Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent is an actor, born 1949.
A LAMDA graduate in 1972, Broadbent spent his first decade in theatre and British television comedy, including a run as the odious Roy Slater in Only Fools and Horses. Terry Gilliam used him twice, in Time Bandits and then Brazil, and Mike Leigh gave him his breakthrough film role in Life Is Sweet in 1990. He was past forty before anyone outside Britain knew the face.
Then 2001 arrived all at once: Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge!, which won him a BAFTA, Bridget Jones's put-upon father, and the husband in Iris, which won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. What links them is a trick very few actors have, the ability to be ridiculous and dignified in the same breath. Zidler is a shameless carnival barker who is also the only decent man in the building.
Since then he has been the reliable warm centre of other people's films: Slughorn in the Harry Potter series, playing vanity as a form of fear; Inspector Butterman in Hot Fuzz, whose mildness is first the joke and then the threat; Mr Gruber in Paddington; a priest in Brooklyn. He is at his most interesting when a director resists that warmth, which is why the Mike Leigh films and the small British dramas repay attention more than the blockbuster cameos do.
Movies (83)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
- Hot Fuzz (2007)
- Robots (2005)
- Dolittle (2020)
- The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
- Paddington (2014)
- Paddington in Peru (2024)
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- Paddington 2 (2017)
- Moulin Rouge! (2001)
- Cloud Atlas (2012)
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
- Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
- Brazil (1985)
- Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)
- Valiant (2005)
- Jay Kelly (2025)
- Inkheart (2008)
- Brooklyn (2015)
- Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
- Arthur Christmas (2011)
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
- The Borrowers (1997)
- Big Game (2014)
- The Iron Lady (2011)
- The Avengers (1998)
- Time Bandits (1981)
TV (13)
Where to start with Jim Broadbent
Moulin Rouge! is the loudest possible introduction and still the right one: Zidler drives that film and Broadbent plays him at full volume without tipping into camp. Follow it with Hot Fuzz, where he does the opposite job for an hour, being the friendliest man in the village.
For the serious register go to Another Year or Vera Drake, quiet English films where nobody gets a speech and he does an enormous amount with an expression. Brooklyn is the gentlest version of the same skill. Children in the house should get Paddington, and if you want the strange early material, Brazil and Time Bandits show what he was doing before anyone was watching.
The great character work
Broadbent has been in almost everything, and the interesting roles are the ones that undercut the amiability. His Boss Tweed in Gangs of New York is genuinely repellent, and Filth is the strangest thing on this list.
The awards films
The prestige end. He won the Oscar for Iris and in the same year was in Moulin Rouge and Bridget Jones, which is a fair summary of the range. Cloud Atlas gives him half a dozen parts across several centuries.
The family films
The family work, where the warmth gets used straight. The two Paddington films are the best of them and Paddington 2 is one of the finest British comedies of the century. Slughorn in Potter is the other big one.