British actor Ian McShane has had a long, venerable career, though for most of it he has remained unknown to American audiences despite frequent appearances on television and in movies. One of his best known roles—as the smooth-talking criminal mastermind Teddy Bass—came in 2001 in Jonathan Glazer’s stylish crime thriller, “Sexy Beast”. Though most of the accolades went to fellow Englishman Ben Kingsleyfor his scathing performance as the barking-mad bank robber Don Logan, McShane received his share of good notices for his portrayal of the sinister financier of a bank heist that eventually goes bad. But his most recognized and rewarded role came in 2004—forty-two years after his first onscreen performance. As Al Swearengen, the cruel and calculating owner of the Gem Saloon on HBO’s popular western revival, “Deadwood” (2004- ), McShane got the chance to play what the actor has called the best role of he’s ever had. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, McShane was enamored with cowboys and Indians as a child—a fascination that later paid off. His father, Harry McShane, played football (soccer to Americans) for Manchester United, and though his son was a fair player, he never harbored any ambitions of becoming a professional footballer. McShane got into acting as a student in secondary school when a teacher recognized his talent and asked him to perform in a play. He did, and felt comfortable with the experience. The same teacher later helped McShane get into the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where the lad honed his craft until 1962, when he left the academy a semester shy of graduation to appear in his first motion picture, “The Wild and the Willing.”; he never did receive his diploma. In this low-key drama, McShane played a troublemaker prone to drinking and lashing out at his elitist professors. Though not a commercial or critical hit, the movie did offer McShane a spotlight to display his nascent talents. McShane spent the next couple decades amassing an impressive array of film, television and theater credits. After playing a handsome gypsy who woos a traumatized rural woman—much to the chagrin of her parents—in “Gypsy Girl” (1966), McShane starred alongside such notable British actors as Michael Caine, Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews in Guy Hamilton’s World War II epic, “The Battle of Britain” (1969). Between the two film projects, he appeared onstage in the original version of “Loot” in 1965, by playwright Joe Orton—one of McShane’s good drinking buddies. He returned to film alongside another drinking buddy, Richard Burton, for “Villain” (1971), in which he played a petty thief and bisexual lover of a gang leader (Burton) who gets involved in blackmailing sexually deviant members of Parliament. In 1973, he joined another all-star cast for the suspenseful murder-mystery, “The Last of Sheila”, co-starring James Mason, James Coburn and Raquel Welch. During the mid-1970’s, McShane appeared in several high-profile miniseries, including David Wolper’s seminal work, “Roots” (ABC, 1977), and “Jesus of Nazareth” (CBS, 1977), in which he played Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Numerous other projects small and large attracted McShane: he played Ali Ben Yousef in the sprawling NBC historical drama, “Marco Polo” (1982); in “Grace Kelly”, he played Prince Rainier of Monaco, who marries the beautiful and elegant Oscar-winning actress; as Paul Lerner, he was the son of a prosperous Fifth Avenue family who has an affair with the wife of a wealthy entrepreneur in the NBC miniseries, “Evergreen” (1985); in “A.D.” (NBC, 1985), a historical drama that picked up where “Jesus of Nazareth” left off, McShane played Sejanus, a powerful member of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Tiberius who later was responsible for dating the death of Jesus; and he appeared as Roger Bushell in “The Great Escape II: The Untold Story” (NBC, 1988), a two-part miniseries based upon the final section of the novel that inspired the World War II classic, “The Great Escape” (1963). In the mid-1980’s, the actor formed McShane Productions, which produced the beloved BBC series, “Lovejoy” (BBC, 1986-1994, A&E, 1991-1996). McShane produced and directed episodes while starring as the title character, a loveable rogue a who can’t avoid living hand-to-mouth while running an antiques store. Despite the show’s popularity and success, McShane kept a low profile for much of the 1990’s, popping up now and then in episodes of “Babylon 5” (Syndicated, 1993-1999), “The Naked Truth” (NBC and ABC, 1995-1998), and “The West Wing” (NBC, 1999- ). The impact of “Sexy Beast”, which took many by surprise, helped reinvigorate his film career—he appeared soon after in the spy comedy, “Agent Cody Bank” (2003), starring Frankie Muniz With his role in “Deadwood” as the fictionalized version of the real-life Swearengen—a violent, but pragmatic capitalist who ran the mining camp with an iron fist—McShane had finally started to become a household name. In 2005, McShane won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie, Miniseries, or Series—his first, and probably not his last. Meanwhile, he was part of a strong ensemble cast in Rodrigo Garcia’s “Nine Lives” (2005), an episodic drama centered around nine different women thematically connected through their various travails. McShane played a disabled man whose daughter (Amanda Seyfried refuses to attend an elite eastern college in order to mediate the failing marriage between him and his long suffering wife (Sissy Spacek). Source YahooMovie.