Sean Carl Roland Pertwee is an English actor, narrator and producer with an extensive career since the 1980s in television and cinema productions. He played 'Sgt. Wells' in the cinema film Dog Soldiers, 'Pilot Smith' in Event Horizon, Inspector Lestrade in CBS's Elementary and Alfred Pennyworth in Fox's Gotham. He is also the narrator of and Wild Canada.
Pertwee trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and, after graduating in 1986 he toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company for three years. He starred in Agatha Christie's Hercule Porirot - The King of Clubs alongside David Suchet. He also starred as Hugh Beringar alongside Derek Jacobi in the first series of the television series Cadfael in 1994. In 1999 he portrayed Brutus in the Hallmark Channel film Cleopatra. He co-owned the Natural Nylon film production company along with Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, and Ewan McGregor. The company folded in 2003. Pertwee is known for his varying portrayals of grimacing death in many of his film roles, a skill that led to him being awarded 'best death face' at Bristol Old Vic. He starred in the 2008 film Doomsday as Doctor Talbot. His voice is frequently heard in a variety of television commercials, documentaries and video games, including the medieval empire-building computer game ' and futuristic war gamesKillzone, Killzone 2 and Fire Warrior. He is also the voice behind the Northeast's tourism advertisement which started broadcasting at the start of 2009. He was the narrator of ', replacing India Fisher for the fourth series which began on 7 November 2011. He appeared in the film Devil's Playground, a horror film directed by Mark McQueen. He starred alongside Danny Dyer, Jaime Murray, Janet Montgomery and Craig Fairbrass. The film was released in October 2010. Pertwee appeared in the Nazi zombie filmThe 4th Reich which he filmed in 2010, directed by Shaun Smith. Pertwee has been in several dramatic works for BBC Radio 4, including playing the actor Oliver Reed in the play Burning Both Ends by Matthew Broughton in 2011. In 2014 he was cast in Fox's TV seriesGotham, a series presenting an origin for the characters of the Batman franchise. Pertwee portrays Alfred Pennyworth, a tough-as-nails ex-special forces from east London who works as the Wayne family's loyal butler. After Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered, he becomes guardian and mentor to their young son Bruce – the boy who will one day become Batman.
Personal life
Pertwee is the brother of actress Dariel Pertwee, son of actor Jon Pertwee, grandson of actor and screenwriter Roland Pertwee, and is more distantly related to actor Bill Pertwee. He married make-up artist Jacqueline Jane ″Jacqui″ Hamilton-Smith, daughter of Anthony Hamilton-Smith on 12 June 1999 at the House of Lords. His wife gave birth to twins, Alfred and Gilbert, around Christmas 2001. They were born prematurely; Gilbert died four days later. Pertwee presented a television party political broadcast on behalf of the United Kingdom'sLabour Party in the 2010 UK general election.
