Jun Matsumoto: The Life Story Behind Arashi's Star

Jun Matsumoto is a star who has lived two lives at once, and he has lived them both at the highest level. He is a member of Arashi, one of the most loved pop groups in Japanese history, and he is also a leading actor in television dramas and films, known for roles that are intense, serious, and unforgettable. He can sing and dance in front of tens of thousands of people in a stadium, and he can also play a quiet, thoughtful man in a courtroom drama, and he can make both feel true. That double life is rare, and it is the reason his name is known to almost everyone in Japan.

He started as a boy in Johnny’s, he debuted with Arashi when he was sixteen, and he became famous as Domyoji in Hana Yori Dango, a role that made him a star across Asia. Since then he has played lawyers, samurai, businessmen, and historical figures, and he has done it while still performing with Arashi, while still being a pop idol, and while still learning and growing as an artist. He is not a star who depends on one thing. He depends on work, on discipline, and on a serious approach to his craft.

This is the story of Jun Matsumoto, a boy from Tokyo who became a member of Arashi and a leading actor, and a look at how a pop idol can grow into a serious artist without losing the fans who loved him from the start.

A Tokyo Boy and the Johnny’s Audition

Jun Matsumoto was born on 30 August 1983 in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is a city full of music, television, and talent agencies, and a child growing up there is close to the entertainment world. Matsumoto grew up in that world, and he was drawn to it from a young age. He liked to perform, he liked music, and he liked the idea of being on stage. He was a lively boy, and he had a face that stood out, and people around him noticed.

When he was thirteen, he auditioned for Johnny’s, the talent agency that made many of Japan’s biggest male stars, and he was accepted. Joining Johnny’s as a junior is a big step for a young boy. It means long rehearsals, early mornings, and a life built around training, but it also means a chance to learn from the best, to perform on stage, and to build a career in music and acting. Matsumoto took that step, and he took it with a seriousness that people around him noticed. He was not a boy who was playing at being a star. He was a boy who wanted to work, and who was willing to learn.

As a Johnny’s Jr, he performed as a backup dancer and singer for older stars, and he began to act in small roles in television dramas. He was not a star yet. He was a young worker, learning his trade, and he was patient. Many boys in Johnny’s Jr give up, because the wait for a big break is long, and the work is hard. Matsumoto did not give up. He kept working, and he kept learning, and he trusted that his time would come. That patience is important, because it taught him to be disciplined, to be professional, and to take his work seriously.

He also made close friends with other Johnny’s boys, including the four other boys who would later become Arashi with him. Those friendships mattered, because they gave him people who understood his life, who knew what it felt like to wait, to rehearse, and to be judged. They also gave him a team, and that team would become one of the most successful groups in Japanese history. Matsumoto did not know that then. He was a boy learning to sing and dance, and he was doing it with care.

Arashi and a Debut at Sixteen

In 1999, Matsumoto became the youngest member of Arashi, a new five-member group from Johnny’s, alongside Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Aiba Masaki, and Kazunari Ninomiya. The group sang bright pop songs, danced in perfect time, and soon filled arenas across Japan. Matsumoto stood out in the group for a simple reason: he was serious. While the others joked and smiled, he watched, he listened, and he gave his performances a cool, focused energy that fans found fascinating. He was sixteen, and he was already thinking like a professional, about how a show should look, how a song should feel, and how a group should work together.

Being sixteen and famous is a strange life. One week you are at school, and the next week you are on a stage in front of thousands of people, with lights in your eyes and fans calling your name. Matsumoto took that life in his stride, because he had learned discipline as a junior, and because he genuinely loved performing. He did not chase wild behaviour or loud headlines. He practised, he rehearsed, and he tried to make each concert better than the last. That seriousness became his trademark, and it is still there today, in every drama he leads.

Arashi grew year by year into one of the biggest names in Japanese entertainment. They hosted variety shows, they sang at Kohaku every year, they sold millions of records, and their faces were everywhere, on television, in magazines, and on posters in train stations. Matsumoto was at the centre of it, singing and dancing, and at the same time he was building a second career as an actor, in dramas like Hana Yori Dango. Doing both meant very long days, and very little sleep, but he managed it by planning carefully and by caring deeply about both kinds of work, the music and the acting, in different ways.

