Julian Richings was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, and trained in drama at the University of Exeter. After touring the US with a British stage production, he moved to Toronto, Ontario, in 1984. Within five years, he had become a regular on the second season of the “War of the Worlds” TV series. He also gained critical acclaim as the bitter, aging, punk rock legend Bucky Haight in the 1996 film “Hard Core Logo”, and appeared in the 1997 film “Cube” and the 1999 science fiction film “Thrill Seekers”.
In 2000 Julian earned a Genie Award nomination for best supporting actor as Bellanger in “The Claim”, and also performed as a member of the repertory cast of the A&E TV series “A Nero Wolfe Mystery”. He’s familiar to horror fans for his manic performance in heavy makeup as Three Finger in “Wrong Turn”, and nearly-blind security guard Otto in Stephen King’s 2004 miniseries “Kingdom Hospital”. His dramatic roles include stagehand Mr. Turnbull in the 2004 film “Being Julia” and Orr, a cruel loan shark in the 2004 film “The Last Casino”. In 2006, he appeared as the Mutant Theatre Organiser in “X-Men: The Last Stand”. Subsequent roles included a driver in the film “Shoot ‘Em Up”, a dissipated and aging punk rocker in “The Third Eye”, transvestite psychologist Dr. Heker in “The Tracey Fragments”, and a number of other roles in films including “Skinwalkers”, “Saw IV” and “The Timekeeper”.
Julian continues to be active in short films and television series, mostly in Canada. He was presented with two Dora Awards in the late 1980s, and continues to perform professionally in the Toronto area with a number of theatre groups. In 2008, he was nominated for another Dora Award for his performance in “The Palace of the End”. In recent years he has appeared in films such as “The Witch”, “Reign” and “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil”, as well as blockbusters “Man of Steel” and “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”. In Percy Jackson, he is the only actor to have appeared in both the movie (as Charon) and the Disney series (Crusty). Amongst many other TV appearances, he has had prominent roles on shows such as “Orphan Black”, “Creeped Out”, “Channel Zero”, “12 Monkeys” and “Patriot”, and was cast in the DC comics series “Doom Patrol”.
We, of course, think Julian’s most significant TV role is that of the Grim Reaper (Death) in “Supernatural”. Over the years, due to his portrayals of various vampires, creatures and aliens, together with many a spectacular onscreen demise, Julian has enjoyed collaborating with special effects teams worldwide, spending many hours in makeup and prosthetics. At one particularly busy phase of his career, his severed head was prominently displayed on the walls of half a dozen special effects shops across North America. Julian is always happy to meet fans, share his many stories from working in the industry for almost fifty years, and simply discuss his love of performing.