Ray Stevenson, ‘Rome’ and ‘Thor’ actor, dies at 58
dcc wire lee-national movies obituaries actors notable deaths
LINDSEY BAHR Associated Press lindsey bahr
Irish-born actor Ray Stevenson, who played the villain in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior the ‘Thor’ films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” has died at 58.
https://roanoke.com/content/tncms/site/icon.ico
Roanoke Times
Ray Stevenson, the Irish actor who played the villainous British governor in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the “Thor” films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” has died. He was 58.

Representatives for Stevenson told The Associated Press that he died Sunday but had no other details to share on Monday.

Stevenson was born in Lisburn in 1964. After attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and years of working in British television, he made his film debut in Paul Greengrass’s 1998 film “The Theory of Flight.” In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the pre-Disney Marvel adaptation “Punisher: War Zone."

Though “Punisher” was not the best-reviewed film, he'd get another taste of Marvel in the first three "Thor” films, in which he played Volstagg. Other prominent film roles included the “Divergent” trilogy, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “The Transporter: Refueled.”

A looming presence at 6-foot-4, Stevenson, who played his share of soldiers past and present, once said in an interview, “I guess I'm an old warrior at heart.”

On the small screen, he was the roguish Titus Pullo in “Rome,” a role that really got his career going in the United States and got him a SAG card, at the age of 44. The popular series ran from 2005 to 2007.

Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts

“That was one of the major years of my life,” Stevenson said in an interview. “It made me sit down in my own skin and say, just do the job. The job’s enough.”

In the Variety review of “Rome,” Brian Lowery wrote that “the imposing Stevenson certainly stands out as a brawling, whoring and none-too-bright warrior — a force of nature who, despite his excesses, somehow keeps landing on his feet."

He was Blackbeard in the Starz series “Black Sails," Commander Jack Swinburne in the German television series “Das Boot," and Othere on “Vikings.”

Stevenson also did voice work in “Star Wars Rebels” and “The Clone Wars,” as Gar Saxon, and has a role in the upcoming Star Wars live-action series “Ahsoka," in which he plays a bad guy, Baylan Skoll. The eight-episode season is expected on Disney+ in August.

In an interview with Backstage in 2020, Stevenson said his acting idols were, “The likes of Lee Marvin (and) Gene Hackman.”

Stevenson has three sons with Italian anthropologist Elisabetta Caraccia, who he met while working on “Rome.”

Photos: Notable Deaths in 2023

Harry Belafonte

Raquel Welch

David Crosby

Lance Reddick

Richard Belzer

Cindy Williams

Lisa Marie Presley

Gordon Lightfoot

Jeff Beck

Bobby Caldwell

Gary Rossington

Wayne Shorter

Jerry Springer

Robert Blake

Willis Reed

Michael Lerner

Tom Sizemore

Charles Kimbrough

Chaim Topol

Len Goodman

Tim McCarver

Billy Packer

Barry Humphries

Burt Bacharach

Stella Stevens

Annie Wersching

Dave Hollis

David Jude Jolicoeur

Barrett Strong

Lloyd Morrisett

Robbie Knievel

Gina Lollobrigida

Lynette Hardaway ("Diamond")

Adam Rich

Bobby Hull

Charles White

Jerry Richardson

Sister André

Tatjana Patitz

Russell Banks

Cardinal George Pell

Ken Block

Walter Cunningham

Anton Walkes

Pat Schroeder

Seymour Stein

Klaus Teuber

Ginnie Newhart

Vida Blue

Martin Amis

Doyle Brunson

Hodding Carter III

Jacklyn Zeman

Jim Brown

Tina Turner

Ray Stevenson

John Beasley

Cynthia Weil

Astrud Gilberto

The Iron Sheik

Pat Robertson

Tori Bowie

Ted Kaczynski

Treat Williams

Silvio Berlusconi

Daniel Ellsberg

Sheldon Harnick

John Goodenough

Christine King Farris

Julian Sands

Alan Arkin

Be the first to know

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.