Biography
Pickup was born in Chester, England, the son of Daisy (née Williams) and Eric Pickup, who was a lecturer.[1] Pickup was educated at The King's School, Chester, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, and became an Associate Member of RADA. His television work began with an episode during the second series of Doctor Who in 1964, for which he was paid £30. Pickup worked with Laurence Olivier at the Royal National Theatre, most notably in Three Sisters and Long Day's Journey...
Known For
Complete Filmography
End of Term
2021
as Damian Self
A group of students are tormented by the lingering menace of Garth Stroman, an artist who had a disturbing vision fifty years prior. The pupils discov...
The Happy Prince
2018
as Judge
In 1895, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was the most famous writer in London, and Bosie Douglas, son of the notorious Marquess of Queensberry, was his lover....
Darkest Hour
2017
as Neville Chamberlain
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it c...
Stealing Silver
2017
as Udo
A woman confronting a painful time in her life after she discovers the truth about a mysterious old man living across from her.
The Time of Their Lives
2017
as Frank
Determined to gatecrash her ex-lover's funeral on glamorous French hideaway Île de Ré, former Hollywood siren Helen escapes her London retirement home...
The Have-Nots
2016
as Bentham
The thin line between happiness and disaster: Jakob cancels a business trip to New York City because he finds out his ex-girlfriend is coming to a par...
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2015
as Norman Cousins
As the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has only a single remaining vacancy - posing a rooming predicament for two fresh arrivals - Sonny pursues his expans...
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road
2014
as Bearded Man
A writer of crime fiction is suffering from writer's block. Haunted by dreams of his wife and child, he seeks solace in a Hitchcock Festival at his lo...
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
2012
as Norman Cousins
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Mari...
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
2010
as King Sharaman
A rogue prince reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable ...
Theatreland
2009
as Himself
8 part series behind the scenes at the famous Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a focus on a production Waiting for Godot featuring Ian McKellen, Patrick...
Dark Floors
2008
as Tobias
A man emerges with his autistic daughter and three others from a hospital elevator to find themselves trapped in the building with devilish monsters.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
2007
as William McDowell
When a broken hearted boy loses the treasured wooden nativity set that links him to his dead father, his worried mother persuades a lonely ill-tempere...
The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby
2005
as Cecil Johnson
This is the true story of a little dog that refused to leave his master's graveside in Edinburgh. The dog visited the grave for years.
A Life in Suitcases
2005
as Monsieur Moitessier
Follows Tulse Luper as he is swept into the ill-fortuned tides of the 20th century and forced to spend his life in a succession of imprisonments.
Supernova
2005
as Dr. Malcolm Handey
A international science conference is held in Australia when Dr. Austin Shepard mysteriously disappears. Dr. Shepard's colleague, Christopher Richards...
Cherished
2005
as Professor Sir Roy Meadow
A drama based on the true story of Angela Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of killing two of her children, on the basis of "expert witness" evidenc...
Evilenko
2004
as Aron Richter
For years, Andrei Evilenko eluded the obsessive Detective Lesiev and the psychiatric profiler Aron Richter. Spurred on by his rabid fury at the gradua...
Benefit to Mankind
2004
as Professor Quentin Tapscott
With a history of depression, a bloodstream full of booze, and a high-pressure job in medical research, Henry Winton seems like an open-and-shut suici...
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea
2004
as Monsieur Moitessier
The second of three parts, we follow Tulse Luper as he works in a cinema, which gives him ample opportunity to cross paths with virtually every artist...
Secret Passage
2004
as Da Monte
Isabel and Clara are growing up in a time of terror. It is 1492, and Spain has decreed that all Jews must either convert to Catholicism, go into exile...
Breathtaking
2000
as Dr. Maclaren
A beautiful psychiatrist befriends an abused patient, ultimately leading to lust and murder.
Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil
1999
as Don Massaredo
Acting Lieutenant Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own.
Lolita
1997
as Young Humbert's Father
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at...
Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis
1997
as Percy Stone
Marla Darland is blessed with the voice of an angel, a singing legend. But when her agent, Marty Starr, finds his agency in trouble, he concocts a sin...
