Michael Byrne, the actor who starred in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1,” has died. He was 82 years old.
The British actor died on June 20, according to The Guardian, which first reported his passing this week. No details on his cause of death have been made public. He is survived by his wife Carole Nimmons.
Born in 1943, Byrne began his career appearing onstage and guesting on TV shows. He eventually began touring with the Arena theatre company and Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company. His big film roles came later where he often played a villain – though not always.
In 1985, he starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in “The Good Father” before playing Nazi officer Ernst Vogel in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where he harried Harrison Ford’s titular character and Sean Connery’s Henry Jones along with other villains Walter Donovan and Elsa Schneider.
He kept his villain pedigree going by playing opposite Mel Gibson in “Braveheart” in 1995. In 1997, he joined the James Bond mythos and played Admiral Kelly during the Pierce Brosnan era in “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
In 2010, he joined another major franchise when he was cast in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1.” He played Gellert Grindelwald – with younger versions of the character played by Johnny Depp and Mads Mikkelsen to follow in the “Fantastic Beasts” film franchise.
Byrne’s other credits included “Gangs of New York,” “The Eagle Has Landed” and “A Bridge Too Far.” On the TV front, he appeared on “Coronation Street” from 2008 to 2010 and in “Lightfields.”
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