Jim Piddock

Jim Piddock (born April 8, 1956) is an English actor, producer and writer who began his career on the stage in the United Kingdom before immigrating to the United States in 1981. After establishing himself in leading roles on Broadway, he moved to Los Angeles and began a career in film and television, which so far has lasted four decades, and his extensive body of work has made him one of the best-known British character actors in Hollywood. While appearing mostly in supporting roles in major studio films, he has appeared in leading roles in independent movies. After selling his first screenplay in the late 1980's for a mid-six figure sum, he became known also as a writer, and soon after a producer, as well as an actor. In 2023, his memoir "Caught With My Pants Down and Other Tales from a Life in Hollywood" was published and was very positively received, with show business contemporaries and critics camping its wit, honesty, and emotional resonance to the biographies of David Niven and Michael Caine.

Piddock was born James Anthony Piddock on April 8, 1956, in Rochester, Kent, the son of Celia Mary (née O'Callaghan) and Charles Frederick Piddock.

Piddock began his acting career on the stage in the UK before immigrating to the US in his early twenties. He made his US theatrical debut in a one-man show, The Boy's Own Story, in 1982. He also appeared in Lethal Weapon 2, Independence Day, The Prestige, Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Five-Year Engagement, Think Like a Man Too, and several Christopher Guest films, including Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.

Piddock made his theatrical debut in the US in The Boy's Own Story, a one-man show about a football goalkeeper, at the Julian Theatre in San Francisco. That same year (1982), he was cast in Noël Coward's Present Laughter, and other Broadway and Off-Broadway shows followed, including the original US production of Noises Off, The Knack at the Roundabout Theatre, Make and Break, and Design For Living.

In November 2007, he appeared at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood, starring on stage in a production of What About Dick? alongside an all British expat cast, including Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Emily Mortimer and Tracey Ullman. When the play officially premiered in 2012, with the addition of Russell Brand, he was again in the cast. He also appeared in 2009 at the Montalban Theatre and on Broadway in An Evening Without Monty Python.

Of his transition into television, Piddock said:

He has appeared in close to a hundred TV shows, including The Haunting of Bly Manor, Modern Family, A Confession, Designated Survivor, Get Shorty, Training Day, Mom, Childrens Hospital, The Royals, Touch, Two and a Half Men, Castle, ER, Law & Order: LA, Party Down, Chuck, Dollhouse, Without a Trace, Monk, Lost, Crossing Jordan, Citizen Baines, Friends, Yes, Dear, Angel, The Tracey Ullman Show, Murder She Wrote, Coach, Tour of Duty, Max Headroom, and The Twilight Zone. He has also appeared in several TV films and mini-series, including From The Earth to the Moon, A Mom for Christmas, She Creature on HBO, and The Women of Windsor. He also created, wrote and produced the BBC series Too Much Sun.

His film appearances include Get Him to the Greek, Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Falling Up, The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, Who's Your Caddy?, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, The Prestige, Love for Rent, A Different Loyalty, See This Movie, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Multiplicity, Independence Day, Traces of Red, and Lethal Weapon 2. He also appeared in the Christopher Guest comedies Best in Show as the Dog Show commentator with Fred Willard, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots, the last of which he co-wrote and produced.

As a voice actor, Piddock provided the voice of Major Zero in the English version of the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as well as Agent One in Return to Castle Wolfenstein for Xbox and PlayStation 2. In film he provided the voice of Bolero the Bull in the film Garfield 2 and of Kenneth Loring, the fictional artistic director of Forever Young Films, in the commentary of the directors' cut of the Coen brothers' Blood Simple. He also voiced the part of King Mufasa's hornbill majordomo, Zazu in the Disney games Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games and The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure, Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in the DC Comics animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood, and voiced Chic for the animated science fiction film Dead Space: Downfall, based on the video game Dead Space.

Piddock appeared in 2012's The Five-Year Engagement, which starred Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, playing Blunt's father, The Cold Light of Day starring Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, 1915, Kill Your Friends, and The Dictator with Sacha Baron Cohen.

In August 2012, it was announced that Piddock would be co-writing, acting, and producing a new TV comedy series with Christopher Guest for HBO and the BBC titled Family Tree. The show subsequently aired in 2013.

On 13 October 2016, Mascots, which he also co-wrote with Guest, stars in, and produced, premiered on Netflix. Since then he has appeared in several television shows, including Modern Family, Designated Survivor, Get Shorty, Training Day, Blunt Talk, and The Royals.

In 2021, he played Captain Carradine in the film Haunting of the Queen Mary, which was shot in the UK and the US and released in 2023.

Piddock wrote the story for and produced Tooth Fairy in 2010, New Line's action-comedy The Man, One Good Turn, Traces of Red, and the Cold War romantic thriller A Different Loyalty starring Rupert Everett and Sharon Stone, in which Piddock played a supporting role.

In November 2019, it was announced that his screenplay Frankel would begin shooting in 2022 with Jeremy Irons playing the lead role of Sir Henry Cecil.[ 11]

His light-hearted and irreverent memoir, CAUGHT WITH MY PANTS DOWN and Other Tales from a Life in Hollywood, chronicling his four decades in the entertainment industry, was released on March 23, 2022, in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. British comedian, actor, and writer, Russell Brand said of the book: "Jim has done that rare thing that perhaps only Michael Caine and David Niven have done before; conjured a funny, inclusive, whimsical, and magical tale." American actress Jean Smart wrote: "This laugh-out-loud book... entertains endlessly and most wisely". And British actor Hugh Bonneville described it as "hilarious, passionate, beautifully told, and memorably waspish."

Piddock was married to producer Margaret Oberman from 1991 until 2004.[ 14] [ 15] Together they have one child, a daughter, who was born in 1994.[ 16] [ 17]

Piddock married actress Ann Cusack on April 1, 2023 in a private ceremony in their home in Los Angeles, California.[ 18] [ 19]