Learn more about Dominic West before seeing him in 'A View from the Bridge'

The BAFTA-winning actor and star of The Wire, The Affair, and The Crown will play Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge in the West End.

Julia Rank7 February, 2024, 15:00

Dominic West makes a return to the West End in May in Arthur Miller’s Brooklyn tragedy A View from the Bridge. Following a run at Theatre Royal Bath from 16 February – 16 March that has sold out ahead of opening, Lindsay Posner’s production is due to transfer to London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket from 23 May – 3 August.

Known for his versatility, his mellifluous voice, and a particular flair for playing charismatic scoundrels (remember Jimmy McNulty from The Wire?), West should be fascinating casting as tormented Red Hook longshoreman Eddie Carbone, who develops complicated, romantic feelings for his niece Catherine.

On screen, West is best known for his television roles in The Wire, The Affair, The Hour, Les Misérables, and The Crown, as well as his BAFTA Award-winning appearance in Appropriate Adult. His film credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pride, Colette, and Downton Abbey: A New Era. He is also an acclaimed stage actor who has received rave reviews for his performances at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Sheffield Crucible, and in the West End. Don’t miss the chance to see him in action after almost a decade away from the stage.

Find out all about Dominic West’s wide-ranging career ahead of his latest venture.

Book A View from the Bridge tickets on London Theatre.

Dominic West’s beginnings

Dominic Francis Gerald Eagleton West was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1969. His father owned a plastics factory and his mother was an actress. His family is of Irish descent and he is the sixth of seven children. West was educated at Eton College and, following a gap year partially spent working as a cattle herder in Argentina, he studied English at Trinity College Dublin. He went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which he graduated in 1995.

Dominic West on screen

West made his screen debut as Henry, Earl of Richmond in the 1995 screen version of Shakespeare’s Richard III staring Ian McKellan. He appeared in films including True Blue, Surviving Picasso, and Spice World (a real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pre-fame appearance). His early television roles included the medical drama Out of Hours and supporting roles in A Christmas Carol (starring Patrick Stewart) and Nicholas Nickleby.

Moving to Hollywood in the late 1990s, West’s roles included Lysander in the 1999 all-star screen version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Julia Roberts’s love interest in The Mona Lisa Smile; and murder victim Fred Casely in Chicago.

In 2002, West had his breakthrough role when he was cast in the lead role of troubled cop Jimmy McNulty in David Simon's Baltimore-set crime drama The Wire. Over the course of five seasons, this charming and self-destructive antihero was at the centre of many of the show’s core procedural plotlines, as well as battling personal issues including alcoholism, divorce, promiscuity, and emotional immaturity.

Other major television roles include The Hour (2011-12), a 1950s-set drama about the creation of a BBC current affairs show, in which he co-starred with Romola Garai and Ben Whishaw as presenter Hector Madden, and received a Golden Globe nomination. Also in 2011, he played serial killer Fred West (no relation) in the true crime drama Appropriate Adult, for which he won a BAFTA Award for Leading Actor. Between 2014-2019, he starred as Noah Solloway in five seasons of The Affair opposite Ruth Wilson, for which he received another Golden Globe nomination.

West is well-known for his work in historical drama, from the ancient (300, Centurion) to the recent past (The Crown). Perhaps most notable are his performances as Oliver Cromwell in The Devil’s Whore in 2008, and his moving Jean Valjean in Les Misérables (not the musical!) for the BBC in 2018. He had a scene-stealing role as gay activist Jonathan Blake in Pride; he starred as ‘Monsieur Willy’ opposite Keira Knightley in Colette; and played Richard Burton to Helena Bonham Carter’s Elizabeth Taylor in Burton & Taylor, for which he received another BAFTA nomination. He played the father of Alicia Vikander in the contrasting Testament of Youth and Tomb Raider, as well as the father of Lily James in The Pursuit of Love. Most recently, he appeared in Downton Abbey: A New Era, and he played Prince Charles in the fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown with Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana.

Dominic West on stage

In 2006, West appeared in Harley Granville-Barker’s play The Voysey Inheritance at the National Theatre, directed by Peter Gill. In 2009, he starred in Helen Edmundson’s adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's Spanish Golden Age philosophical drama Life is a Dream at the Donmar Warehouse. In The Guardian, Michael Billington raved: “West, in particular, seems wired into the extremities of Segismundo's nature. There is a wild, Caligula-like gleam in his eyes as, on his initial release, he cheerfully hurls a courtier from a balcony; yet West also convinces one that inside the savage monster there is a gentler soul aching to be let out.”

West played the title role in Simon Gray’s dark comedy Butley at the Duchess Theatre in 2011. Later in the same year, he returned to his native Sheffield to play Iago opposite Clarke Peters, his co-star in The Wire, as Othello. According to Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph, “The night belongs to Iago. West has a knack for evil, clothing it in inconspicuous garb — able to slip about the place unnoticed.”

In 2012, West appeared in Jez Butterworth’s The River at the Royal Court. Shortly after, West returned to the Sheffield Crucible to make his musical theatre debut as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.

His last stage work before taking on A View from the Bridge this year was as Le Vicomte de Valmont in Josie Rourke’s production of Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar Warehouse in 2015. In a review for London Theatre, our critic said: "In Josie Rourke's absolutely sumptuous production... Janet McTeer and Dominic West are ideal sparring partners."

Dominic West’s other work

West’s audiobook credits include The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and Solo by William Boyd. He directed one episode of The Wire (“Took”) and a 2010 episode of Jimmy McGovern’s series of television plays Moving On. In 2009, he was part of an advertising campaign for French coffee brand Carte Noire, in which he read extracts of love scenes from classic literature. He played Hank in a BBC Radio 3 adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape in 2011 and he has been a guest presenter on the long-running satirical news quiz Have I Got News for You.

Dominic West in A View from the Bridge

Fresh from playing Prince Charles in the final season of The Crown, this gripping study of working-class Italian American life will be a contrast indeed. Eddie Carbone, a real man’s man, is one of twentieth-century drama’s most charismatic tragic heroes. West is joined by Kate Fleetwood as Eddie’s wife Beatrice and Nia Towle as their niece Catherine. Callum Scott Howells and Martin Marquez co-star as Sicilian immigrant relations Rodolpho and Marco. In the role of Eddie, West is following in the footsteps of actors including Anthony Quayle, Michael Gambon, Liev Schreiber, Ken Stott, Mark Strong, and Jonathan Slinger.