Damian Lewis
Actor, Dad, Redhead, and Ping Pong Champion
Categories Band of Brothers Life The Forsyte Saga



  • The final episode of Alan Sepinwall’s rewind of Band of Brothers is now available; click here for his review of “Points” (episode 10).

    And click here to read a blogger’s review of this brilliant, epic series starring Damian Lewis.

  • Sian Brewis of the Leicester Mercury describes Life starring Damian Lewis as “funny, smart and thoroughly watchable.”
  • British television channel ITV3 is currently rerunning The Forsyte Saga starring Damian Lewis, upcoming episodes will air on July 9th and 16th:

    » ITV3 July 9th at 10:00pm
    » ITV3 Plus 1 July 9th at 11:00pm
    » ITV3 July 16th at 10:00pm
    » ITV3 Plus 1 July 16th at 11:00pm

Categories Band of Brothers Gallery The Forsyte Saga


  • The above picture shows Damian Lewis with Tom McCarthy, owner of Nevada Smith’s in New York City. Nevada Smith’s is a pub “Where Football (Soccer) is Religion!” The date of the picture is unknown but it’s probably prior to the start of filming for Life in 2007 (judging by Damian’s haircut!)

  • Click here for “Breaking Point” the next episode in Alan Sepinwall’s revisit of Band of Brothers starring Damian Lewis as Major Richard Winters.

  • The History Channel is running another Band of Brothers marathon on June 29 – 30, 2009. The first 7 episodes will be shown on Monday, June 29th from 10:42 am until 8 pm ET.
    The final 3 episodes will be shown on Tuesday from 9:11 am until 1 pm ET; then those same 3 episodes will be repeated from 3:11 pm until 7 pm ET. Thanks to Ann for the news.

  • An Unfinished Life with Damian Lewis will broadcast in the UK on June 28th on BBC One.

  • Click here for ntranh’s review of The Forsyte Saga. Damian Lewis fans in the UK can watch The Forsyste Saga on ITV3 starting June 25, 2009.
  • Information posted on Harry Potter’s Page includes these comments from Helen McCrory about her role as Narcissa Malfoy in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” which will be released theatrically on July 15th:

    Nevertheless, the task Draco has been charged with is so terrible and so risky that his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, risks the wrath of the Dark Lord by going to the home of Severus Snape to ask him to help her son complete it. Helen McCrory, who plays the part of the aristocratic Malfoy matriarch, relates, “Draco has been asked to fulfill an incredibly dangerous task, and she does not think he is capable of doing it. Therefore, she betrays what she believes is a true cause in order to secure her son’s safety. She’s desperate. In that moment, I think she must be secretly furious with Voldemort—it’s one thing to ask for your loyalty, but it’s another thing to ask for your child’s life. Narcissa may be a baddie, but she is a good mother.”

Categories Band of Brothers Events Gallery Helen The Forsyte Saga


  • Click here for photos of Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory attending the Formula One party, in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Children’s Charity, on June 17, 2007 at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Click here and here for more information about the event.

  • The Evening Standard reports that Damian was admonished by the stewards while attending a recent Cricket match at Lord’s! 🙁

  • The June 2009 issue of Movie Scope Magazine features an extensive interview with Helen McCrory. A portion of the article is currently available online that includes these comments about Helen:

    Helen McCrory is, without doubt, one of Britain’s most powerful acting talents. Her acting range seems boundless. Helen has a very rare combination of personal qualities that she brings to her acting—she is confident and assertive but also has a huge amount of compassion, which allows her to lace her characters with a sense of vulnerability as well as strength.

    Helen is also cited as an example of Britain’s phenomenal acting talent in this interview with director Robin Sheppard.

  • Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Easy Company veteran Darrell “Shifty” Powers who passed away on June 17, 2009. Thank you to Linda from the MajorDickWinters.com site for sharing the sad news.
  • Alan Sepinwall of the New Jersey Star Ledger has written a new chapter in his Band of Brothers “rewind” series; click here for his comments about “Bastogne”.
  • In the UK, ITV3 will re-run The Forsyte Saga starring Damian Lewis starting June 25th and An Unfinished Life with Damian will broadcast on BBC One on June 28, 2009.

Categories An Unfinished Life Chromophobia Gallery Magazine Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga The Situation

Let’s Dance – Fall 2005

Damian Lewis at The Dorchester

by Natalie Theo | Factory Magazine | Fall Issue, 2005

Damian Lewis really wants to be Widow Twanky. Thankfully Factory has asked him to camp it up as an all-dancing James Bond hero for its shoot at the Dorchester Hotel’s London ballroom. “I went through a lot of pantomime when I was young – I mostly wanted to be Widow Twanky”. Well, as I say, thank God we are more 007 today. You see I am blushingly helping Damian Lewis into a pair of elegant black Ralph Lauren trousers, shirt and diamond studded De Beers cufflinks. We are tucked away in the dark refines of the Dorchester ballroom’s coat check cubicle.

