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John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies
Born	May 5, 1944 (1944-05-05) (age 63) Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Years active	1964 - present

John Rhys-Davies (born May 5, 1944) is a Welsh actor. He may be best known for his supporting roles as the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (in which he also voiced the Ent Treebeard). He also portrayed Professor Maximillian Arturo in Sliders, General Leonid Puskin in the James Bond film The Living Daylights and provided of voices of Cassim in Disney's Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Man Ray in Spongebob Squarepants, and Tobias in the computer game Freelancer.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 1.3 Political views 2 Filmography 3 References 4 External links

Rhys-Davies was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, to Welsh parents; Mary Margaretta Phyllis Jones, a nurse, and Rhys Davies, a mechanical engineer^[1][2] and colonial officer.^[3] Davies spent much of his childhood in his mother's home town of Ammanford, Wales although he was also raised in Africa. He was sent to Truro School in Cornwall. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the University of East Anglia.^[4]

He lives in the Isle of Man.

Although appearing sporadically on UK television in the early 1970s (for instance, as gangster Laughing Spam Fritter opposite Adam Faith in Budgie), Rhys-Davies first gained widespread popularity for his performance as Praetorian officer Naevius Sutorius Macro in I, Claudius. He then began to appear more frequently, and not just in the UK, with roles as a Portuguese captain Rodrigues in the 1980 television miniseries Shogun, and in the Indiana Jones movies. He has since appeared in numerous television shows and miniseries, including a leading role in the television series Sliders as Professor Maximillian Arturo from 1995 to 1997. He also made several appearances on Star Trek: Voyager as a holodeck version of Leonardo da Vinci. He also starred as an ally of James Bond in The Living Daylights and appeared in the movie One Night with the King.

Rhys-Davies has also lent his distinctive deep, Welsh voice to many video games and animated television series, including Gargoyles, as the character Macbeth. He appears in the full motion video cut scenes of computer games including Ripper (as Vigo Haman) (1996), Dune 2000 (as Noree Moneo) (1998), and the Wing Commander series (as James Paladin Taggart). He also lent his vocal talents to the games Freelancer and Lords of Everquest (both in 2003) and the game Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, which was released with his narration on a CD ROM version in 1995. In 2004, he was the unknowing subject of an elaborate internet prank that spread false rumours in several mainstream media sources that he was scheduled to play the role of General Grievous in Star Wars Episode III.^[5]

He also made a voice role on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance as the character Jherek, and narrated a documentary called "The Glory of Macedonia".

Rhys-Davies is a member of the British Conservative Party. As a university student in the 1960s, he was a radical leftist, but he started to change his views when he went to heckle a young local member of parliament, Margaret Thatcher. Rhys-Davies says that "she shot down the first two hecklers in such brilliant fashion that I decided I ought for once to shut up and listen."

In 2004, Rhys-Davies faced harsh criticism because of a magazine interview in which he compared the theme of The Lord of the Rings with the current situation of Western Europe, whose civilisation he described as being challenged by a rise of the Muslim population, stating:

There is a demographic catastrophe happening in Europe that nobody wants to talk about, that we daren’t bring up because we are so cagey about not offending people racially. And rightly we should be. But there is a cultural thing as well… By 2020, fifty percent of the children in Holland under the age of 18 will be of Muslim descent… And don’t forget, coupled with this there is this collapse of numbers. Western Europeans are not having any babies. The population of Germany at the end of the century is going to be 56% of what it is now. The populations of France, 52% of what it is now. The population of Italy is going to be down 7 million people.^[6]

His comments were endorsed by the British National Party^[7][8]. Rhys-Davies commented that it was "distressing to find yourself on a BNP leaflet.^[6]

• I, Claudius (1976)
• A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)
• Shōgun (TV miniseries) (1980)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Ivanhoe (1982)
• Victor/Victoria (1982)
• Sahara (1983)
• Sadat (1983)
• King Solomon's Mines (1985)
• The Living Daylights (1987)
• Waxwork (1988)
• Noble House (1988)
• War and Remembrance (1988)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989)
• Great Expectations (1989)
• The Lost World (1992)
• Cyborg Cop (1993)
• The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993)
• The Untouchables (1993 TV series) (1993-1994)
• The High Crusade (1994)
• Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (1994)
• Sliders (1995-1997)
• The Great White Hype (1996)
• Glory Daze (1996)
• Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) (voice)
• Marquis de Sade (1996)
• Cats Don't Dance (1997) (voice)
• Bloodsport 3 (1997)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Sabretooth (2002)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (dual role)
• Endangered Species (2002)
• Freelancer (computer game) (2003) (voice)
• The Jungle Book 2 (2003) (voice)
• The Medallion (2003)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (dual role)
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
• La Femme Musketeer (2004)
• The Game of Their Lives (2005)
• Chupacabra Terror
  • a.k.a. Chupacabra: Dark Seas (2005)
• One Night with the King (2006)
• The Legend of Sasquatch (2006)
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)
• Prisoners of the Sun (2007)
• The Ferryman (2007)
• Anaconda 3: The Offspring (2008)

• John Rhys-Davies at the Internet Movie Database
• John Rhys-Davies article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Official website of Wales, article about controversial statements January 18, 2004
• Andrew Leigh, "No Sean Penn". National Review. March 5, 2004.