The five members stayed together for more than two decades, and in that time they became like brothers, sharing jokes, sharing worries, and sharing a life that no one else could understand. When the group paused its work at the end of 2020, it closed a chapter that had lasted most of Matsumoto’s adult life. He did not complain about it in public. He moved on to big acting roles, including the taiga drama about Ieyasu, and he showed that he could carry a whole year-long story on his own, without the group behind him, just as he had carried Arashi concerts as their director years before.

Hana Yori Dango and Domyoji, the Role of a Lifetime

In 2005, Matsumoto was cast as Tsukasa Domyoji in Hana Yori Dango, a television drama based on a popular manga about a poor girl who goes to a rich school and meets four rich boys, known as the F4. The drama was a huge success, and it made Matsumoto famous across Japan and in other parts of Asia. Domyoji is a rich, proud, and stubborn boy, the leader of the F4, who falls in love with the poor girl, Makino, and who must learn to be kind, to be humble, and to love someone who is very different from him. Matsumoto played him with an intensity that made audiences love him, even when he was being difficult.

Hana Yori Dango was a turning point, because it gave Matsumoto a role that fitted him perfectly. He was tall, he was intense, and he had a way of looking proud and vulnerable at the same time that made Domyoji feel real. The drama was watched by millions of people, and it was talked about in schools, in offices, and in homes all over Japan and Asia. Matsumoto was no longer only a member of Arashi. He was Domyoji, and people remembered him. The drama also had a second season, and a film, and each one kept his fame growing.

The success of Hana Yori Dango changed his career in a clear way. Before it, he was a pop star who acted. After it, he was an actor as well as a pop star, and producers and directors knew his name. He began to get offers for leading roles in films and in television, and he began to be seen as a leading man rather than a singer who acted. The change did not happen in a single day, but it happened fast enough that he had to learn how to handle fame while he was still in his early twenties.

The role also taught him something about the kind of actor he wanted to be. Domyoji is not a simple character. He is proud, he is angry, he is in love, and he is trying to grow. Matsumoto learned that audiences respond to a character who grows, and he carried that lesson into the dramas that followed. He did not chase roles that were only about being handsome. He chased roles that felt like real people, and that choice shaped the rest of his career.

99.9 Criminal Lawyer and the Serious Actor

After Hana Yori Dango, Matsumoto took on roles that showed a more serious and adult side. In 2016, he starred in 99.9 Criminal Lawyer, a television drama in which he played Miyama Hiroto, a lawyer who takes on criminal cases that seem impossible to win, and who looks for the tiny 0.1 percent chance that his client is innocent. The drama was about justice, about truth, and about the difficulty of proving innocence in a system that expects guilt, and Matsumoto played Miyama with a mix of humour, intelligence, and seriousness that made audiences like him.

99.9 Criminal Lawyer was a success, and it had a second season and a film, and it showed that Matsumoto could carry a drama as a serious, adult leading man. He was no longer only Domyoji, the rich schoolboy. He was a lawyer, a man with a job, with a team, and with a mission, and he played the part with a care that won praise from critics and from audiences. The drama also showed that he had grown as an actor, and that he was ready for the kind of roles that ask for depth and patience.

He also appeared in other dramas in those years, including Shitsuren Chocolatier, in which he played a chocolatier who is in love with a woman who does not love him back, and other stories that dealt with love, work, and the lives of adults in Tokyo. Those dramas gave him a chance to play characters who were in love, who were in trouble, and who were trying to make a life for themselves, and he played them with the same intense, honest style that had always been his.

During those years he also worked in films, and his film roles showed that he could handle stories that were more serious and more adult than television dramas. He played characters who were in trouble, who were sad, or who were trying to find their place in the world, and he played them with an honesty that made audiences take notice. That range, from a rich schoolboy to a criminal lawyer to a chocolatier, showed directors that he was not limited to one kind of role.

What Will You Do, Ieyasu? and a Taiga Lead

In 2023, Matsumoto took on one of the biggest roles in Japanese television: he played Tokugawa Ieyasu in What Will You Do, Ieyasu?, the NHK taiga drama for that year. A taiga drama is a year-long historical drama broadcast by NHK, and it is one of the most important jobs an actor can get in Japan. Playing Ieyasu, the man who founded the Tokugawa shogunate and shaped Japan for more than two hundred years, is a huge responsibility, and it asks an actor to play a character across many years, from a young hostage to an old ruler.

