Biography

Julian Richings was born and raised in Oxford, England, and is one of three boys. All pursued careers in professional theatre: his older brother is a set designer, and his younger brother is a lighting designer. After graduating from the University of Exeter Drama Department in 1977, he performed extensively in theatres throughout the UK. In 1980 he toured internationally in a highly acclaimed adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses with resident spells in New York, Chicago, Toronto and Grotowski's Teatr Laboritorium in Wroclaw, Poland. Julian settled in North America in 1984 and became an established presence in Toronto's theatre and film scene, assuming roles in three landmark independent films; The Red Violin, Cube and Hard Core Logo. The latter, directed by Bruce McDonald in 1996, is ranked among the greatest Canadian films of all time, in which Julian played the bitter punk legend Bucky Haight. He continued to work frequently with Bruce McDonald and reprised the role in Hard Core Logo 2 almost fifteen years later. Julian worked with Special Effects legend Stan Winston on Wrong Turn (2003) and applied his physical theatre skills to create the terrifying role of Three Finger. Although he only appeared in the original movie, five subsequent films were made in what became a highly successful horror franchise. He has since become a familiar figure in horror and genre films, collaborating with indie trailblazers Foresight Features and Black Fawn Films. With Vortex Productions, he starred in Anything For Jackson, for which he received a BITS (Blood In The Snow) Award. He has also appeared in Robert Eggers' The Witch and Ari Aster's Beau Is Afraid for A24 films and the blockbusters X-Men 3, Man of Steel, and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. In Percy Jackson, he is the only actor to have appeared in both the movie (as Charon) and the Disney series (Crusty). Among his hundreds of television appearances, Julian is perhaps best known for recurring roles in Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital (Otto), Patriot (Peter Ichabod) and perhaps most significantly as the Grim Reaper in Supernatural (Death). Over the years, due to his portrayals of various vampires, creatures and aliens, together with many a spectacular onscreen demise, Julian has enjoyed collaborating with special effects teams worldwide, spending many hours in makeup and prosthetics. At one particularly busy phase of his career, his severed head was prominently displayed on the walls of half a dozen special effects shops across North America. Julian is always happy to meet fans, share his many stories from working in the industry for almost fifty years, and simply discuss his love of performing. He has become a favourite guest at ComicCons and Fan Conventions.
- IMDb mini biography by: Cheryl