Born:
August 22, 1971
in
Leicester
Best Known For:
BBC period drama Robin Hood, and Spooks.
Early-life:
Richard Crispin Armitage was born on August 22, 1971, to parents John and Margaret, an engineer and secretary respectively. He was raised in Leicester and attended Pattison College in Coventry, before heading off to Budapest, Hungary, when he was 17 to join the circus. He eventually went to the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts to train as an actor. He also plays cello, guitar and flute.
Career:
Armitage's first appearance on screen was in Brit-flick This Year's Love, with several small roles in Doctors, Casualty and Spooks following shortly afterwards. He landed the part of Capt Iain Macalwain in ITV1's Ultimate Force in 2003, and his star rose even higher thanks to Cold Feet, where he played Lee, and a major role in costume drama North & South, based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel. He's since starred in a TV version of Macbeth, The Golden Hour, George Gently and Robin Hood. Armitage also took over from Rupert Penry-Jones as the male lead in Spooks.
Quote:
On being asked what he knew of the Impressionist movement before starring as Claude Monet: "I've eaten my dinner off placemats and sent Mother's Day cards with Monet's Water Lilies on them, but that was about it."
Trivia:
He has provided the voiceovers for a number of TV and radio advertisements.