Matsumoto played Ieyasu as a man who is not a hero in the usual sense, but a man who survives, who learns, who makes mistakes, and who grows into a leader. He played the part with a quiet strength that made audiences see Ieyasu as a real person, not as a figure from a history book. The drama ran for a whole year, and it asked Matsumoto to be on set for months, to learn lines, to wear historical costumes, and to carry a story that millions of people watched every week. He did that work, and the drama was praised for its fresh, human look at a famous historical figure.

The taiga role was a peak in his career, because it showed that he had grown from a pop idol into a serious actor who could carry the most important drama in Japanese television. It also showed that NHK trusted him, and that trust is a mark of respect in Japan. A taiga lead is not given to a star who is only popular. It is given to an actor who is trusted to tell a story that matters to the whole country, and Matsumoto earned that trust through years of steady work.

After the taiga drama, his career moved into a new phase. He was no longer only a member of Arashi or only Domyoji. He was a leading man who had played Ieyasu, a lawyer, and many other adult characters, and he was still learning, still choosing, and still working at the highest level. That growth is the result of twenty-five years of work, and it is a growth that Matsumoto has earned.

The Weight of Two Careers at Once

Living two lives at once, as a pop idol and as an actor, brings its own pressures, and Matsumoto has lived them. He has worked in music and in acting at the same time, with long days, with concerts, with dramas, with films, and with little rest. That pace leaves little time for a normal life, and it asks for a discipline that many people do not have. Matsumoto has that discipline, and he has used it to keep both careers going for more than twenty years.

There is also the pressure of being watched. A member of Arashi is watched by millions of fans, by the press, and by the public, and every choice he makes is noticed. Matsumoto has kept his private life mostly private, and he has done it by staying quiet about his personal relationships and by focusing on his work. That privacy is a choice, and it is a wise one, because it lets people talk about his acting and his music rather than about gossip.

He has also faced the challenge of Arashi going on hiatus at the end of 2020. After more than twenty years together, the group stopped performing as a group, and each member began to work on his own. For Matsumoto, that meant the end of a chapter that had defined his whole adult life, and the start of a new chapter in which he must stand alone as an actor. He has handled that change with grace, by taking on big roles like Ieyasu, and by showing that he can carry a drama on his own, without the group behind him. That is a brave step, and he has taken it well.

The hard times in his career have not been dramatic, and that is part of his story. He has not had a public fall or a big scandal. He has had the quiet hard times of a working star: long days, tiredness, the pressure to stay popular, and the need to keep choosing good roles. He has handled those hard times by working steadily and by staying true to the serious, professional manner that has always been his.

The Star He Is Now

Today, Jun Matsumoto is one of Japan’s most respected stars, and his name is linked with Arashi, with Hana Yori Dango, with 99.9 Criminal Lawyer, and with the taiga drama about Ieyasu. He started as a boy in Johnny’s, debuted with Arashi at sixteen, became famous as Domyoji, and grew into a leading man who can carry the most important drama in Japanese television. He did all of that while growing up in public, and while keeping his private life private. That is a remarkable career for someone still in his forties.

His legacy is still being written, because he is still working and still taking on new roles. But even now, his story has a clear shape. It is a story about a boy who joined Johnny’s, who debuted in a pop group, who became famous through a school drama, and who then built a career on serious, honest performances. It is a story about patience, about hard work, and about the idea that a career built slowly can last longer than a career built in a single moment.

For young people who want to act or sing in Japan, he is a useful example. He shows that a pop idol can become a serious actor, that a school drama can be a real beginning, and that a taiga lead can be a second beginning. He also shows that a person can be famous and still keep a private life, and that a career can grow slowly and still reach a high place. Jun Matsumoto did not rush. He built his name step by step, and that is why his name still means something today.

He also stands for a kind of Japanese stardom that is serious and disciplined. His performances do not shout. They are intense, they are focused, and they feel true. That intensity is his strength, and it is why audiences trust him. When he is angry on screen, you believe the anger. When he is sad, you believe the sadness. That trust is the most valuable thing an actor can earn, and Matsumoto has earned it over twenty-five years of work.

