With a new film on the way, now is a good time to reflect on all things Ian McShane. He trained with Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt at Rada (living with the latter) and both McShane and Hurt’s first film was 1962 British romantic drama The Wild and the Willing.
Other career highlights on the big screen include a role as a bisexual drug dealer opposite Richard Burton in the classic 1971 crime drama Villain, crimelord Teddy Bass in 2000’s Sexy Beast with Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley, Captain Hook in 2007’s Shrek the Third, Blackbeard in 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and has starred with Keanu Reeves in all four John Wick films.
Television has also been kind to him: Lovejoy remains a classic of its kind, he won a Golden Globe for best actor for his role as brothel-owner Al Swearengen in Deadwood and he’s been in everything from Babylon 5 to Game of Thrones to Dallas. Extra points for appearing on Grace Jones’s concept album Slave to the Rhythm, and securing surely the best use of an actor’s talents and time ever: narrating the British Open golf championship on American cable channel ESPN every year since 2010. And you haven’t lived until you’ve heard his Mike Flowers Pops-style version of Every Breath You Take from a 1992 solo covers album that reached No 40 in the charts.
In his latest film, American Star, McShane stars as assassin who arrives in the Canary Islands on his final assignment to kill a man who for some reason doesn’t turn up. Sounds like a great excuse for an all-expenses-paid free holiday to us, but obviously McShane had different ideas. Maybe ask him about that?
Post your questions below by 6pm GMT on Wednesday 21 February and we’ll put the best to the great man. But remember – as Lovejoy himself says: “Do we have to bring mistrust and suspicion into this?” No, we musn’t.
• American Star is in UK cinemas and digital platforms from 23 February
