An English stage, film and television actor. After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, his first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr. Kobayashi, in The Usual Suspects, and he appeared in Alien 3, In the Name of the Father, Amistad, Brassed Off, The Shipping News, The Constant Gardener, The Age of Stupid, Inception, The Town, Romeo + Juliet, and Æon Flux.

In television, his most notable performance was as the villain Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharpe TV series opposite Sean Bean's character of Richard Sharpe.

Steven Spielberg called him 'the best actor in the world' after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in In the Name of the Father in 1993.