Michael Byrne Dies: ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Braveheart’, ‘Indiana Jones’ Actor Was 82
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- Michael Byrne died June 20 at age 82, according to The Guardian, which announced the news on Tuesday; no cause or place of death was disclosed.
- Byrne played Nazi officer Ernst Vogel (killed in a run-in with a tank) in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the soldier Smythe in Braveheart (killed with an axe for attempting rape), and the elderly wizard Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), who rats out Dumbledore under threat from Voldemort.
- Byrne also appeared as an ill-fated German commander in the 1978 WWII film Force 10 from Navarone and in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, with further credits including The Omen, Vampyres, Champions, and Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil.
- Born November 7, 1943, in London, Byrne launched his TV career in the early 1960s and '70s on series such as No Hiding Place, NET Playhouse, New Scotland Yard, and Thriller, with an uncredited feature debut in 1963's The Crimson Blade.
- Byrne's theater credits included work with Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in the 1960s, plus later productions including Death and the Maiden at the Royal Court, Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre, Butley at The Criterion, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Romeo and Juliet, and All My Sons.
- Byrne is survived by ex-wife Carole Nimmons, whom The Guardian noted "cared for him towards the end of his life," daughters Tara and Bryony, and grandchildren Tom, Chloe, and Jasmine.
Why it matters: Byrne built a six-decade career as a dependable British character actor whose villainous supporting turns in three global franchises — Indiana Jones (1989), Braveheart (1995), and Harry Potter (2010) — have reached multiple generations of moviegoers, and his theater roots trace directly to Olivier's 1960s National Theatre ensemble at the Old Vic.
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