5 days Ago By [email protected] (Hayley Anderson)
Strike: The Ink Black Heart is on its way but what is there to know about its leading man Tom Burke? Another novel in JK Rowling’s best-selling crime book series Strike is being brought to life for the small screen two years after the fifth outing Troubled Blood made its debut. And with Strike returning for series six, fans are curious to know all there is about the actor behind its titular character Cormoran Strike. Famous family Born in June 1981 in London, actor Tom Burke grew up in Kent to actor parents Anna Calder-Marshall and David Burke.
While Calder-Marshall has appeared in Bodies, Harlots, Last Christmas , Grantchester and This Is England, Tom’s dad was behind Dr Watson in Jeremy Brett’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The 43-year-old also acted opposite his mum in Strike season five when she played the character Janice Beattie. He told The Guardian: “She’s fantastic in it.
The first scene we had was also with Carol MacReady, who’s a wonderful actor. “Her and my mum go way back and it was a joy to be in a scene with both of them.” Childhood surgery Burke was born with a cleft lip and so had to have reconstructive surgery when he was a child and was left with a scar on his lip.
While he has gone on to have a successful acting career, it has cast some doubt in his mind when it came to not getting certain roles. He previously told The Independent that he was close to getting a part in an “iconic period drama” but wasn’t awarded the role in the end. Burke said: “I very nearly got cast but I got told I didn’t have the right face for that channel.
And I didn’t know if it was my cleft lip, or what it was.” He was also diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, causing him to struggle academically and leave school before taking his A-levels. Nevertheless, Burke went on to pursue acting, attending a dance school before he was accepted into RADA (Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art) when he was 18.
It was then in 2000 that he landed his first onscreen role in Dragonheart: A New Beginning before appearing in The Libertine, I Want Candy, Donkey Punch and Only God Forgives, just to name some of his early work. Famous godfather Burke wasn’t only influenced by his actor parents but by his godparents as well, who were Pride and Prejudice star Bridget Turner and Harry Potter ’s Severus Snape actor Alan Rickman. Rickman, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2015, was also known for Love Actually, Sense And Sensibility and Die Hard.
Speaking of his godparents to The Guardian, Burke said: “They were like family really. “When Alan died [in 2016], Juliet Stevenson got it right when she said we’ve lost a king. You did sometimes feel like you were at Alan’s court.
“He had a sense of mission about him and was invested in so many people. “Even if you only met him once, he could become a momentary huge influence in your life. “He had a way of asking very penetrating questions, often without necessarily meaning to.
People would walk away and make quite big life decisions.” What’s next Following his time on Strike, there are plenty of other projects in the pipeline for Burke fans to get excited about. According to his IMDb profile, the Strike star will be in The Winter Of The Crow and Black Bag, a film with Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett.
He is also set to appear in the TV series Blade Runner 2099 which is currently in production. Strike: The Ink Black Heart premieres on Monday, December 16, at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer..
