Jim Carter (actor)

James Edward Carter (born 19 August 1948) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Mr Carson in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012–2015). He reprised the role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).
Carter's films include A Private Function (1984), The Company of Wolves (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), The Witches (1990), A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992), Stalin (1992), The Madness of King George (1994), Richard III (1995), Brassed Off (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Little Vampire (2000), Ella Enchanted (2004), The Thief Lord (2006), The Golden Compass (2007), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), The Good Liar (2019), and Wonka (2023).
Carter's television credits include Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), Cracker (1994), The Way We Live Now (2001), The Singing Detective (1986), Minder (1994), Arabian Nights (2000), The Chest (1997), Red Riding (2009), A Very British Coup (1988), the Hornblower episode "Duty" (2003) and the Midsomer Murders episode "The Fisher King" (2004), and Dinotopia (2002). He also played Captain Brown in the five-part BBC series Cranford (2007) alongside his wife, Imelda Staunton.
Carter was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. His mother was a land girl and later a school secretary, and his father worked for the Air Ministry. Carter attended Ashville College, Harrogate, where he was head boy in his final year, and the University of Sussex where he studied Law and appeared with the fledgling Drama Society, playing the title role in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, the first student production at the newly-built Gardner Arts Centre theatre. He dropped out of university after two years to join a fringe theatre group in Brighton.
Carter began acting professionally in the early 1970s. When asked, "If you hadn't become an actor, what would you have done professionally?" he answered, "I wouldn't have pursued law—I'd actually dropped out of law into English, I'd even changed my course. But when the offer came from this fringe theatre group, the Brighton Combination, to leave university and join them for five quid a week, it was like a door opening, and there wasn't a moment's hesitation. I walked through that door and never looked back. I have never earned a penny from doing anything apart from acting. I have never had another job."
Carter's first paid job for £5 a week with free board and lodging was in a play called Gum and Goo by Howard Brenton for the Brighton Combination. The play was first produced by the Brighton Combination (in Brighton) in 1969.
He appeared in Howard Brenton's Winter Daddykins in July 1968 for the Brighton Combination. It was directed by Barry Edwards, and Carter performed with Fiona Baker and Lily Sue Todd. This is probably the play referred to in Jenny Harris's website that took place on 9 July 1968 in the Brighton Combination's cafe. Jenny Harris was one of the initiators of the Brighton Combination. Carter mentioned her in one interview as one who started the Brighton Combination. She was then head of the National Theatre's education department.
In 1970, he performed in the show Come Together at London's Royal Court Theatre together with the Brighton Combination and the Ken Campbell Roadshow along with other theatre personalities and groups. The Royal Court's Come Together Festival was on the cover page of Plays and Players magazine issue of December 1970. Scenes from this festival are also featured in this issue. The Come Together festival opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 21 October 1970 and contributed to one of the Royal Court's best years. The festival brought the avante-garde like the Brighton Combination and Ken Campbell into the Court. The Brighton Combination presented "The NAB Show", a politically oriented account of the National Assistance Board.
Later he joined the Newcastle University Theatre where he played, among other parts, Estragon in Waiting for Godot. From 1974 to 1976 he toured America with the Ken Campbell Roadshow and on his return joined the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester. In 1977 he joined the National Theatre Company where he appeared as Dom Fiollo (sic) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Cottesloe Theatre. In 1978 he became a member of the Young Vic Company appearing as Stephano in The Tempest, Buckingham in Richard III and Mephistopheles in Faust. In 1978 he went to America to study in a circus school where he learned juggling, unicycling and tightrope walking. From 21 May to 29 June 1980 he played Trebonius/Marullus/Poet in a Julius Caesar production of Riverside Studios directed by Peter Gill. He performs magic acts in cabarets. The Young Vic's Richard III production in 1978, which featured James Carter with, among others, Bill Wallis and Michael Attwell, was directed by Michael Bogdanov. He also performed in the Young Vic production of Bartholomew Fair in 1978. It was also directed by Michael Bogdanov.
