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Duncan Duff

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Duncan Duff
Born (1964-06-02) 2 June 1964 (age 60)
Edinburgh, Scotland
NationalityScottish
Alma materRADA
OccupationActor
Years active1987–present
SpouseRosalie Robinson
Children2

Duncan Duff (born 1964 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) is a British stage, television and film actor who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London 1985 - 1987. He is best known for His role in Not Going out as Pete and for A Quiet Passion (2016), Wild Target (2010), Big Kids (2000), and Hamish Macbeth (1997).

Career

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Duff made his professional stage debut in 1987 with the highly acclaimed British Theatre Company Cheek by Jowl, founded by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, in a chilling production of Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse and on tour. He played the Thane of Angus and the cream faced loon, earning his Equity card and establishing himself as a prominent member of the company for the next four years. The following year he played Caliban in Cheek by Jowl’s The Tempest which opened at the Taormina Festival, Sicily, before playing to packed and appreciative audiences across the world. The most extraordinary venue was the Romanian National Theatre in Bucharest in the final year of the Ceausescu dictatorship where the play’s themes of enslavement and liberty were rapturously received and defiantly applauded by brave Romanians. The company were monitored by the Securitate, state police during their visit.

He also appeared in Cheek by Jowl’s productions of Philoctetes by Sophocles and Miss Sara Sampson by Gotthold Lessing. His fifth and final collaboration with the company was playing Horatio to Timothy Walker’s Hamlet in an internationally renowned production which played in London, UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Japan.

In 1992, Duff created the role of Willie Dobie in Scottish playwright Simon Donald’s vibrant new play, The Life of Stuff, at The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh with Shirley Henderson, which earned him high critical praise. Duff also appeared in the British premiere of Physical Jerks at Alan Ayckbourn’s Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, Life Goes On written by Adrian Hodges at The Haymarket Basingstoke, Three Sisters at Liverpool Everyman, Time and the Room at the Gate Theatre London and the eponymous role in Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler at Nottingham Playhouse. At the National Theatre, Duff played Bartolomeo Pergami in Nick Stafford’s new play Battle Royal directed by the brilliant Howard Davies starring Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale. In 2002, he was Jason opposite Maureen Beattie’s Medea in Theatre Babel’s shattering production of Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of Medea at the Edinburgh Festival, Glasgow Citizens, then the incomparable open air Roman theatre on Cyprus the four metro centres of India and Toronto’s Harbour Front Theatre.

On television, Duff played the dope-smoking Doc Brown in the cult BBC 1 series Hamish Macbeth devised by Daniel Boyle and set in the Highlands of Scotland, co-starring with Robert Carlyle for three series (1995 - 1997). He starred as Geoff Spiller in the short-lived but popular BBC comedy Big Kids with Imogen Stubbs (2000). For two years Duff was nefarious property developer Lewis Cope in BBC Scotland’s BAFTA Award winning drama River City (2002 - 2004) set in Glasgow.

Duff has displayed the range of his acting ability in strong leading roles in many TV dramas such as: Why We Went To War (2006) playing Jonathan Powell; Roman Mysteries (2007) portraying the Emperor Domitian; the first season of cult TV show Skins (2007) playing evangelistic Congratulations Leader Pete; Purves & Pekkala (2009) AKA New Town by award-winning auteur director Annie Griffin playing highly strung architectural preservationist Ernst de Bont; the beleaguered Governor of Boulogne in The Tudors (2010); odious TV presenter Tom Sutherland in the provocative BBC series Lip Service (2010).

Duff has also displayed his comedic touch in sitcoms: May To December (1994), The Creatives (1998), Not Going Out (2008). He was the anchor Richard Pritchard co-starring with Sharon Horgan in Broken News (2005) by award-winning comedy writer John Morton for BBC and Gus Plotpoint in Charlie Brooker’s Touch of Cloth (2013) for Sky. In the cinema he has appeared in comedy roles in Carry On Columbus (1992), Festival (2005) directed by Annie Griffin, Wild Target (2010) directed by Jonathan Lynn, and Burke & Hare (2010) directed by comedy legend John Landis. Duff has appeared in dozens of short films, keen to collaborate with emerging talent in front of and behind the camera. Two of these films have been nominated for awards: King’s Christmas (1986) being BAFTA nominated and The Girls (2007) BIFA nominated.

Duff portrayed: Austin Dickinson, the brother of American poet Emily Dickinson, played brilliantly by Cynthia Nixon, in British auteur director Terence DaviesA Quiet Passion (2016), exquisitely shot by Florian Hoffmeister; also starring Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Catherine Bailey, Joanna Bacon and Emma Bell; described by Richard Brody of The New Yorker as “an absolute drop-dead masterwork”. A Quiet Passion has been warmly received at Festivals around the world and opened to rhapsodic reviews in the UK and US in April 2017.

Filmography

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Television
Year Title Role Notes
1990 The Wreck on the Highway
1990 Taggart Porter Episode: Hostile Witness
1990 This is David Harper Lorry Driver Episode: A List Of Abuses
1991 Casualty Policeman Episode: Something to Hide
1992 Between The Lines Officer 1 Episode: Out of the Game
1992 In Dreams Vicar
1993 Calling The Shots Matt
1994 May to December Robbie Episode: Son of my Father
1995–1997 Hamish Macbeth Doc Brown 19 episodes
1998 The Creatives Greg Jackson Episode: Come to Cummerton
2001 Casualty Pete Episode: For My Next Trick
2000 Big Kids Dr. Geoffrey Spiller
2002 River City Lewis Cope
2004 If... George Rowling Q.C.
2005 The Bill Brian York Episodes: - No. 299 / No. 300
2005 Broken News Richard Pritchard 6 episodes
2006 Why We Went To War Jonathan Powell
2006 Rosemary & Thyme Frank Minelli Episode: Seeds of Time
2006 Not Going Out Pete Episode: Caretaker
2006 Doctor Who Newsreader Episodes: Rise of the Cybermen / Age of Steel
2007 Skins Congratulations Leader Episode: Cassie
2007 Roman Mysteries Emperor Domitian
2009 New Town Ernst de Bont
2010 The Tudors The Governor of Boulogne Episode: As It Should Be
2010 Taggart Sammy Kirkwood
2010 Lip Service Tom Sutherland
2011 Casualty Professor Michael Fitch Episode: Starting Out
2012 Silent Witness Counsel 2
2013 Lee Nelson's Well Funny People Football Team Manager
2013 A Touch of Cloth Gus Plotpoint
2014 Waterloo Road Arran Mackenzie
2020 The Crown Cecil Parkinson Episode: War (Season 4, Episode 10)
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1986 King's Christmas Trevor King BAFTA Nominated
1992 Carry On Columbus Inquisitor #2
1998 Middleton's Changeling Antonio
2005 Festival Gordon Menzies
2007 If I'm Spared Tom
2007 The Girls Richard BIFA Nominated
2010 Wild Target The Jeweller
2010 Burke & Hare The Attendant
2011 Island Social Worker
2013 Killer Moves The Velvet Glove
2014 Ivory Stage Peter Grey
2016 A Quiet Passion Austin Dickinson
2016 Clean Sheets Will
2017 Seeing Him Mark
2017 Rehab Matters Robert
2018 Sleep Armando
2020 Bay of Silence Curator
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