Richard Brake

Richard Brake, Welsh and American, made his film debut in the 1994 science-fiction horror Death Machine and spent a decade in small parts before Batman Begins gave him the mugger in the alley, Joe Chill, in 2005. That is a role with almost no dialogue and enormous consequence, and it set the pattern: Brake gets hired to be the moment the floor gives way.

He has an unusually still face and a voice with no obvious effort in it, and he uses both to play men with nothing behind the eyes. The important thing is that he never mugs. Where a lesser horror actor would signal the menace, Brake underplays it, which is why the parts land in films that otherwise would not support them. Doom, Hannibal Rising, The Counselor, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Barbarian and The Strangers trilogy have all used him for exactly that.

His best writing has come from Rob Zombie, who has cast him four times: Halloween II, 31, 3 from Hell and The Munsters. Doom-Head in 31 hands him an opening monologue that most character actors wait a career for, and Brake delivers it with a horrible, patient relish. The other high point is The Chemist in Mandy, a few minutes of pure atmosphere.

He finally took a first lead in Perfect Skin in 2018, and has since worked steadily in prestige-adjacent television including Mayor of Kingstown, Absentia and Patrick Melrose. He is a specialist, and the specialism is genuinely his own.