John Rhys-Davies

John Rhys-Davies is a Welsh actor, born in Salisbury on 5 May 1944, whose screen career spans more than five decades of film, television, animation and video games. He is best known for playing the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where his height helped the filmmakers keep the Fellowship in proportion against the actors playing hobbits, and for playing Sallah in the Indiana Jones films beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. On television he came to notice as the Praetorian officer Macro in I, Claudius in 1976, as the Portuguese navigator Rodrigues in the 1980 miniseries Shogun, as Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of The Untouchables, and as Professor Maximillian Arturo in Sliders from 1995 to 1997. He also works extensively as a voice performer, in animated series and in video games, and has appeared in full motion video cut scenes for titles such as Wing Commander and Dune 2000. The Atlas records him as a performer whose work crosses cinema, broadcast drama and interactive media; his honours include a Screen Actors Guild Award, won as part of an ensemble.