Matthew Macfadyen is more than that hand flex — but who could blame you for the association? The Emmy Award–winning actor rose to prominence as Mr. Darcy in director Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice (2005). After wooing Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet, Macfadyen went on to prominent roles in Death at a Funeral (2007), Frost/Nixon (2008), Anna Karenina (2012), and others, but he broke new ground with his part in the satirical drama series Succession (2018–2023). Macfadyen’s portrayal of the ever-ingratiating corporate climber Tom Wambsgans earned him the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 and 2023.
His latest role in Death by Lightning has him playing Charles J. Guiteau, the enigmatic and unstable man who assassinated President James Garfield (Michael Shannon) in 1881. Also starring Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, and Bradley Whitford, the limited series — created by Mike Makowsky and executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — is based on Candice Millard’s 2011 award-winning book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. After you’ve watched the historical drama play out, you can catch these other Macfadyen performances on Netflix.
This movie, based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, stars Macfadyen as real-life British intelligence officer Charles Cholmondeley, who helped plan the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. Cholmondeley and his team — including Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) as Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu — hatch Operation Mincemeat, a scheme to plant false evidence on a corpse that would lead the Germans to believe the Allies planned to invade Greece instead. Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), James Fleet (Sense and Sensibility), Penelope Wilton (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Johnny Flynn (Emma), and Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus) co-star.
Russell Crowe (Nuremberg) leads director Ridley Scott’s (Alien) 2010 movie about the English folk hero, in which Robin Hood is a disgraced soldier who helps the newly crowned King John (Oscar Isaac) fight off a French invasion. Macfadyen plays the classic villain the Sheriff of Nottingham, and is joined by co-stars Cate Blanchett (Ocean’s 8), William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Mark Strong (1917), Mark Addy (A Knight’s Tale), Danny Huston (Wonder Woman), and Eileen Atkins (Upstairs Downstairs).