Samuel Beckett: As the Story Was Told
1996
as Narrator
A two-part biography of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. The first part covers the traumas of his formative years: his ill-fated love affair with his ...
Der Blinde
1996
as Dr. Bartnik
An encounter with a blind man ends unexpectedly for Susan Howard. The supposedly helpless man stuns and kidnaps her. The case is handed over by the Ho...
A Very Open Prison
1995
as Brian Silcott
The Home Secretary has his eye on the Prime Minister's job. But an experiment in the way the prisons are run leads to embarrassment - and escaped murd...
Henry IV
1995
as Henry IV
Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed '...
Milner
1994
as Jocelyn Fry
Stephen Milner is a solicitor, but he fits uneasily into the world of Lewis Strange and Partners, who are an upmarket firm of solicitors. The film fol...
Message for Posterity
1994
as Richard Browning
A version of Dennis Potter's play for television, remade shortly before his death as the original 1960s version had been wiped.
In The Cold Light Of Day
1994
as Morris
It is the late 1930s and some British households still eagerly await the arrival of electricity. When a pylon is erected in the garden, Morris's mothe...
Bethune: The Making of a Hero
1993
as Alan Coleman
True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power.
My Friend Walter
1992
as Sir Walter Raleigh
Bess Throckmorton, a farmer's daughter from Devon, encounters an ancient relative who soon reveals himself to be the ghost of Sir Walter Raleigh, dete...
The Golden Years
1992
The ancient Aztec world inadvertantly welcomes its doom in the form of the Conquistadors.
Absolute Hell
1991
as Siegfried Shrager
Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after World War II. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, le...
A Murder of Quality
1991
as Felix D'Arcy
At the request of his old war time colleague Ailsa Brimley, George Smiley agrees to look into the murder of Stella Rode. Brimley had only just receive...
Journey of Honor
1991
as Capt. Crawford
The son of a besieged Shogun in war-torn 17th century Japan travels to Spain to buy weaponry from the king.
The War That Never Ends
1991
as Diodotus
The Peloponnesian Wars (Athens versus Sparta for twenty-seven years) told in the format of news broadcast-like monologues by Theucydides, Plato, and o...
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
1990
as Aslan (voice)
Eustace is sent to a horrible school and finds a friend in Jill Pole, who's also running from bullies and looking for a place to hide. The two of them...
Jekyll & Hyde
1990
as Jeffrey Utterson, Esquire
Henry Jekyll is a troubled man. His wife died of pneumonia. He wants his sister-in-law, but her father forbids any contact. And his experiments into t...
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian & The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
1989
as Aslan (voice)
Young Prince Caspian of Narnia wonders and dreams about the old days of Narnia when animals talked, and there were mythical creatures and four rulers ...
A Dry White Season
1989
as Louw
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy w...
Danny the Champion of the World
1989
as Captain Lancaster
Somewhere in England, in the Autumn of 1955, a widowed father and his son live an idyllic life together. Only their gas station happens to sit on a pi...
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
1988
as Aslan (voice)
Four kids travel to the magical land of Narnia where they must battle an evil queen with the direction of the lion, Aslan.
Testimony
1988
as Marshall Tukhachevsky
The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1988
as Barrymore
Sir Charles Baskerville dies on the moor under mysterious circumstances and rumors abound about a demonic hound. When the American heir arrives to tak...
The Fourth Protocol
1987
as Wynne-Evans
Led by Kim Philby, Plan Aurora is a plan that breaches the top-secret Fourth Protocol and turns the fears that shaped it into a living nightmare. A cr...
Ladies' Night
1986
as James Tripp
A tradition-bound gentlemen's club is thrown into chaos when women are allowed in during "ladies' night." One member resents the intrusion of women so...
The Mission
1986
as Hontar
When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter i...
Eleni
1985
as Spiro
Nick is a writer in New York when he gets posted to a bureau in Greece. He has waited 30 years for this. He wants to know why his mother was killed in...