The men’s loos are unavailable for trouser tucking. Better to be tucking him into a Ralph Lauren number rather than a figure moulding pair of panto tights. Lewis has gamely agreed to swirl six dashing young actresses dripping in De Beers diamonds and slinking about in Ralph Lauren eveningwear for the day with his very own barman, sent along on orders from Dublin courtesy of Jameson Irish Whiskey, to see him through. His lead role as Major Richard Winters in HBO’s Band of Brothers, produced and part directed by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, precedes a slew of feature films due for September and early 2006 releases: Lasse Hallstrom’s An Unfinished Life; Brides produced by Martin Scorsese; Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane; Phillip Haas’ The Situation; and Martha Fiennes Chromophobia. So I can’t quite believe Widow Twanky is the be all and end all of the ultimate hero situation.

Continue reading Let’s Dance – Fall 2005

Categories Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga

Damian Lewis Interview, Sunday Express, May 25, 2003

Damian Lewis looks terrible. With his copper-coloured hair slicked back and his fair skin etched with lines, he could pass for 60. Which is a tribute to the make-up artists who have just aged him for 30 years for his part in The Forsyte Saga. Continue reading Damian Lewis Interview, Sunday Express, May 25, 2003

Categories Dreamcatcher Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga

PBS Masterpiece Interview with Damian Lewis, May 2003

From a Repressed Tortured Soul to a Possessed College Professor

by Staff | PBS Masterpiece | May, 2003

Whether they realized it or not, viewers of the popular Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks miniseries Band of Brothers were watching an English actor in the starring role of Major Richard Winters, the taciturn American hero of an airborne unit during World War II. The real Major Winters is salt of the earth from Pennsylvania. The actor Damian Lewis is from London’s Abbey Road and attended Eton. Otherwise, you’d never know the difference.

While on hiatus between the production of series one and two of The Forsyte Saga, Lewis played Jonesy, a possessed college professor in the forthcoming film of Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher.

Lewis recently talked by phone from London about the Forsyte remake, Soames’s inner life, and what it’s like to play an alien.

Continue reading PBS Masterpiece Interview with Damian Lewis, May 2003

Categories Band of Brothers Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga Warriors

Interview: The Charmer, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002

The Charmer

by Lesley White, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002

Smooth, confident and raring to reinvent himself, Damian Lewis is just the chap to play Jeffrey Archer, says Lesley White

When we meet on the Pinewood set of the slapstick satire, written by Guy Jenkin, creator of Drop the Dead Donkey, Lewis’s flaming red hair is dyed brown, the make-up department has achieved a not totally streak-free job with the fake tan, and, with his funky shorts, he is transformed not into Jeffrey, but a cross between an Ibiza raver and a boy scout. As Greta Scacchi is playing Margaret Thatcher, we can assume no attempt at impersonation is being made.

In some ways, Lewis, 31, and the celebrated fantasist have more in common than it might first appear. While the latter has spent his adult life embellishing his biography for public consumption, the actor went through a period of reverse self-invention. Rather than admit having attended Eton, for example, he told early interviewers that he went to boarding school, then changed the subject before they could ask which one. “I tried to sever all ties to my posh upbringing. It made me feel as if I couldn’t be a genuine moody actor. I’m desensitised to that now.”
Continue reading Interview: The Charmer, The Times / Sunday Times, November 17, 2002

Categories Print Media The Forsyte Saga

I’m Not as Screwed Up as Soames – April 4, 2002

I’m Not as Screwed Up as Soames

by Daphne Lockyer – The Evening Standard – 4 April 2002

Damian Lewis has been parking his motorbike somewhere in the bowels of London Television Centre. As a result of his wind-blown journey he is trying to instil order into his appearance as he approaches, running long fingers through a mop of messed-up hair that is, rather dramatically, the colour of blood oranges.

What with the whiff of tungsten and motorbike oil and all that Easy Rider stuff, it’s difficult for a moment to imagine him as Soames – the quintessential, lavender-scented, tightly corseted, late 19th century man – in Granada TV’s much-vaunted remake of The Forsyte Saga. He just seems too, well, modern.

“Ah, Soames,” he says, sitting down now, rubbing together chilly, bluetinged hands. “Dependable, upper-middle class, privately educated, solid, fastidious, arrogant, meticulous, emotionally repressed … I had to button myself down considerably when I was playing him.”

For all that, some of the adjectives at least apply to Damian himself. He’s an Old Etonian, after all, and there’s a certain classy self-assurance about him that only a very expensive education tends to buy.

