Jonathan Hyde (born May 21, 1948) is an Australian-born English
stage
actor. He is most well known for his roles as J. Bruce Ismay, the
managing director of the White Star Line in the 1997 movie blockbuster
Titanic, the Egyptologist in The Mummy and Sam
Parrish/Van Pelt the hunter in Jumanji.
He is a respected member of the
Royal Shakespeare Company. Among his many roles, he played Ferdinand in
a 1985 production of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. He
graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is an Associate
Member there. He was also an original cast member of Not the Nine
O'Clock News, the first series of which was pulled from broadcast
because of the General Election of 1979. Hyde has been in numerous
films including The Contract,
The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, Land of the Blind,
The Tailor of
Panama, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, Eisenstein,
Titanic, Anaconda and Ri¢hie Ri¢h.
He appeared in the 1989 BBC mini-series Shadow of the Noose in which he
played the famous barrister Edward Marshall Hall.
In 2007, he played Dr. Dorn in Chekhov's The Seagull and the Earl of
Kent in King Lear for the RSC in a repertory company that included Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Romola Garai, William Gaunt and Sylvester
McCoy. Both plays toured together internationally, before taking up
residence in the New London Theatre. The final performance was on the
12th of January, 2008. He will reprise his role of Kent in the upcoming
TV film of King Lear.
Hyde was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on May 21, 1948.