Michael Kitchen

Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen as Bill Tanner in GoldenEye
Born	Michael R. Kitchen (1948-10-31) 31 October 1948 (age 68) Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Occupation	Actor, television producer
Years active	1971–present

Michael Kitchen (born 31 October 1948) is an English actor and television producer, best known for his role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV drama series Foyle's War since 2002. He also played the role of Bill Tanner in two James Bond films and John Farrow in BBC Four's critically acclaimed comedy series Brian Pern.

Kitchen was born in Leicester, Leicestershire. As a young boy (circa 1960) he was head chorister in the Church of the Martyrs choir, where he was a regular soloist. He attended the City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School, where he appeared on stage in a production of Cymbeline. He worked with the National Youth Theatre and the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1969, while still at RADA, he won the "Emile Littler Award" for 'outstanding talent and aptitude for the professional theatre'.

Kitchen was discovered at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) by talent agent Peter Froggatt of Plant & Froggatt Ltd. In the early 1970s, Kitchen appeared in small roles in films such as Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) and the Hammer film Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) before becoming a fixture of British television. His early TV appearances include roles in Play for Today (Hell's Angels by David Agnew, 1971), Thriller, The Brontes of Haworth 1973 in which he played Branwell Bronte. Tales of the Unexpected and Beasts. He then played the role of Martin in the original 1976 production of Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle, Peter in Stephen Poliakoff's Caught on a Train, Edmund in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of King Lear, the Antipholi in the same series' production of The Comedy of Errors, Private Bamforth in the 1979 BBC television play of The Long and the Short and the Tall, Larner in the film Breaking Glass (1980), Rochus Misch in The Bunker (1981), Berkeley Cole in the film Out of Africa (1985), the King of the United Kingdom in To Play the King (1993), an English land agent during the Irish Famine in The Hanging Gale (1995), and a recurring role as Bill Tanner in the Pierce Brosnan Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). His later films include The Russia House (1990), Fools of Fortune (1990), Enchanted April (1992), The Trial (1993), Fatherland (1994), Doomsday Gun (1994), The Hanging Gale (1995), Kidnapped (1995), Mrs Dalloway (1997), The Railway Children (2000), Proof of Life (2000), Lorna Doone (2001) and My Week with Marilyn (2011).