Ian McShane worked in British film and television for forty years, including the long-running Lovejoy, before Deadwood made him internationally famous at sixty.
Al Swearengen is the performance: an obscene, articulate, genuinely frightening saloon owner whose monologues are written in something close to iambic verse and delivered as though they were ordinary speech.
Sexy Beast gave him a similar register in ninety minutes, playing a crime boss whose menace is entirely in what he does not say.
The John Wick films made him a fixture for a new audience, and he has worked constantly into his eighties.
Brenton ThwaitesThe later Pirates films rate 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. On Stranger Tides cost four hundred and ten million dollars, which made it the most expensive film ever made, and Dead Men Tell No Tales cost two…
Adrianne PalickiJohn Wick (2014) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Two stuntmen directed it for twenty million dollars, put the camera far enough back to see the whole body, and built an entire criminal economy out of about…
Amanda RedmanJonathan Glazer's 2000 British crime debut. Ben Kingsley terrifying as Don Logan.
Bill SkarsgardKeanu Reeves as the retired assassin. Action choreography that reshaped contemporary American action cinema.
Dakota FanningThe film adapts Neil Gaiman's 2002 novella. The film cost approximately sixty million dollars and made one hundred and twenty-five million worldwide.
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