Camille
1984
as Jean
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hop...
Pope John Paul II
1984
as Jan Tyranowski
Bio-drama tracing the life and career of Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla from his days as a young activist in Poland to his rise and installation in 197...
Puccini
1984
as Giulio Ricordi
In Torre del Lago, by Lake Massaciuccoli, Puccini is writing "The Girl of the Golden West" when his wife Elvira accuses him of a dalliance with their ...
The Crystal Spirit: Orwell on Jura
1983
as George Orwell
A remote farmhouse on an isolated island. Strangers with English accents. Quarrels and a lonely child. The year is 1946. The man is George Orwell. The...
Never Say Never Again
1983
as Elliott
James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuc...
The Letter
1982
as Howard Joyce
The wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
Ivanhoe
1982
as Prince John
Ivanhoe, a worthy and noble knight, the champion of justice returns to England after the holy wars, and finds England under the reign of Prince John a...
Verdi
1982
as Giuseppe Verdi
This 1982 biographical television miniseries, as seen on PBS's Great Performances, dramatizes the life of this classic Italian composer known for oper...
Nijinsky
1980
as Igor Stravinsky
A ballet dancer struggles with his homosexuality and the increasing allure of a young ballerina who seeks to draw him away from his domineering lover.
In England's Green and Pleasant Land
1979
as Norman Reynolds
Can a convicted murderer genuinely repent and reform? If you were the prison authorities, would you find it easy to decide if he should be released?
Zulu Dawn
1979
as Lt. Harford
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.
Henry VIII
1979
as Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
Henry is a proud monarch who flies in the face of the church in seeking to divorce Queen Katherine and marry Anne Bullen. As cardinal Wolsey, the powe...
The Thirty Nine Steps
1978
as Bayliss
The year is 1914 and Richard Hannay, Mining Engineer who is visiting Britain for a short time before returning to South Africa, is shocked when one of...
For Tea on Sunday
1978
as Ian
An unexpected force shatters the urbane calm of a Sunday afternoon tea party.
Ghost Trio
1977
A female voice identifies a lone man in a room. The shots cut closer, revealing he is holding a cassette recorder, playing Beethoven's "Ghost" Piano T...
...but the clouds...
1977
A woman left behind by a man. Based on a script by Samuel Beckett.
Joseph Andrews
1977
as Mr. Wilson
Lady Booby alias 'Belle', the lively wife of the fat landed squire Sir Thomas Booby, has a lusty eye on the attractive, intelligent villager Joseph An...
The Philanthropist
1975
as Philip
The original play by Christopher Hampton, was adapted into this made-for-TV movie and it offers witty dialogue in the midst of remarkable conflict amo...
King Lear
1975
as Edgar
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youn...
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill
1974
as Lord Randolph Churchill
Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Chu...
Mahler
1974
as Nick
Famed composer Gustav Mahler reflects on the tragedies of his life and failing marriage while traveling by train.
All Good Men
1974
On the eve of an in-depth television interview, Edward Waite, former Labour cabinet minister, calls his family together for a birthday celebration tha...
The Day of the Jackal
1973
as The Forger
An international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to kill President Charles de Gaulle, with a dedicated genda...
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1973
as Edmund Tyrone
On a day in the summer of 1912, the family of retired matinee idol James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of Tyrone's wife Mary, the illnes...
Three Sisters
1970
as Baron Tusenbach
Nearly a thousand miles away from their beloved Moscow, Chekhov's Three Sisters live in virtual exile. Olga , a schoolmistress, attempts to support he...
Romeo and Juliet
1967
as Mercutio
BBC Play of the Month adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic love story.
Much Ado About Nothing
1967
as Don Pedro
Dame Maggie Smith stars in the 1967 screen version of Franco Zeffirelli's exuberant National Theatre production of Shakespeare's romantic comedy, in w...
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
1964
as Physician
The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involve...
Schadenfreude
N/A
as The Gambler
Jeremy O'Reilly, the self-important presenter of a TV news show, returns to a clueless East End community where a prank leads to the murder of a beaut...