Ben Cross

Ben Cross
Cross (centre) with Chandran Rutnam (right) and Ben Kingsley (left) at Fort Railway Station in Sri Lanka, during shooting of the Rutnam-directed film A Common Man
Born	Harry Bernard Cross (1947-12-16) 16 December 1947 (age 69) London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present

Ben Cross (born Harry Bernard Cross, 16 December 1947) is an English actor of the stage and screen, known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

Cross was born Harry Bernard Cross in London to a working class Catholic family. His mother was a cleaning woman and his father a doorman and nurse.

Cross was educated at Bishop Thomas Grant secondary modern school in Streatham, South London.

Cross initially worked in various jobs including work as a window cleaner, waiter and joiner. He was master carpenter for the Welsh National Opera and property master at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

In 1970 at the age of 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) - the alma mater of actors such as John Gielgud, Glenda Jackson and Anthony Hopkins, but later expressed little interest in pursuing the classical route. He also appeared as a CI5 agent in an episode of The Professionals ('Black Out' S4E2)

After graduation from RADA, Cross performed in several stage plays at Duke's Playhouse where he was seen in Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He then joined the Prospect Theatre Company and played roles in Pericles, Twelfth Night, and Royal Hunt of the Sun. Cross also joined the cast of the immensely popular musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and played leading roles in Sir Peter Shaffer's Equus, Mind Your Head and the musical Irma La Douce – all at Leicester's Haymarket Theatre.