Jack Laskey

Jack Laskey is an English actor best known for his extensive theatre work and his role as DS Jakes in the ITV drama series Endeavour. He is the third son of Michael Laskey, a poet. He currently stars in the CBC spy thriller television series X Company as Alfred Graves.

Laskey trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).^[1]

Television

Laskey received widespread acclaim for his recurring TV role as DS Peter Jakes in the ITV series Endeavour. Endeavour will film its third series in 2015.^[2]

In Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's hotly anticipated World War II spy series "X Company", Laskey will play the role of Alfred Graves, 'a young man with a gentle soul' who 'is burdened with an uncommon condition - synesthesia - that cross-wires one sense with another in the brain'.^{[3] [4]}

Other television credits include Squirrel Huntin' Sam McCoy in the epic Emmy Award-winning "Hatfields And McCoys", directed by Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner.^[5]

Laskey played the role of the Photographer in Joseph Pierce's multi-award-winning animation "A Family Portrait". ^[6]

In 2007 he co-wrote and appeared in the sketch show pilot "Spilt Milk", which received a Royal Television Society Award.

Film

He made his film debut in 2011, starring as Carruthers in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Laskey played the lead role of Konrad in Oscar-winning producer Peter Fudakowski's 2014 adaption of Joseph Conrad's short story The Secret Sharer. Almost half of the lines Laskey speaks in the film are in Mandarin - a language he had no previous knowledge of before starting work on the film. ^[7]

2015 will see Laskey star in Julian Jarrold's feature film "A Royal Night Out" alongside Rupert Everett and Emily Watson.^[8]

Theatre

In 2007 Laskey created the role of Roderick Usher for Punchdrunk theatre company in their seminal site-specific promenade production "The Masque Of The Red Death" at London's Battersea Arts Centre.

With the Royal Shakespeare Company, the following year, he played Bassanio in Tim Carroll's The Merchant Of Venice; Biondello in The Taming Of The Shrew; and Robert Hooke in Riot Group co-founder Adriano Shaplin's The Tragedy Of Thomas Hobbes, directed by Elizabeth Freestone.

Laskey has played several seasons at Shakespeare's Globe theatre: he has worked with artistic director Dominic Dromgoole on two productions, playing four characters in Trevor Griffiths's "A New World: A Life Of Thomas Paine" and Octavius Caesar in "Antony And Cleopatra"; for two seasons he played Bernard of Clairvaux in Howard Brenton's critically acclaimed In Extremis, directed by John Dove; and in Thea Sharrock’s 2009 production of "As You Like It" he received rave reviews and an Ian Charleson Award Commendation for his performance as Orlando.^[9]

He has toured internationally with the Young Vic theatre in two major productions: Luc Bondy's 2010 production of Schnitzler's "Sweet Nothings", in which he took the role of Theodore; and in 2011 he played The Other in Jon Fosse's two hander "I Am The Wind", Patrice Chéreau's only ever English language production.^[10][11]

Most recently on stage, in 2013 at the Arcola theatre, Jack played the role of Platonov in Helena Kaut-Hausen's production of "Sons Without Fathers", another performance for which he garnered a phenomenal critical reception.^[12][13]

His early theatre credits include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (English Theatre of Vienna), Cornelius/Reynaldo in Hamlet (Old Vic), Carney in Biloxi Blues (Couch Potato Productions), Juliet in an all-male production of Romeo and Juliet (Blood in the Alley), and Hamlet in Hamlet (Haymarket Theatre Basingstoke). ^[14]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

• Jack Laskey at the Internet Movie Database
• Jack Laskey BFI