Directing Arashi Concerts and the Producer Behind the Stage

Matsumoto is not only a performer in Arashi. He is also known as the member who helped direct the group’s concerts, shaping how they looked, how they sounded, and how they felt for tens of thousands of fans in a stadium. A concert for a group like Arashi is not a simple show. It is a huge production, with lights, with video, with staging, with costumes, and with a flow that must keep an audience excited for hours. Matsumoto took on that work, and he did it with a seriousness that surprised people who thought of him only as a singer and an actor. He thought about the whole show, not only about his own part in it, and he made the concerts feel like a story, not only like a list of songs.

Directing a concert is a different skill from acting or singing. It asks a person to see the whole picture, to think about what the audience will see from every seat, and to make hundreds of small choices about light, sound, and movement. Matsumoto learned to do that, and he did it well. Fans who went to Arashi concerts often talked about how beautiful they were, how the lights and the staging made the music feel bigger, and how the show felt like it had been made with care. That care came from Matsumoto, and from his wish to give fans something special, not only a performance, but an experience.

That work also taught him a great deal about acting. When you direct a concert, you learn what a director needs from a performer, and you learn how to give it. You learn to listen, to take direction, and to trust the person who sees the whole picture. Matsumoto carried those lessons back into his acting, and he became a better actor because of them. He also learned that telling a story is not only about being in front of an audience. It is about shaping the whole experience, from the first song to the last, and that is a skill that few performers ever learn.

His work as a concert director also shows that Matsumoto is not content to be only a star. He wants to be a maker, a person who creates things, not only a person who appears in things made by others. That wish is rare, and it is admirable, because it means taking a risk. A famous singer who directs a concert can fail in public, and Matsumoto took that risk. He did not fail. He made concerts that fans still remember, and he proved that he could direct as well as perform. That is a mark of an artist, not only of a pop idol.

My Take:

I think Jun Matsumoto is a star who shows that you can live two lives at once, if you work hard enough. When I look at his career, I see a man who was a pop idol and an actor at the same time, and who did both well. That is a very hard thing to do. Many pop idols try to act and fail, because they think acting is easy. Many actors try to sing and fail, because they think singing is easy. Matsumoto did both, and he did both at the highest level, for more than twenty years. I admire that, because it shows a person who is disciplined, who is serious, and who loves his work in all its forms.

I think about him debuting with Arashi at sixteen, and I wonder what it felt like to be sixteen and suddenly famous. He was a boy, and he was on stage in front of thousands of people, singing and dancing, and he had to be professional, he had to be on time, he had to learn songs and dances, and he had to smile even when he was tired. I think that must have been both exciting and frightening. I think he handled it well, because he stayed himself, and he worked hard. He did not become wild or loud. He stayed serious, and he let his work speak. That seriousness is part of who he is, and it is why people respect him.

Hana Yori Dango is the drama I think about most, because Domyoji is a character who is rich, proud, and stubborn, and Matsumoto played him in a way that made audiences love him even when he was being difficult. I think about what it must have been like for him to play a boy who is in love with a girl who is very different from him, and to play it with an intensity that made the love feel real. He did it well, because he understood Domyoji. He understood that Domyoji is not a simple villain. He is a boy who is trying to grow, who is learning to be kind, and who is afraid of losing the person he loves. That understanding made the drama work, and it made Matsumoto famous across Asia. I think that is a performance that will be remembered for a long time.

99.9 Criminal Lawyer is another drama I think about, because it shows a different side of him. He played Miyama, a lawyer who looks for the tiny chance that his client is innocent, and he played him with a mix of humour and seriousness that made audiences like him. I think about what it must have been like for him to play a lawyer, a man with a job, with a team, and with a mission, after playing a rich schoolboy for so long. He did it well, because he understood that Miyama is not a hero in the usual sense. He is a man who believes in justice, who works hard, and who will not give up even when the odds are against him. That belief is what made the drama work, and it is what made Matsumoto a serious actor, not only a pop star.

What Will You Do, Ieyasu? is the role that I respect most, because playing Ieyasu is a huge responsibility. Ieyasu is a man who shaped Japan for more than two hundred years, and to play him across many years, from a young hostage to an old ruler, asks for a great deal from an actor. Matsumoto played him as a man who survives, who learns, who makes mistakes, and who grows into a leader. He did not play him as a perfect hero. He played him as a real person, and that made the drama feel fresh and human. I think that is a brave choice, because many actors would play Ieyasu as a great, distant figure. Matsumoto played him as a man, and audiences loved him for it. That is the mark of a mature actor.

