“Hey, they were in Game of Thrones”—Where else have you seen these 55 GoT cast members? (Part 2)

22) ANTON LESSER

If you like ’em down, dark, and twisted, fallen maester Qyburn might be your favorite character on Game of Thrones. He’s on a roll at the moment, having been promoted to Cersei Lannister’s Hand of the Queen, with a royal laboratory as his playground. British Shakespearian actor Anton Lesser brings Qyburn to life with a sense of pragmatism and loyalty that belies his unseemly instincts.

In an interview with PBS Masterpiece, Lesser says that he is most recognized on the street for his role as Qyburn, but he has not read a review of his acting since 1982, when he saw a review of his portrayal of Hamlet that stated “This is the only production of Hamlet that would have been better off without the prince.”

A veteran of stage and screen, the prolific Lesser first appeared in the TV mini-series The Mill on the Floss in 1979. Since then, he’s appeared in TV programs like King Lear (1982), Twelfth Night (1984, below), The Strauss Dynasty (1991), Vanity Fair (1998), Lorna Doone (2000, above, with fellow Thrones player Aiden Gillen), Foyle’s War (2002), A Touch of Frost (2006), Midsomer Murders (2003-2008), Ripper Street (2013, a Thrones alumni favorite), Wolf Hall (2015) and The Crown (2017).

Lesser has really enjoyed being a part of Game of Thrones and interacting with its passionate fan base. He tells PBS Masterpiece that his minor role keeps him off the hook, as far as spoilers go:

"It’s great, I love it. I mean, you know, I’m not one of the big…the big engines of the piece; I’m not a big character in it. So I don’t… I don’t have that problem of people saying, “Oh, is Jon Snow going to live or … What happens, tell us about plots?” If they did, I wouldn’t be able to say anything, because we only get our little bits. We don’t get the whole script so I don’t have to pretend that I don’t know, I actually don’t know."

Lesser’s film roles include Charlotte Grey (2001), Miss Potter (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Allied (2016). He’s currently involved in the Endeavour TV series (2013-2018) and you can see him in the psychological thriller Gatecrash this year.