With the release of the first "Hobbit" film, Hollywood is finally set to showcase a man that fans of British television have known about for years - Richard Armitage. In fact, the distinguished 41-year-old English thespian has already unwittingly assembled his own rabid fan base of swooning admirers affectionately nicknamed 'The Armitage Army'.
It's not hard to see why - with sharp features, a great head of hair, icy blue eyes and other impressive assets, he looks very much a star. He first came to attention with his leading role in the BBC's 2004 version of "North and South". He also played Macduff to James McAvoy's Macbeth in the "ShakespeaRe-Told" limited series, and showed off a warmer side romancing Dawn French in the final episodes of beloved sitcom "The Vicar of Dibley".
I became aware of Armitage for his leather-clad role of Guy of Gisborne in the BBC's "Robin Hood," from which he segued into the role of Lucas North on one of my favorite shows "Spooks" (aka. "MI-5"). Decked out in tattoos (as pictured below) to showcase his character's seven years imprisoned in a Russian gulag, Armitage was a major cast member from the seventh to the ninth season of the long-running spy thriller. Demonstrating his best James Bond/Jack Bauer style skills before departing in dramatic fashion, he also slipped in a quick cameo on last year's "Captain America: The First Avenger".
All that running around and fighting on "Spooks" certainly prepared him for much of the action he would face in "The Hobbit" trilogy. Armitage says: "All of the fight skills have been really useful, but because I play the character younger as well … he fights in a completely different way to when he's older. He's much more crazy and berserk, and as he's got older it becomes more efficient, so he doesn't waste any energy. It's a very heavy, disciplined way of fighting [which] has been a big character-building thing."
In the books and films, the character of Thorin Oakenshield is the leader of this company of dwarves who sets out to reclaim their heritage from the dragon Smaug. Thorin is the oldest, toughest and most noble of the dwarves, Armitage himself compares him to "an old piece of wood that's grown hard with age". Thorin has also generally been portrayed as an older character than the version we're seeing in this adaptation, but Armitage says they needed the character to be heroic on the battlefield, "[he's] like a dying flame when you first meet him, but he still has to be a flame."
/In 2010, Armitage scored the lead role opposite "The Walking Dead" star Andrew Lincoln in the original, pre-Cinemax, Sky1 mini-series version of the still running action series "Strike Back". When Cinemax came onboard and retooled the show for the second season, Armitage had to turn it down and only guest starred in the first episode. The reason? He was already committed to "The Hobbit".
READ THE REST OF THIS GREAT INTERVIEW:http://www.darkhorizons.com/features/1629/richard-armitage-talks-the-hobbit
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