What I learn from him is that discipline matters more than talent alone. I think many young people believe that talent is enough, that if you are talented, you will succeed. Matsumoto shows that talent is only the start. You also need discipline, you need to work hard, you need to be on time, you need to learn your lines, and you need to keep going even when you are tired. He has done that for more than twenty-five years, in music and in acting, and that discipline is why his career has lasted. I think young people who want to succeed in any field can learn from that. Talent will get you noticed. Discipline will keep you working.

I also learn from him that a pop idol can become a serious artist. I think many people believe that a pop star cannot be a serious actor, and that an actor cannot be a pop star. Matsumoto proves that belief wrong. He was a pop star, and he became a serious actor, and he did it by taking his acting seriously, by choosing good roles, and by working hard at his craft. He did not treat acting as a side job. He treated it as a real career, and he gave it his full care. That respect for acting is what made him a good actor, and it is what made audiences trust him.

I do feel a little worry for him, because he has worked for so long, in two careers at once, and that is a long time to work. I hope he rests, I hope he takes time for himself, and I hope he does not feel that he must always be working to be valued. He has already proved himself many times over. He does not need to prove himself again and again. I hope the people around him give him space to rest, and I hope he takes that space when he needs it. A tired actor cannot give his best work, and Matsumoto has always given his best work. He deserves rest as much as he deserves praise.

In the end, I think Jun Matsumoto matters because he shows that a star can be many things at once. He is a singer, a dancer, an actor, and a leading man, and he does each one with care. He is intense, he is serious, and he is honest in his work. I will keep watching his dramas, and I will keep expecting him to be honest, because honesty is what he has always given us. That is my take on him, and it is a take I feel with real respect and warmth.

I want to finish with a thought about Arashi, because I think the group matters in his story. Five boys, working together for more than twenty years, becoming one of the most loved groups in Japanese history: that is a beautiful thing. I imagine Matsumoto looking back on those years, on the concerts, on the television shows, on the fans, and feeling proud. I hope he keeps that pride, and I hope he keeps the friendships he made in Arashi, because those friendships are a gift. That image, of five young men singing together on a stage, is the image I will keep when I think of Jun Matsumoto. It is a simple image, and it is a true one, and it explains a great deal about who he is.

I also think about his work directing Arashi concerts, and I think it deserves more praise than it usually gets. A concert is a huge production, and directing one asks a person to see the whole picture, to think about lights, sound, staging, and the feelings of tens of thousands of fans. Matsumoto did that work, and he did it well, because he cares about giving fans an experience, not only a performance. I think that care shows he is an artist, not only a star. He wants to make things, not only to appear in them, and that wish is a sign of a serious person. I hope he directs more, whether it is concerts, dramas, or films, because I think he has a good eye for how a story should look and feel.

There is something else I notice about him, and it is the way he has balanced a pop career and an acting career for so long without letting either one take over. Many stars choose one and leave the other behind. Matsumoto kept both, and he gave both his full care. He sang with Arashi, he acted in dramas, and he directed concerts, all at the same time, and he did each one well. That balance is rare, and it is a strength. It shows a person who is organised, disciplined, and serious about his work in all its forms. I think young people who want to do more than one thing can learn from him: you do not have to choose one talent. You can do many, if you work hard at each one.

I also wonder what he will do next, now that Arashi is on hiatus and he is standing alone as an actor. I hope he plays more historical figures, more lawyers, more men in trouble, and many other kinds of people, and I hope he keeps the intense, honest style that has always been his. I think he will, because he has always let his roles grow with him, and he has never tried to freeze himself at one age. That willingness to grow is a sign of a smart actor, and it is a sign of a person who knows who he is. I will be watching his next roles with interest, and I will be hoping for the best for him.

One more role stays with me about Matsumoto, and it is the chocolatier in Shitsuren Chocolatier, a drama about a man who makes chocolate and who is in love with a woman who does not love him back. That is a strange and sad kind of love, to make something sweet for a person who does not want it, and Matsumoto played it with a tenderness that made audiences feel sorry for him. He did not play the chocolatier as a fool. He played him as a man who loves his work, who puts his heart into every piece of chocolate, and who hopes, even when hope hurts. I think that role showed a softer side of him, a side that Domyoji and Ieyasu do not show, and it proved that he can be gentle as well as intense. A leading man who can be both strong and soft is a rare thing, and Matsumoto is one of them.