He was a member of The Madhouse Company of London, a comedy troupe which performed in Boston in the 1970s, together with the late Marcel Steiner (1931–1999), Marc Weil and Tommy Shands. Ken Campbell was also associated with the group. The Madhouse Co. was an offshoot of the Ken Campbell's Roadshow that came to New York City and Boston. It broke up eventually and Steiner and Carter returned to England. The Madhouse Co. was in Cambridge, Massachusetts in August 1976. The Madhouse Company of London was mentioned and its shows advertised and reviewed in several New York magazine issues from April 1974 to March 1975. Marc Weil created The Madhouse Company of London in 1973.
In June to August 2005, he appeared in The President of an Empty Room at the National Theatre (written by Stephen Knight and directed by Howard Davies). When he did this he had not done theatre in 14 years. He considers his appearance in Richard Eyre's 1982 National Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls a significant moment. It was when he met his future wife, Imelda Staunton, who also appeared in this play. He considers Richard Eyre and Howard Davies two of his favourite directors. He was with the Brighton Combination still when it moved to London and opened a theatre called the Albany in Deptford. In his own words: "The Brighton Combination moved to London and started a theatre called the Albany in Deptford, and I was with them then."
In the early 1970s, the Brighton Combination, a touring fringe theatre group, became resident in the Albany Institute in Deptford, South East London. This was considered one of the great achievements of the Albany's then director Paul Curno. By fusing community work and the arts, Director Paul Curno and "The Combination" transformed the Albany's fortunes. This fusion still drives the Albany to this day. The Brighton Combination Company moved to become resident at the Albany in SE London in 1972 with a brief to set up community action and arts development projects. It combined artistic and cultural works with social activism.
He performed in the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, London in Jean Cocteau's The Infernal Machine (with Maggie Smith and with Simon Callow directing, 1986–87). Photos and a review of this play appeared in Plays and Players magazine in January 1987.
He also performed in The Mysteries: The Nativity, The Passion and Doomsday at the Cottesloe Theatre for the National Theatre in 1984 and 1985. Both performances were directed by Bill Bryden.
He appeared in Doug Lucie's Fashion in May–June 1990 at the Tricycle Theatre, directed by Michael Attenborough.
In the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) The Wizard of Oz production, Carter played the Cowardly Lion while his wife, Imelda Staunton, played Dorothy. The Wizard of Oz was directed by Ian Judge; it opened on 17 December 1987 at the RSC's Barbican Theatre. It played in repertory through 27 February 1988.
Carter narrates the pre-shows and announcements for the ride "Hex – The Legend of the Towers", at Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, United Kingdom.
He narrated the six-part series Home Front Britain, a documentary of life in Britain during World War II created and produced by the Discovery Channel and the British Film Institute. Home Front Britain was broadcast on Discovery Channel from 11 September 2009.
In 2013, Carter was featured in a Greenpeace campaign about the effects of global warming.
Carter and actress Imelda Staunton met in January 1982 during rehearsals for Richard Eyre's Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre. According to Staunton, "We worked together for a year and it was a slow burn rather than a heady rush of passion." They married in 1983 and have one daughter, Bessie, born in 1993, who enrolled at the National Youth Theatre in 2010. Staunton says of Carter's acting, "He has never been the sort of actor who yearns to play Hamlet. Maybe it's because he came to acting from performing in the circus. He has always done just what he wants to do."
Staunton later claimed that after 21 years of marriage, she and Carter had been apart for only three weeks. They have a terrier named Molly.
Carter is a former chairman of Hampstead Cricket Club, whose ground is near his home. On 18 September 2011 he organised the Hampstead Cricket Club's third Celebrity Cricket Match, an annual charity event.
Carter is a cyclist and has frequently ridden for charity causes. On 30 September 2011 he travelled with 25 other riders to Ghana for a 10-day trip that included six days of cycling to raise money for clean water in the small impoverished town of Tafo. It was his tenth charity ride. The previous nine were to raise money for the National Deaf Children's Society. He intended to raise at least £2,750, and ended up raising £8,670.
As of October 2019, Carter lives in West Hampstead, North London.
Carter was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to drama.
His National Theatre performances (as James Carter):
Media related to Jim Carter at Wikimedia Commons