Early Life
Ian David McShane was born on September 29, 1942, in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. He grew up in a working-class household that encouraged the arts. His father, Harry McShane, was a Scottish footballer for Manchester United, which gave him an early sense of performance and teamwork under pressure. His mother, Irene Cowley, encouraged his interest in the arts.
Growing up in Davyhulme, Manchester, and attending Stretford Grammar School, McShane found his true calling at the National Youth Theatre. That led him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he trained alongside Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt.
The training stuck, and so did the northern, football-centred upbringing. RADA gave him the technique and Manchester gave him the accent and the manner.
Early Career & First Roles
McShane started working in British television in 1962. He was good early at playing intense, difficult men. His breakout came in 1967 as Heathcliff in a television adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
The same pattern held in Battle of Britain (1969), where he played a German pilot, and in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977), where he played Judas Iscariot.
Major Roles
Ian McShane has had the kind of career that runs for sixty years without going stale. He can carry a long-running series, and he can walk off with a supporting part.
Al Swearengen in Deadwood (2004-2006)
Al Swearengen is the part he is still measured against. As the proprietor of The Gem saloon in the lawless camp of Deadwood, Swearengen was the brutal, pragmatic centre of David Milch's western.
McShane made the profane, poetic dialogue sound like a man thinking out loud, whether he was talking to a ceiling beam or a chamber pot. Swearengen was a murderer, a pimp and a tyrant, and McShane found the reluctance in him, the part that wanted no part of his own decisions.
The part covered the strategist, the dying man and the reluctant leader. His relationship with Timothy Olyphant's Seth Bullock was the centre of the series: two men who could not be in a room together without a threat under the talk. McShane won a Golden Globe for it in 2005.
Critics still rank it among the best television performances. He never asked for sympathy for Swearengen, and he never got it. He returned to the part in the 2019 Deadwood film, which gave the character a proper ending.
Lovejoy in Lovejoy (1986, 1991-1994)
Long before Deadwood, McShane became a household name as the antiques dealer in the BBC's Lovejoy. Lovejoy was a charming rogue, a "divvy" with a knack for spotting genuine treasures, working the often-duplicitous world of antiques with a wink and a plan.
McShane gave Lovejoy a roguish twinkle and a genuine passion for the history held inside objects, which made auctioneering good television. The series ran for six seasons, including the 1986 pilot series, and turned McShane into a household name.
Playing Lovejoy after Swearengen showed how wide he could stretch. For a generation of viewers Ian McShane was Lovejoy: charming, working to his own moral code, always a step ahead of both the villains and the law.
Other Notable Work
McShane's filmography is mostly character work. His voice carries a lot of authority, which is why it was used for the villain Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda (2008) and for Mr. Bobinsky in Coraline (2009). On television he played King Silas in Kings (2009) and Waleran in The Pillars of the Earth (2010).
For crime viewers his supporting parts are the ones worth hunting down. He played Meredith in 44 Inch Chest (2009) and a beaten-down trainer in Jawbone (2017). His short turn as Septon Ray in Game of Thrones (2016) is a quiet piece of work in a loud series. Most recently he played Mr. Wednesday in American Gods (2017-2021).
Acting Style
McShane came out of RADA with classical discipline and added a raw energy on top. His voice is the most distinctive thing about him: low and resonant, and able to carry threat, warmth or a withering put-down on a single inflection. He does not waste it.
He specializes in characters who are not one thing. The tough ones have a nerve somewhere, and the charming ones are always calculating. You can see him thinking on screen. The result holds up in a close-up as well as on a stage, and it works for heroes and villains equally.
Personal Life
McShane guards his privacy, though his life off screen has been eventful. He has been married three times: first to actress Suzan Farmer, then to model Ruth Post, with whom he had two children, Kate and Morgan. He married American actress Gwen Humble on 30 August 1980, and they live in Venice, California.
He has talked openly about substance abuse in his younger years and says he put it behind him. He collects classic cars. He supports charity work, particularly in the arts.
In closing...
Ian McShane is an actor's actor. He has played a charming rogue and a murderous saloon keeper and made both watchable. He has worked steadily for sixty years, in leads and in small parts, and he has never looked bored doing it. The body of work is worth going back to.