I also keep thinking about the way he listens in his dramas. In 99.9 Criminal Lawyer, his character Miyama listens to witnesses, listens to small details, and finds the tiny truth that others miss. Matsumoto plays that listening with his whole face: he leans in, he pauses, he thinks, and you can see him working out the answer. That is not a loud kind of acting. It is a quiet kind, and it is a kind that asks the audience to watch closely. I think that listening is the heart of his acting, and it is why his courtroom scenes feel real. He does not shout his way to the truth. He listens his way there, and that is a beautiful way to act.

I also keep thinking about the way Matsumoto worked with the other members of Arashi, and about how a group of five very different people stayed together for more than twenty years. Ohno was the quiet leader, Sakurai was the clever talker, Aiba was the bright and cheerful one, Ninomiya was the dry joker, and Matsumoto was the serious one who thought about the show as a whole. Those five personalities could have clashed, and at times they surely did, but they made it work, because each of them respected what the others brought. Matsumoto respected their humour, their energy, and their talent, and they respected his seriousness, his planning, and his eye for detail. That mutual respect is what kept Arashi together, and it is a lesson for any team: you do not need five people who are the same. You need five people who are different, and who respect those differences.

And I think about the fans, the millions of people who bought Arashi records, who went to their concerts, and who watched their television shows for more than twenty years. Those fans grew up with the group, they married, they had children, and they kept listening. Matsumoto knows that, and I think it makes him take his work seriously, because he knows that his audience is not a crowd of strangers. They are people who have shared his life for a long time, and who trust him to keep giving them good work. That trust is a heavy thing to carry, and a beautiful thing to earn. I hope he keeps earning it, in every drama he leads, and in every concert he directs, for many more years.

I also think about the taiga drama, and about what it must have felt like to play Ieyasu for a whole year. A taiga drama is not a normal job. It means wearing heavy costumes in summer, learning lines about politics and war, and being watched by millions of people every Sunday night. Matsumoto did that, and he did it after Arashi had paused, when he was standing alone for the first time in his adult life. I think that took courage, because a taiga lead can make or break an actor’s reputation. He did not break. He made Ieyasu feel human, a man who survives by learning, not by being perfect, and audiences loved him for it. That is a performance I will remember, because it showed a pop idol becoming a serious artist in front of the whole country.

And I think about the red curtains in his cover image, the man in a dark suit on a grand stage, facing an audience holding thousands of small lights, and I think it fits him perfectly. He is a man who has stood on stages like that for more than twenty-five years, and who still finds something new in them. The lights are the fans, and the man on stage is the one who must give them a show worth remembering. Matsumoto has done that, again and again, in music and in acting, and I believe he will keep doing it. I will be watching his next drama, and I will be hoping it is as carefully made as his concerts were.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Jun Matsumoto born?

Jun Matsumoto was born on 30 August 1983 in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan, and he joined Johnny’s as a junior when he was thirteen.

When did Jun Matsumoto debut with Arashi?

He debuted as a member of Arashi in 1999, when he was sixteen, along with Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Aiba Masaki, and Kazunari Ninomiya.

What role made Jun Matsumoto famous as an actor?

He became widely famous as Tsukasa Domyoji in Hana Yori Dango in 2005, a television drama based on a popular manga about a rich school.

Did Jun Matsumoto star in 99.9 Criminal Lawyer?

Yes, he played Miyama Hiroto in 99.9 Criminal Lawyer from 2016, a lawyer who looks for the tiny chance that his client is innocent.

Did Jun Matsumoto play Tokugawa Ieyasu?

Yes, he played Tokugawa Ieyasu in What Will You Do, Ieyasu?, the NHK taiga drama for 2023, a year-long historical drama.

Is Arashi still performing as a group?

Arashi went on hiatus at the end of 2020 after more than twenty years together, and each member has since worked on his own projects.

What kind of actor is Jun Matsumoto known as?

He is known as an intense, serious leading man who has played schoolboys, lawyers, chocolatiers, and historical figures across television and film.