Films His film roles include Dil's on-off boyfriend Dave in the
Academy Award-winning film
The Crying Game, Danny the drug dealer in
Withnail & I,
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in
Buster, roadie Del Preston in ''
Wayne's World 2, teacher and rugby league player Phil in Up 'n' Under, prison guard captain Mr Burton in Mean Machine, Sgt Major Harris in the Paul Schrader film Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and CIA renegade Mr Collins alongside Wesley Snipes in The Contractor''. In 1997, Brown appeared in
Steven Spielberg's
slavery epic
Amistad. In 2007, he was cast in
Caught in the Act, an independent British film. Brown starred as DJ Bob Silver in
The Boat That Rocked aka
Pirate Radio (2009), written and directed by
Richard Curtis,
Huge directed by
Ben Miller (2009),
The Kid (2010), directed by
Nick Moran,
Mission: London, a Bulgarian comedy directed by Dimitar Mitoviski which premiered in
Sofia on 13 April 2010, and
Sus (2010), written by
Barrie Keeffe and directed by Robert Heath. He worked on the film
Killing Bono (2010) and the feature film
Dark Tide (2010) in
Cape Town, opposite
Halle Berry,
I, Anna (2011) with
Gabriel Byrne and
Charlotte Rampling, then went on to work on
Tower Block (2012) in London,
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) directed by
Bryan Singer, and
Stoker (2013) in
Nashville, directed by
Park Chan-wook. In 2018 he appeared in
Final Score with
Dave Bautista, directed by
Scott Mann, about
West Ham United's now-abandoned
Boleyn Ground. He worked with
Will Smith in
Ang Lee's
Gemini Man (2019).
Television Among TV appearances, Brown appeared as PC Pete Muswell in
The Bill from 1985 to 1986; guest starred as Captain Carlisle in
A Touch of Frost in 1996; appeared in
Dennis Potter's
Karaoke in 1995; portrayed, to much acclaim,
Prince John in the BBC's adaptation of
Sir Walter Scott's
Ivanhoe in 1997; appeared as John Geddes in the ITV post-apocalyptic drama serial
The Last Train; appeared as the moustachioed policeman Wintersgill in the
Channel 4/
Showtime series
Cape Wrath; and did a memorable turn as shaven-headed gang-boss "Miami Vice" in the 2000 series
Lock, Stock...The Series. In 2005, he appeared in
Coronation Street as Barney, roadie to
Status Quo, and with
Julia Davis in the cult TV sitcom
Nighty Night as perverted new-age sex therapist Jacques. In 2007, he appeared in the final two episodes of
Life on Mars as Frank Morgan, an interim DCI in 1973 sequences, and Sam's (
John Simm's) surgeon in 2006 sequences. Brown played
Sarah Solemani's father in
Him & Her, which began airing in 2010 and continued through 2014 for
BBC Three comedy, winning a BAFTA for the final series, "The Wedding." In 2012, he worked on
Inspector George Gently with
Martin Shaw,
The Poison Tree for ITV, and
The Mimic for C4. In 2013, he worked on the aborted
Marvin Gaye film
Sexual Healing directed by
Julien Temple, and the ABC series
The Assets in
Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2014, he was cast in
Babylon for C4 and
Elementary for
CBS, followed by ''
Turn: Washington's Spies for AMC, playing General Sir Henry Clinton, leader of the redcoats. Brown returned for seasons 3 and 4 of the series. He also played Johann Fennhoff / Ivchenko, in Agent Carter for Marvel, and guest starred on Blacklist''. In 2015 Brown starred in all ten episodes of
Legends with
Sean Bean, with whom he had worked on
Extremely Dangerous in the early 1990s. In 2016-17 he returned to
Prague with showrunner
Ken Biller to shoot
Genius: Einstein for
Nat Geo, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2017. In June 2016, Brown played the role of
Bob Clay in the BBC film
Reg. In September 2017 Brown travelled to
Guadeloupe for a guest role in the BBC show
Death in Paradise. In 2021, Brown portrayed former U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson in two episodes of
Godfather of Harlem, a series on EPIX which explores the intersection between the criminal underworld and civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Documentary Brown has appeared in three feature-length documentary films :
Scala!!! directed by Ali Catterall and Jane Giles from 2023 about the cult cinema in London where he worked in the late 70s and early 80s,
War Game directed by Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, a re-imagining of the
Jan 6th invasion of the US Capitol, and 2025's
Stand or Fall: The Remarkable Rise of Brighton & Hove Albion a history of the last 25 years of his beloved football club
The Seagulls.
Theatre In his early years, Brown was involved with the Moving Parts Theatre Company with Rachel Feldberg,
Ruth Mackenzie, Anita Lewton, and Saffron Myers.
John Godber adapted
A Clockwork Orange for Man In The Moon,
King's Road, then Brown appeared in
West written & directed by
Steven Berkoff at the
Donmar for five months (also shot for C4), followed by
Royal Court Theatre's
Panic,
Joint Stock's
Deadlines, The
RSC's
Earwig by
Paula Milne, and The
Everyman in Liverpool playing the title role in
Macbeth. He retired from the stage shortly thereafter, and returned briefly 20 years later at The
Bush Theatre to play guitar in punk play
The Dysfunkshonalz by writer
Mike Packer. After only appearing in one play in 30 years Brown joined the company of
The Ferryman on Broadway in February 2019 which won four Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Director, Best Set Design and Best Costume. Brown starred as IRA Commander Jimmy Muldoon in
The Ferryman, which played at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre from 19 February until 7 July 2019.
As a writer Ralph Brown wrote the play
Sanctuary for
Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1987 which toured the UK and won the
Samuel Beckett Award in 1987 for best first play. The No-Neck Monsters Theatre Company brought the playwright and actor to Washington, D.C. from London to adapt his 1987 Samuel Beckett Award-winning new play
Sanctuary. Re-written as a rap musical for the "No Necks", the show became a successful and controversial production capturing homelessness, runaways and crack hitting the streets of D.C. Scott Davenport Richards wrote the music for the rap musical and it was directed by
Gwendolyn Wynne. The production was nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards: Outstanding Resident Musical, Outstanding Lead Actress (Deidre L. Johnson) in a Resident Musical, and Outstanding Sound Design. Performers featured were Teagle F. Bougere, Erik Todd Dellums, Paul G. Griffin, Deidra L. Johnson, Helen Patton and Barbara Robinson. ==Writing==