Richard Armitage is one of TV’s most bankable actors, and his latest series will definitely keep your heart racing – but who is his partner in real life, and what has he said about his love life?
The Spooks actor stars as a doctor accused of murder in Red Eye, which lands on ITV in April 2024 (Sunday 21). The tense thriller takes place mostly on a plane (hence the title), where more bodies mount up in a cat-and-mouse-style pressure cooker.
And Richard is the main draw, having already proven he’s more than capable of fronting a tense whodunnit in the likes of Harlan Coben’s The Stranger, and Stay Close on Netflix.
Here’s everything you need to know about Red Eye star Richard Armitage, how he ‘came out’, the identity of his long-term partner, and his take on filming THOSE raunchy sex scenes in Obsession.
Who plays Dr Matthew Nolan in Red Eye?
Actor Richard Armitage stars as suspected murderer Dr Matthew Nolan in the ITV thriller Red Eye. He finds himself accused of murder, although he swears he’s innocent.
The British doctor comes frighteningly close to dying in a car crash while attending a medical conference in Beijing. However, when he arrives home, he is immediately arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport. A dead woman was discovered in his crashed car and, despite his protests that he was driving alone, Nolan must return to China to face charges.
DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi) is the no-nonsense, London officer charged with accompanying Nolan back to Beijing. However, when a first death occurs onboard, Hana begins to suspect foul play and she commences an investigation… Further deaths confirm that Nolan truly is in danger…
Why is Richard Armitage famous? What has he been in before?
Richard Armitage has been on our screens for more than three decades, ever since he first appeared as a ‘man in pub’ in the 1992 series Boon. After several smaller roles in film and TV – including playing a Naboo fighter in Star Wars: Episode I – he won the high profile role of Lee Preston in Cold Feet in 2003.
Fans of the show will know that the rather dishy Lee was the swimming instructor who had a relationship with Karen’s nanny Ramona. The same year, Richard went on to play Capt. Ian Macalwain in the Ross Kemp drama Ultimate Force.
Roles in Between the Sheets, period drama North & South, The Golden Hour, and The Impressionists followed, before he won another prestigious role – that of Harry Kennedy in The Vicar of Dibley.
Between 2006 and 2009, Richard appeared in the ratings hit Robin Hood, which also starred Jonas Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, Keith Allen, and Joanne Froggatt. He played the villainous Guy of Gisbourne.
In 2008, Richard won arguably his biggest role to date when he starred as Lucas North in Spooks, a role he played until 2010. Other notable TV roles include John Porter in Strike Back, Francis Dolarhyde in Hannibal, and Daniel Miller in Berlin Station.
More recently, he’s made a name for himself in Netflix adaptations of Harlan Coben’s novels. He’s played leading roles in Stay Close, The Stranger, and Fool Me Once. He also starred in the erotic drama Obsession, which was a tad steamy to say the least!
His film roles have included John Proctor in The Crucible, Thorin in The Hobbit franchise, and Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger.
How many Harlen Coben shows has he been in?
Richard Armitage played Ray in the cast of Netflix’s Stay Close. Ray was once a promising war-time photographer, who subsequently became stuck in a dead-end job pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids.
He’d never been the same since the day his fiancée, Cassie, walked out of his life. He suffered with PTSD, which caused him blackouts, and made his memory unreliable.
When men, who all had a connection to him, started disappearing, he began to wonder whether he had anything to do with it…
Richard also went on to star in Harlan Coben’s The Stranger. He played Adam Price, who was approached by a mysterious stranger who seemed to know a lot about him. When his wife then went missing, more devastating secrets were uncovered. But who was the stranger?
More recently, he appeared in the Netflix drama Fool Me Once. He played the late husband of Michelle Keegan’s character Maya Stern. All are still available to watch on Netflix.
How old is Richard Armitage? Where is he from?
Richard Crispin Armitage was born on August 22, 1971, in Huncote, Leicestershire.
He is currently 52 years of age.
The actor attended Huncote Community Primary School in Huncote. He went on to attend his local comprehensive school, Brockington College, in Enderby.
At 14, he transferred to Pattison College in Coventry, an independent boarding school specialising in the performing arts, so that he could focus on drama and dance. And the rest is history!
Is Richard Armitage gay?
Away from the spotlight, Richard lives a notoriously private life. But, in 2023, he revealed he was gay. In fact, he said that he’d come out to friends and family as a teenager.
Back in April 2023, Richard opened up about his sexuality – and revealed how he came out when he was a teen. Talking to Radio Times, he explained he had chosen not to talk about his sexuality publicly, in case it overshadowed his acting career.
He said: “It happened when I was 19 – to anybody who mattered – and I was always waiting for that question to punch me in the face, and it never did. I thought, are people being polite, or is it that they don’t want to know?”
He added: “I don’t know that I ever wanted to put myself in front of the work I was doing, anything about my family or personal life. I just thought, let the work speak for itself.”
Richard continued: “I love the conversation with the younger generation; I love the idea that whatever gender, sexuality, the fluidity of who you love, how you identify, is not fixed.
“That was always a thing: if I declare who I am and my sexuality, then I’m saying it’s fixed. I don’t know that, or if I might feel something for somebody further down the line. I doubt it, but I don’t know.”
Feeling comfortable enough to talk about his sexuality for the first time, Richard also added Pride and trans Pride flag emojis to his Twitter bio.
Who is the partner of Richard Armitage?
In another interview, speaking to the Evening Standard, Richard Armitage confirmed his partner is male. Although he did not identify him, preferring to keep his name out of the public domain.
In 2023, he spoke about filming full-frontal nude scenes in Netflix drama Obsession and how they affected his relationship.
He said: “We did talk about it. I reassured him that it was all going to be fine, and we were being well looked after.”
He also revealed that he and his on-screen lover Anna Barton, played by Charlie Murphy, had “met each other’s partners and gone for dinner”.
The actor joked that, after hitting 50, he thought he would never have to take his shirt off again. Then he was sent the script for obsession… Richard said: “Oh, you want all of it off now. Okay.”
Richard’s naked scenes in erotic thriller Obsession
Having filmed full frontal scenes in Obsession, Richard addressed the furore about the nudity. He said: “I’ve thrown punches, shot guns and swung swords and people don’t approach you and say, ‘Oh there’s a lot of violence in this, I don’t know if you’re going to like it’. So why do we feel that way about intimacy?
“I had a conversation with myself, and Charlie, early on, and said, ‘We’ve just got to be European about this. It’s the body. This is life. Just be cool with it.'”
Richard Armitage and Charlie Murphy worked with an intimacy coordinator on the series. Obsession was a Netflix adaptation of the erotic novel Damage, which was made into a hit 1992 film with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.
Critics called it the “sexist thing on TV this year”, although Richard refused to watch it! He explained: “I don’t really like to watch most things I’ve done and this one was pretty intense… Intense in a brilliant way. I’m left with a happy memory of what we did.”
Red Eye begins on Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 9pm on ITV1.
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