop, Glasgow in 1998.

Career

McCann's first acting job was as an extra on the film ''

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

'' (1988). He was fired because he laughed during the takes. He appeared in an advertisement for Scott's Porage Oats, dressed in a vest and

kilt A kilt ( ) is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first r ...

. As his first major acting role, McCann played a disabled

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, providing m ...

in the 2002 television comedy drama '' The Book Group'', winning the Scottish

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

for the best television performance of 2002. Since then, he has taken television roles as Detective Inspector Stuart Brown in '' State of Play'',

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

in ''Peter in Paradise'', and a priest in the award-winning British comedy-drama series '' Shameless''. He made his

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

debut in the 2004 film ''

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

,'' which required the actors to go through training in the African desert, and included shooting in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, and a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

studio. In 2007, he appeared as Michael "Lurch" Armstrong in ''

''. In 2008, he played Moby in '' The Crew'' and

Attila the Hun Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central and East ...

in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...

Heroes and Villains "Heroes and Villains" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1967 album ''Smiley Smile'' and their unfinished ''Smile (The Beach Boys album), Smile'' project. Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Wilson envisioned ...

''. McCann portrayed Sandor "The Hound" Clegane in 7 out of 8 seasons of the

series ''

''. Other projects include a

TV series by writer

Jimmy McGovern James Stanley McGovern (born September 1949) is an English screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating the drama series '' Cracker'' (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He als ...

called '' Banished'', set in Australia in the 18th century. McCann plays a blacksmith named Marston. In 2022 he became the narrator of the

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

series '' DNA Journey''. McCann will star in the upcoming second season of the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' series '' Ahsoka''. He will portray Baylan Skoll, succeeding the late Ray Stevenson in the role.

Personal life

McCann's younger sister, Sally-Gay McCann, works on costumes for film and television; he worked alongside her on ''Alexander'' and ''Game of Thrones''. McCann is a supporter of the

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; ) are a green party, green List of political parties in Scotland, political party in Scotland. The party has 7 MSPs of 129 in the Scottish Parliament, the party holds 35 of the 1226 ...

, and appeared in its 2007 Scottish Parliament general election broadcast. In 1990, McCann broke multiple bones in a near-fatal rock climbing accident in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. McCann is the former frontman of a defunct band called Thundersoup. He plays the piano, guitar, banjo and mandolin. McCann lives a solitary, transient lifestyle. He often lives on his boat or in places without modern conveniences. In 2006, he went to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

with

Gerard Butler Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as '' Mrs Brown'' (1997), the James Bond film ''Tomorrow Never ...

to attend the premiere of '' Beowulf & Grendel''. He ended up living in Iceland for a year, part of the time in a tent after losing his apartment, and working as a carpenter.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, Rory 1969 births 20th-century Scottish male actors 21st-century Scottish male actors Living people Male actors from Glasgow Scottish male film actors Scottish male television actors Scottish male voice actors