Chris Barrie

Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie at Dimension Jump XI (2004)
Born	Christopher Jonathan Brown (1960-03-28) 28 March 1960 (age 56) Hanover, West Germany
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actor, comedian, impressionist
Years active	1983–present
Spouse(s)	Monica De Meo (1987–1990) Alecks Brown (1997–present)
Children	2

Christopher Jonathan Brown, known professionally as Chris Barrie (born 28 March 1960), is a British actor, comedian and impressionist. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image. He is best known for his roles as Arnold Rimmer in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf, as Gordon Brittas in the BBC sitcom The Brittas Empire and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in the Tomb Raider franchise films.

Barrie was born in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany, to a father who was serving in the British Army, and attended Methodist College Belfast boarding school in Northern Ireland. After dropping out of Brighton Polytechnic, he began his TV career as a sports personality impersonator on The David Essex Showcase; it was at this point that he adopted the surname "Barrie" for Equity reasons – as there was already an actor named Chris Brown on the Equity UK lists. He provided the voice of Ronald Reagan in the pop song "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, as well as various vocalisations for other tracks by FGTH and Art of Noise.

Barrie has played the character Arnold J. Rimmer in all eleven series of Red Dwarf. A central character, Barrie appears as Rimmer in almost every episode of the series, absent only for a brief period during series 7. For most of the series the character of Arnold Rimmer is a hologram, requiring Barrie to wear an "H" on his forehead during filming. The character is described as self-centred, neurotic, cowardly and hopeless with women.