Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland, known as Joss Ackland, is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films in his career. He has appeared extensively on television, notably as C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands (1985).
Ackland was born in North Kensington, London, the son of Ruth Izod and Sydney Norman Ackland. He was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Ackland joined the Old Vic, appearing alongside such luminaries as Paul Scofield and Tom Courtenay. Ackland's career advanced with parts in The Sicilian, Lethal Weapon 2 and White Mischief. He has since kept busy with work and features in Passion of Mind with Demi Moore and the 2-part TV miniseries Hogfather based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel of the same name.
Ackland appears in the Pet Shop Boys' 1987 film It Couldn't Happen Here, and in the video for their cover version of the song Always on My Mind, which was taken from the film. Several years later, he claimed in an interview with the Radio Times that he appeared with the band purely as his grandchildren liked their music.
Ackland, in an 2001 interview with the BBC, admitting to being forced to make "awful films" due to being a workaholic, mentioning by name Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and the Pet Shop Boys music video, while lambasting former co-star Demi Moore as "not very bright or talented".
In 2007 Ackland narrated and provided the voice for the Robert Garofalo biography /film and documentary on notorious Occultist Aliester Crowley, titled In Search Of the Great Beast 666 that was
He is an outstanding artist. I first saw him in the 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (vastly superior to the later version) with Alec Guiness in which Ackland played the "occasional spy" Jerry Westerby. Too bad you don't offer more information about his pipe and tobacco preferences.
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