- Born
- Birth namePeter John Freeman
- Height5′ 9¾″ (1.77 m)
- Probably one of Britain's most underrated actors, Paul Freeman has accumulated literally hundreds of screen credits over several decades, most notably as the main villain in the Steven Spielberg classic Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and he has worked extensively in the theatre, but he has managed to avoid becoming a star or even a household name in his native UK. His hypnotic good looks and talent for accents have often seen him cast as villains.
He originally worked in advertising and then he trained as a teacher, while he participated in amateur dramatics as a pastime. As a professional actor he gained extensive experience performing in repertory in England and Scotland and landed small roles at the Royal Court Theatre. He is also a founding member of the Joint Stock Theatre Company. He acted at the National Theatre and began to get roles on British television. Films included The Long Good Friday (1980) (starring Bob Hoskins) and The Dogs of War (1980) (starring Christopher Walken). His work was noticed by American director Steven Spielberg, who cast Freeman as French archaeologist Rene Belloq, Harrison Ford's charismatic but utterly selfish rival in the blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). He had expected to appear in the next Indiana Jones movie, but Spielberg and George Lucas decided on a different story. Nevertheless, his portrayal of Belloq guaranteed him good work in the following years, during which he continued to showcase his command of dialects and chameleon-like ability to disappear into roles, such as the deliciously evil Professor Moriarty in the Michael Caine comedy Without a Clue (1988).
His notable television appearances have included Will Shakespeare (1978), Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), Falcon Crest (1981), Inspector Morse (1987), and ER (1994). He has also continued to work as a stage actor.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpousesMaggie Scott(1986 - present)Judy Matheson(1967 - ?) (divorced)
- Resembles actor Robert Quarry
- Freeman claimed he had never heard of the Power Rangers when he was cast as Ivan Ooze in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1995). When the movie was released, a small tub of "Ivan's Ooze" was available from toy stores, featuring Freeman's face on the lid.
- He appears in Hot Fuzz (2007), along with Jim Broadbent and an uncredited Cate Blanchett. Freeman appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), while Broadbent and Blanchett appeared together in one of the sequels, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
- He has played leading roles at the National Theatre, the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- His first stage role in America was as Prospero in the American Repertory Theatre's production of The Tempest.
- He was considered for the roles of Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Bukovsky in Lifeforce (1985).
- [on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)] They said, "Here's the script, go away, read it and see what you think." I read it and loved it. It was the monkey with the date that really got me.
- I was very happy to be typecast, I got a lot of work out of it. That lasted for a few years and then I got fed up because it became a train of playing Nazis. One year I played the commandant of Auschwitz and the commandant of Birkenau in the same year, and I thought, 'What's my career becoming? Am I waiting to play Hitler? I don't think so.' So I said, "No more Nazis."
- [on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1995)] Power Rangers was a completely chaotic production. The producer kept me in prosthetics for much longer than I should have been so my face swelled up and that stopped production, and they tried to cheat me out of the money... The stories about it were endless. In the end, you know, it's a perfectly serviceable kids' movie. And I'm rather good in it.
- [Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1995)] They've borrowed shamelessly from just about every children's story. Ivan Ooze becomes a Pied Piper figure, luring children away from their parents to a world of total irresponsibility where everyone throws purple gunk at each other. But there's a strangely redemptive ending in which the parents and children recognize what they've missed in each other. Which I can only approve of, of course.
- [on When I'm Sixty-Four (2004)] I'd never worked with Tony [Tony Grounds] before, but I read the script and I thought, 'What beautiful writing'. It's a terribly well written script: everyone is decent, the things that are sad are the everyday tragedies of life. Nothing is manipulated - including the humour - and the people aren't evil. It's also important to me how people view people of my age. My dad had retired by my age and people of his generation were looking forward to retirement. But I don't feel like retiring.
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