The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

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Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

Get a closer look at these actors from their many TV and streaming series roles.

Streaming Stars, Then and Now

An imposing figure (standing at 6'3") with intense, penetrating eyes and possessed of a larger-than-life personality, the actor George Raymond Stevenson began life as one of three sons, born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to a British pilot in the Royal Air Force. Raised near Newcastle in England after the family relocated, he initially studied art and worked for some time as an interior designer. However, after seeing a play with John Malkovich at the West End, Stevenson became inspired to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. By the time of his graduation in 1993, he had already made his debut on the stage at the Barbican Theatre in London in the plays Temptation and Revenger's Tragedy.

He made his first recurring screen appearances in the TV crime drama Band of Gold (1995) (acting alongside his future wife Ruth Gemmell) and as DI Tony Baynham in the BBC procedural police series City Central (1998), which was briefly touted as a rival to The Bill (1984). Though Stevenson first attracted international attention as a dependable Knight of the Round Table in the motion picture King Arthur (2004), it was his charismatic performance as the rascally, hedonistic soldier Titus Pullo in HBO's historical series Rome (2005) which truly put him on the map.

More vigorous or pugnacious warrior roles soon came his way, beginning with a starring turn as the titular anti-hero vigilante Frank Castle in the ultra-violent Punisher: War Zone (2008), for which Stevenson put himself through strenuous martial arts and weapons training under the direction of U.S. Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) Marines. Among his subsequent gallery of colourful characters were the powerful Asgardian warrior Volstagg in Marvel's Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017); the relentless enforcer Redridge in The Book of Eli (2010); an Irish mobster challenging the Cleveland Mafia for control of the city's criminal underworld in Kill the Irishman (2011); Porthos, one of the The Three Musketeers (2011); the much feared Blackbeard in Starz's excellent swashbuckling Black Sails (2014), and the enigmatic Anglo-Saxon missionary and explorer Othere in Vikings (2013).

Stevenson reserved one of the most compelling performances for the strangely sympathetic Russian gangster Isaak Sirko, chief antagonist in season seven of Dexter (2006), overshadowing even that of the star Michael C. Hall (definitely no mean feat!). Add to that another acting standout as the obsessed, revenge-driven Commander Jack Swinburne in the German-produced World War II drama series Das Boot (2018).

Having first joined the Star Wars universe as a voice actor (the Mandalorian Gar Saxon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)), Stevenson was later cast in the villainous role of dark Force user Baylan Skoll doing battle with the indomitable Ahsoka (2023) Tano (Rosario Dawson), complete with orange/red lightsaber. Stevenson said in a 2020 interview that he had drawn much of his inspiration from veteran tough guys like Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman: "Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that caliber. It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with."

Tragically, this supremely accomplished and charismatic actor died in Italy on 21 May 2023 while filming Cassino in Ischia (2024), in which he was cast as a fading movie action hero attempting to revive his career. At the time of his passing he was just 58.

Humor is a very important thing. It is a natural predilection. It is an emotional release.

As an actor, I love working with directors. As much as I love working with other actors.

The best piece of advice I&#39;ve ever been given was, &#39;Be in the business you&#39;re in.&#39; Don&#39;t just be a satellite around it and expect it to come to you. Be in the business you&#39;re in.

Well, I&#39;m not a natural gym person myself, anyway.

Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, &#39;I&#39;m a bad guy.&#39; They think they&#39;re the right guy.

Life itself is pretty funny when you realize how absurd it can be.

It is a tough business but if you get yourself in a situation like I, you can maintain a career over many years. That, to me, is a successful actor.

I wouldn&#39;t ever presume to say that I am a comic book fan.

I suppose you just feel on an instinctive level if something is honest.

I never thought I would get to have my own action figure.

Working at night helps people focus in on this crazy little bubble you&#39;ve created, wherever you are filming. It doesn&#39;t matter where the location is, the world doesn&#39;t exist outside this bubble. And everyone is trapped inside.

You just have to open the newspapers in most Western news to see real violence.

When you&#39;re wearing jeans, there&#39;s a shift in your center of gravity.

Sometimes, I have lost out on a gig because I was not high enough profile.

The way Shakespeare wrote Falstaff is with a heightened language and everything.

Quotes

Ray Stevenson

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