“I can see why they cast me,” he says, “but I’m a lot more ef fusive than Soames – a lot less screwed up. I also don’t express my dangerous side by expecting my wife (if I had one) to flip onto her back and think of England.

“There is something quite pinched and ugly about the character, the kind of thing that meant you needed a couple of drinks at the end of a day playing him to shake the guy off. But I didn’t dislike him – I wouldn’t have been able to play him if I did. If I thought he was just a Machiavellian bastard, I wouldn’t have given him any chance to redeem himself. And as far as I’m concerned, no character, including Soames, should ever truly be beyond redemption.”

Continue reading I’m Not as Screwed Up as Soames – April 4, 2002

Categories Band of Brothers Dreamcatcher Interviews Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga

Guardian Interview: Shooting Star – March 10, 2002

Shooting star

by Jay Rayner | The Guardian | 

Watching Damian Lewis leading the men of Easy Company to victory in Spielberg’s WWII epic Band of Brothers, you’d never guess he went to Eton and attended drama school with Ewan MacGregor. Now, though, he is returning to more familiar territory as the iconic Soames in The Forsyte Saga.

The middle-aged Italian waitress clearly does not recognise the actor she is shouting at or, if she does, she has had enough experience at being a sour-faced waitress not to show it. This is the second time she has asked Damian Lewis to choose what he wants for lunch and it is the second time he has asked for a few more minutes. ‘Look,’ she says, with a fearsome shrug, arms spread wide. ‘We are busy. You don’t order now, then the kitchen, it become busy. You wait too long for your food. You get cross.’ There is a convincing logic here: the small, smokey cafe in London’s St James’s is indeed already crammed with people.

Continue reading Guardian Interview: Shooting Star – March 10, 2002

Categories Band of Brothers Dreamcatcher Forsyte Saga Hamlet Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga

Damian Lewis Interview: USA Weekend Magazine – March 10 2002

Black Hawk Down, Elvis, Steve McQueen, and Broadway

by Evelyn Poitevent | USA Weekend Magazine |  March 10, 2002

“Band of Brothers” star Damian Lewis, 31, has been touted by everyone from the “New York Times” to “People” magazine as Hollywood’s new golden child. And rightfully so. The British actor — a veteran of London’s Guildhall School (where he studied drama with Ewan McGregor and Joseph Fiennes), the Birmingham Repertory and Royal Shakespeare Company (where he befriended Ralph Fiennes) — has not only proved himself worthy of the stage during the last decade, but has also made his mark on British television (BBC’s “Warriors” and “Hearts and Bones”). “Band of Brothers” brought him to American audiences — and rest assured, that was just the beginning. We caught up with the humorous, fun-loving (yet humble) redhead, who’s currently filming a Stephen King thriller, “Dreamcatcher,” in Canada. Continue reading Damian Lewis Interview: USA Weekend Magazine – March 10 2002

Categories Band of Brothers Media Print Media The Forsyte Saga

Damian Lewis: “I want to work with some girls!”, Now Magazine, October 17, 2001

Damian Lewis: “I want to work with some girls!”

by Jay Bowers, Now Magazine, October 17, 2001

After starring in two major war dramas, Damian’s had enough of playing soldiers

Damian Lewis is the star of Steven Spielberg’s new 85 million war drama on BBC2, but his success has been marred by the death of his mother and an illness which almost cost him his next role.

It’s been a year of extreme highs and lows for Damian Lewis. The London-born actor landed the biggest role of his life when he beat 7,000 hopefuls for the part of hero Major Richard Winters in Steven Spielberg’s epic war drama Band Of Brothers. But just months after filming finished, his 63-year-old mother Charlotte died in a car crash while on holiday in India. Continue reading Damian Lewis: “I want to work with some girls!”, Now Magazine, October 17, 2001

Categories Band of Brothers Interviews Media Personal and Family Life Print Media The Forsyte Saga Theatre

An Officer and A Gentleman – Oct 15, 2001

Eton-Educated British Actor Damian Lewis Overcame a Near-Fatal Motorcycle Crash and a Family Tragedy on His Way to the Spotlight

by Russell Scott Smith | US Weekly | October 15, 2001

IT WAS A COLD WINTERS NIGHT IN London when Damian Lewis crashed, face-first through a car’s windshield and almost died. That evening, in 1998, the actor had been buzzing along the chilly, dark streets on his Honda VFR750 motorcycle, heading home from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barbican Theatre, where he was playing Don John the Bastard in Much Ado About Nothing. Suddenly, a car veered into Lewis’s path. His bike rammed the car’s front bumper, and he flew over the handlebars; Lewis broke the car’s windshield with his chin. “Thank God I had a full-face helmet on,” the 30-year old actor says. “If I hadn’t, I’m not sure I’d be here now. Or at least my acting career would be very different.” Continue reading An Officer and A Gentleman – Oct 15, 2001